B.C. wolves need protection.
How to Take Action:
Current B.C. Government Policy Towards Wolves
The B.C. government currently encourages the killing of wolves, both recreationally and through government-run wolf culls.
The goal of this policy is to reduce the wolf population to protect ungulates like deer, elk, and caribou. However, there are two problems with this policy.
First, the government does not have accurate estimates of the wolf population in B.C. Estimates are based on anecdotal evidence and hunter surveys, which are unreliable due to their small sample size and confusing format.
Second, there is no scientific consensus that killing wolves will revive declining ungulate populations. Wolves are a native species and have lived in a sustainable way with their prey for millennia. It is human activity that has caused the predator-prey dynamics to shift in some regions. Killing wolves en masse will not necessarily result in healthier ungulate populations or ecosystems. In fact, there is evidence that removing wolves from an area has detrimental effects on ecosystem health.
However, the lack of data and scientific evidence have not prevented the B.C. government from encouraging and facilitating the killing of wolves.
Their policy led to the death of Takaya and a thousand other wolves this past year.
Please consider taking action to get British Columbia to change its wolf policy. The government regulations must now reflect the values and wishes of the majority of the population who support an end to recreational and misguided culling of wolves.
Below are five ways you can take action:
Learn more about B.C. Wolf Management Policies.
You can read about B.C. wolf hunting regulations and management policy here.
Encourage B.C. municipal councils to support the Oak Bay Resolution.
Read about the resolution and find contact info for municipal councils here.
Sign Takaya’s Legacy Petition.
This petition is in direct response to the laws that allowed, and even encouraged, Takaya to be shot by a recreational hunter with legal protection. Over 1200 wolves are killed each year in BC for recreation. Demand that the provincial government align its wildlife management policies for wolves with the current values of a majority of its citizens. We are no longer living in the last century. It’s particularly important for people from out-of-country to register their disagreement with these policies as tourism (aka dollars) is a significant driver for government policy. Sign The Legacy Petition to stop the recreational and gratuitous killing of wolves in BC.
Shop to support wolf conservation.
Support Takaya’s Legacy by making a donation, or by purchasing artwork, books, or photographic prints through this website. Net proceeds from all sales will be donated to organizations that protect wolves and their habitats.
Keep learning about wolves & educating others.
There are many organizations that focus on educating and providing information about the lives of wolves and issues surrounding these large carnivores.
A good place to start is by a visit to the site of Living With Wolves, a non-profit organization started by Jim and Jamie Dutcher. They pioneered the field of understanding wolves as individuals … as sentient beings … passionately documenting their lives and relationships. A portion of any profits from my film and photographs are donated to Living With Wolves.
Wolf Conservation Organizations
Books About Wolves
3 Among the Wolves, Helen Thayer, Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2004
A New Era for Wolves and People: Wolf Recovery, Human Attitudes, and Policy, Eds. Marco Musiani, Luigi Boitani, and Paul C. Paquet, Calgary, Alta: University of Calgary Press, 2009
A Wolf Called Romeo, Nick Jans, Boston: Mariner Books, 2014
Among Wolves, Gordon Haber & Marybeth Holleman, Fairbanks AK: University of Alaska Press, 2013
Brother Wolf: A Forgotten Promise, Jim Brandenburg, Minocqua, Wisconsin: North Wood Press, 1993
Following the Last Wild Wolves, Ian McAllister, Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2011
Of Wolves & Men, Barry Lopez, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978
Return of the Wolf: Conflict & Coexistence, Paula Wild, Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018
Secret Go the Wolves, R.D. Lawrence, New York: Ballantine Books, 1980
Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild, Renée Askins, New York: Anchor Books, 2002
The Arctic Wolf: Ten Years with the Pack, L. David Mech, Shrewsbury, UK: Swan Hill Press, 1997
The Company of Wolves, Peter Steinhart, New York: Vintage Books, 1995
The Hidden Life of Wolves, Jim & Jamie Dutcher, Washington DC: National Geographic, 2013
The Homeward Wolf, Kevin Van Tighem, Victoria, BC: Rocky Mountain Books, 2013
The First Domestication: How Wolves and Humans Coevolved, Raymond Pierotti & Brandy R. Fogg, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017
The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest, Ian McAllister, Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2007
The Pipestone Wolves: The Rise and Fall of a Wolf Family, Gunther Bloch & John E. Marriott, Victoria, BC: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016
The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog, Rick McIntyre, Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2019
The Soul of the Wolf, Michael W. Fox, New York: Lyons & Burford, 1980
The Way of the Wolf, L. David Mech, Shrewsbury, UK: Swan Hill Press, 1991
The Wisdom of Wolves, Jim & Jamie Dutcher, Washington DC: National Geographic, 2018
The Wisdom of Wolves: How Wolves Can Teach Us to be More Human, Elli H. Radinger, London, UK: Penguin Random House, 2017
The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West, Nate Blakeslee, Toronto: Random House, 2017
The Wolf Connection: What Wolves can Teach us About Being Human, Teo Alfero, New York: Enliven Books, 2019
White Wolf: Living With an Arctic Legend, Jim Brandenburg, Minocqua, Wisconsin: North Wood Press, 1988
Wild Wolves We Have Known: Stories of Wolf Biologists’ Favorite Wolves, Eds. Richard P. Thiel, Allison C. Thiel & Marianne Strozewski, Minneapolis: International Wolf Center, 2013
Wolf Country: Eleven Years Tracking the Algonquin Wolves, John B. Theberge with Mary T. Theberge, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1998
Wolf Haven: Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North America, Brenda Peterson & Annie Marie Musselman, Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2016
Wolf Nation, Brenda Peterson, Boston: Da Capo Press, 2017
Wolf Spirit: A Story of Healing, Wolves and Wonder, Gudrun Pfluger, Victoria, BC: Rocky Mountain Books, 2015
Wolfer: A Memoir, Carter Niemeyer, Boise, ID: BottleFly Press, 2010
Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation, eds. L. David Mech & Luigi Boitani, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003
Wolves in the Land of Salmon, David Moskowitz, Portland: Timber Press, 2013
Wolves on the Hunt: The Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey, L. David Mech, Douglas W. Smith & Daniel R. MacNulty, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015
Books About Related Topics
A Dream of Islands, Philip Teece, Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 1988
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, New York, Ballantine Books, 1949
A Shimmer on the Horizon, Philip Teece, Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 1999
A Year on the Wild Side: A West Coast Naturalist’s Almanac, Briony Penn, Victoria, BC: Touchwood, revised edition 2019
Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, Carl Safina, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2015
Day of Two Sunsets: Paddling Adventures on Canada’s West Coast, Michael Blades, Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 1993
Hope for the Animals and Their World, Jane Goodall, New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2011
Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest, Andy Lamb & Bernard P. Hanby, Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2005
Our Wild Calling: How Connecting With Animals Can Transform Our Lives – and Save Theirs, Richard Louv, Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2019
Reflections from the North Country, Sigurd F. Olson, New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1976
Seals in the Wild: Nature’s Curious Creatures, Fred Bruemmer, San Diego, CA: Laurel Glen Publishing, 1998
Songhees, Songhees Nation, Victoria, BC: Songhees Nation, 2013
The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The Early Writings: 1921-1934, Ed. Mike Link, Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 1988
The Emotional Lives of Animals, Marc Bekoff, Novato, California: New World Library, 2007
The Inner Life of Animals: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World, Peter Wohllenben, London: Vintage, 2016
The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest, Audrey DeLella & Joseph K. Gaydos, Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2015
The Sea Among Us: The Amazing Strait of Georgia, Richard Beamish & Gordon McFarlane, Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2014
The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd F. Olson, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Carlos Castaneda, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968
The Wild in You: Voices from the Forest and the Sea, Lorna Crozier & Ian McAllister, Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2015
Where the Wild Things Were, William Stolzenburg, New York: Bloomsbury, 2008
Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1992
Fiction:
A Wolf Called Wander, Rosanne Parry, New York: Greenwillow Books, 2019
Happiness, Aminatta Forna, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018
Lone Wolf, Jodi Picoult, New York: Pocket Books, 2012
The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog, W. Bruce Cameron, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2015
The Wolf Border, Sarah Hall, Croyden, UK: Faber & Faber, 2015
The Wolf Chronicles: Promise of the Wolves, Dorothy Hearst, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009
—Secrets of the Wolves, 2011
—Spirit of the Wolves, 2015