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Wolf pack hunts, kills deer on popular Canmore Nordic Centre trail

“When the conservation officers investigated they realized that it was a wolf kill. It looked like a mule deer had been entirely consumed by five wolves.”
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The remains of a mule deer at the Canmore Nordic Centre after a wolf pack hunted, consumed it. ALBERTA PARKS PHOTO

CANMORE – A pack of five wolves took down a mule deer on a popular ski trail at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Friday (March 3).

Based on the tracks in the snow, five wolves are thought to have taken part in the hunt and feasted on the mule deer along the Banff Trail.

Officials say a pack that denned on the Fairholme bench in Banff National Park between Banff and Harvie Heights last year currently has five members – and none of them are fitted with GPS tracking collars.

“There’s a possibility that the wolves at the Nordic Centre were part of the Banff pack,” said John Paczkowski, human-wildlife coexistence team lead with Alberta Parks.

“When the conservation officers investigated they realized that it was a wolf kill. It looked like a mule deer had been entirely consumed by five wolves.”

There was no official warning or closure for the Canmore Nordic Centre but a sign was put up to alert skiers of recent wolf activity.

“There was a general notification letting people know that wolves had been in the area, but we did not consider this a significant public safety concern,” said Paczkowski.

The Parks division will be checking wildlife cameras in the region to see if the wolves have been travelling more regularly in the area.

“We haven’t had a chance to review the wildlife cameras in the area, but we maybe will be able to understand a little more what the pack looked like if they showed up on some of our cameras,” said Paczkowski.

“The Banff-Bow Valley wolves do make forays once or twice a year typically out to this part of the Bow Valley, so it’s not entirely unusual to have those Banff wolves here.”

There is also a Kananaskis pack that occasionally travels close to Canmore, but because none of those wolves are collared, that means wildlife managers have to rely on public sightings or remote cameras for information.

In 2018, provincial wildlife experts discovered a new wolf pack in Kananaskis Country when they set up wildlife cameras.

“Lo and behold we got images of wolves with pups in July,” said Paczkowski, noting they were able to determine where the pack was denning and that the wolves were frequenting the area into Canmore on occasion.

“There are other historical wolf dens throughout Kananaskis Country and some went unused for 10 or 12 years and then got used again by packs. It’s fairly dynamic but they tend to use the same area, but they might skip generations.”

Certain site characteristics make areas good for denning wolves, such as physical protection and availability of water.

“There needs to be a substrate they can dig into and sort of burrow and make a den and we’ve identified a few of those over the years,” said Paczkowski.

“Mostly we’ve identified those when we have a collared wolf using the area, and then we’re able to find those areas, and in some cases, we’ve actually modified trails to give the wolves a bit more of a buffer in these critical denning spots.”

When Paczkowski first began working with wolves in the 1990s, it seemed to be a more regular occurrence that wolves in the Bow Valley would travel out as far as the Kananaskis River and wolves from Banff National Park would regularly do forays into Kananaskis Country.

“It seems with increased human use in the Bow Valley, especially around Canmore, it would be a more intimidating journey for wolves to sort of try and circumvent the town of Canmore,” he said.

“Over the last 30 years, wolves in the valley around Canmore were a regular occurrence and it’s unfortunate that now it’s becoming rare.”

Colleen Campbell, a member of the Bow Valley Naturalists board of directors and a Canmore resident since 1981, agreed it was a rare occurrence to see wolves around Canmore these days, adding she used to see regular tracks when she was doing transect work on the north side of the valley 15 years ago.

She said the trails in and around Canmore are packed with joggers, hikers, bikers and people walking their dogs – and often walking their dogs off-leash. Wolves can be territorial and could see pet dogs as a threat.

“We are in a skinny valley, and we’ve got these great big corks in the valley called Banff and Canmore, and even at Exshaw and then Lac Des Arcs right across the river from them forming another cork in the valley where it’s even skinnier,” said Campbell.

“It is a huge challenge for everything to move through …we’re pushing everything out.”

Alberta Parks reminds residents and visitors to be always observant, make noise and carry bear spray when exploring the great outdoors.

If you encounter a wolf, do not approach it, entice it to come closer or offer it food. If the wolf approaches closer than 90 metres, growls or snarls, make yourself look bigger by waving your arms over your head and make noise. Back away slowly and do not turn your back on the wolf.

Any carnivore sightings in K-Country should be reported to Kananaskis Emergency Services (403) 591-7755.

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