VOCM January 26, 2019.

The Department of Fisheries and Land Resources is encouraging anyone who may see or encounter wolves or coyotes to call the sighting in.

The department was responding to a recent encounter with suspected wolves in the Sandy Point area of central Newfoundland.

Kurt Payne recently captured video of what sounds like wolves howling near his home on the Exploits River.

He told VOCM News he started to howl back and attracted at least two of the creatures into his garden. He says having seen wolves in British Columbia, he’s certain that what he saw were not coyotes.

The department says the island’s indigenous wolves were extirpated in the 1930s and there had been no confirmed sightings on the island until 2008. To date the department has genetically confirmed five Labrador wolves on the island and 13 Labrador wolf/coyote hybrids.

Minister Gerry Byrne last year reinstated the canid carcass collection program to better determine the current range and genetic make-up of wolf or coyote-like animals on the island.

People are advised to stay away from animals resembling wolves or coyotes and anyone who sees one is urged to contact your local Fisheries and Land Resources office.

In a blog I posted on November 16th, 2016 and in others thereafter I commented on the documented facts that wolves were here on the island and it was my belief that they have had a foothold here for quite some time, yet the only time you hear anything from the Wildlife Department pertaining to these creatures is after a resident reports an encounter to the news media.

Again, I ask why is there no affirmative action recommended to investigate just what is unfolding with these canines by those in charge of managing them? Surely our provincially employed biologists must be alarmed by now at the rise of these animals and the more frequent reported sightings by residents verifying such. Why hasn’t the Department of Fisheries and Land resources commenced an initiative to fully investigate the population dynamics and range of these animals here on the island?

Are they again turning a blind eye to what will become a major and far reaching event and letting nature take its course as they did with coyotes? Again I stress the fact that wolves are efficient predators and can take down either species of our big game at will with the exception of bear maybe. They can also be dangerous to humans when situations arise. I would expect that collecting data on the species would and should be a high priority NOW but apparently this is not the case.

Will it take the mauling or possible death of a human being here on the island before it does? Probably so I think!   Oh Well!!!