There’s established wildlife science and now there is the “science” of the Minister of Hunting and Fishing related to furbearer management. Asked why he decided to let trappers kill as many wolverines, lynx, otters and other forbearers as they wanted, Todd Loewen said it was to get a better idea of how many there are.
Dead forbearers don’t tell you how many there are. They tell you how many there were.
I’ve pored over my old textbooks on wildlife management, which state “The methods of estimating numbers of animals have now achieved a level of sophistication worthy of a mature science.” It’s not clear how this latest decision by the Hunting and Fishing Minister meets the sophistication test.
If this is the new “science” you might see where this can lead. When the last animal is trapped we will have a definitive population number – zero. Departmental staff have offered no scientific rationale for this new population inventory technique. That’s because there is none. Alberta’s new emperor of “science” is making this up.
Because wolverines have low population densities, there have long been concerns about trapping them. This species has low reproduction rates and, like lynx, are severely limited by human activity. For similar reasons, lynx, river otters and fishers have had limited trapping quotas imposed as a precautionary measure.
But these are now out the window because the minister says he can’t defend the quota system because it isn’t based on science. It’s not clear why he thinks that killing more of these animals in an uncontrolled experiment by trappers doesn’t also need to be based on science.
Loewen has not explained what kinds of data will be collected in this trapping free-for-all, how it will be scientifically rigorous or objective, or how this will answer the questions the minister seems to have. Nor does he explain why evidence-based research using a variety of proven animal census methods is somehow inferior to simply increasing the body count.
Years of research and monitoring have gone into understanding the biology of these creatures and providing quotas for trapping. Currently, there are science-based studies ongoing to understand wolverine populations. If the minister really wanted science, he should have made himself aware of this information before lurching into a trap of his own design.
Actual, rather than invented, science has shown that populations of these furbearers can be naturally low, and careful management is required to avoid overharvesting. It wasn’t that long ago that many furbearer species were nearly extirpated by over-trapping.
Colleagues outside of the department are aghast at this slippage of wildlife species management into the dark side of cronyism and amateur hour. Of all of the possible opportunities for consultation, only the Alberta Trapper’s Association was involved in this decision. Their support for this charade makes that organization seem mercenary, greedy and short-sighted.
If the minister seriously wants decisions on fish and wildlife management to be based on science, he needs to listen to his own professional staff who are employed to use science to provide defensible answers. A substantial knowledge base also exists in academic institutions. An honest respect for science might help to temper his vigilante approach to problem wildlife, arbitrary tinkering with the cougar hunting quota, allowing his business associates undue influence in ungulate management, throwing lake fisheries open to aggressive harvesting after a painful period of population restoration and now, willy-nilly killing of rare fur-bearing animals to get a better count.
None of this is science, and it’s not evidence-based management of wildlife resources. Instead, it is a negative reaction to science – ignoring professional advice in favour of random observations by fellow hunting guides and coffee shop “solutions” cooked up by privileged insiders with vested interests.
This minister needs to stop listening to the voices in his head and those whispering in his ear – they’re wrong. And they sure aren’t science.
Lorne Fitch is a professional biologist, a retired Fish and Wildlife biologist and a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Streams of Consequence and Travels Up the Creek: A Biologist’s Search For a Paddle.
