When faced with the option of having to either find our way through dense forests or simply take a trail already created, humans are likely to choose the latter. A recent study shows that wolves too are doing exactly that take human-made trails. Is that good or bad news?
Researchers tracked as many as 142 wolves using GPS collars -across British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan spanning over 5, 00,000 sq km, and discovered something startling. In the northern boreal forests of western Canada, these wolves are often choosing trails created by humans (and “the path of least resistance), which allow them to move faster and farther than before. The perks? Convenient hunting! They now have easier access to their prey, the boreal woodland caribou, and “an iconic species in Canada”. While it’s great for the wolves, the same cannot be said of their prey. Increasing wolf movement appears to be causing a decrease in the caribou population, already a threatened species. These “caribou are being hunted by wolves at rates they cannot sustain”.
These human-made trails were created “to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits”. And, “caribou live across large areas, overlapping places where the energy and forestry sectors are actively extracting natural resources” such as oil, gas and timber. Already dealing with habitat loss, the caribou now face another form of threat from the wolves.
Thankfully, it may not be too late to save them. Habitat restoration is suggested to keep a healthy balance between wolf and caribou populations. Though it is expensive and time consuming”, “habitat restoration has two main goals: to reduce wolf hunting efficiency by limiting their use of trails and slow their movement when on them and to return the forest to caribou habitat’. As it is with most instances, what is created to ease human life seems to be affecting the natural rhythm of our environment. So, it only seems fair that we set it right.
Picture Credit : Google
