The gray wolf of North America includes several subspecies: the
white arctic wolf, the red wolf of the southwest, the grey
timber wolf of the eastern forests, and the big western wolf.
Alberta can boast some of the largest and most handsome of all
wolves, which belong to the Canis lupus occidentalis group. They
are mostly confined to the Rocky Mountains, foothills, and
boreal forest regions. Present-day wolves are estimated to
number around 4,000 in Alberta. - Since 2005, when the Alberta
Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) released its Woodland
Caribou Recovery Plan, Alberta’s wolves have been singled out
for official culling in order to improve prospects for one of
the wolf’s prey species, the caribou. During the winter of
2005/06, 89 wolves were shot from helicopters in caribou
habitat, and the killing program continued in 2006/07. Since
then, SRD has begun to use poison to again “control” the
resilient wolf. - Why wolves – and possibly moose, deer, and elk
– face extraordinary culling is a complex stor