Wildlife biologist Gordon Haber photographed the snared wolves earlier this week. You can see more photos at his blog. Photo by Gordon Haber, used with permission.
Wolf trapping that went wrong has left two wolves with snares cinched around their necks roaming Denali National Park and Preserve just as tourist season is about to arrive.
The wolves, their faces swollen, grotesquely so in one, were snared outside the park. Somehow they broke part of the cable and escaped, but the tightened loops around their necks remained. They recently returned to Denali.
"Trapping and snaring are certainly legal outside the park but it needs to be done well," park spokeswoman Kris Fister told The Associated Press. "We feel it shouldn't have happened."
Gordon Haber, a private wildlife biologist, says one of the wolves is a member of the Toklat pack.
"To see him like this now is just disgusting," Haber said of the black wolf whose face is extremely swollen by the noose. "People come up here expecting to see wolves in the wild and see this. It is a real shocker, or will be."
Park biologists hope to track down the wolves and remove the snares.
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Comments
This should not be happening at all. Park wolves should be protected both in and outside of Denali. Trapping is barbaric and unnecessary. All trappers around Denali are recreational -- one even works for the National Park Service. Disgusting.
It is so wrong to do this and then not put them out of their misery. I wish the trappers had this on their heads. If they can take a picture of this then they could just as well stopped the torture futher.
What kind of credentials are required to be a trapper in Denali, and how close do the trappers work with the State Wildlife Services and the NPS? I hope these trappers are well educated in all aspects of wildlife sciences....and are not just bunch of renegade cowboys on the prowl for another trophy (on the wall). The picture speaks well of a botched up trapping that went array and I'm sure there's many other incidents like this that go unreported. Such a sad state of affairs.
Why are we trapping wolves? Aren't supposed to be allowing them to breed and have them provide a natural balance in nature?