The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is considering banning the hunting and trapping of wolves in a wider area of the province between Killarney and Algonquin Provincial Parks. (Derek Meier)
Proposal would extend ban on hunting and trapping wolves and coyotes outside of provincial parks
A proposed ban on hunting and trapping wolves and coyotes is being compared to the controversial cancelling of the spring bear hunt.
The provincial government is considering creating a protected zone for the predators over 39,000 square kilometres in central and eastern Ontario, including the area between Algonquin and Killarney Provincial Parks, where there is already a ban in place.
The goal is to protect the threatened Algonquin wolf, but the ban would also include grey wolves and coyotes, whose numbers are healthy.
But Robin Horwath, general manager of the Ontario Fur Managers Federation says like the cancelling of the spring bear hunt in 1999, this is a political issue, being pushed by southern Ontario environmentalists and is based on shaky science.
“We want to make sure we get some true evidence,” he told the CBC from his home in Blind River.
‘A wolf is a wolf, a dog is a dog’
Horwath says the eastern wolf was renamed the Algonquin wolf two years ago, which “leads us to believe that we’re looking for an iconic, symbolic wolf for Ontario.”
But he says some studies show that Algonquin wolves are really just a hybrid of the coyotes and grey wolves they share Ontario forests with.
“A wolf is a wolf, a dog is a dog,” Horwath says.
READ MORE HERE: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/wolves-coyotes-hunting-trapping-ban-ontario-1.4536456
By Erik White , CBC News