Bob Hayes, author of Wolves of the Yukon, will give a slideshow and a reading at Café Books West at 5 p.m. on March 9 as participants enjoy free cookies and coffee.
Hayes is a retired wildlife biologist who now divides his time between Whitehorse, Yukon, and Smithers, B.C., but he began his career as a Trent University student taking a summer job in the Yukon in 1975.
After graduating in 1977, he returned to the north to study cliff-nesting raptors such as gyrfalcons. While studying these birds of prey from a helicopter, he caught sight of his first wild wolf.
It was quite a scene, he said, as adult wolves fought a female grizzly and two cubs trying to dig wolf cubs out of their den. The helicopter frightened the bears away, but not before one of the wolves bit into a bear cub’s shoulder and was dragged 10 metres!
Earning a master’s degree from SFU in 1995, Hayes began to study wolves exclusively.
He became familiar with about 80 wolf packs, tagging some 300 wolves and following their paths across the rugged landscapes of northern Canada.
The main focus of his research has been the kill rate of wolves on large prey species such as moose and caribou, and also the effect of culling wolves and other control methods such as vasectomies.
He has also worked with first nation’s communities, particularly the Champagne-Aishinik of Haines Junction on their large mammal management plans which included the reintroduction of 500 bison to the area.
He told fellow Trent alumnus Maureen Wideman: “The Yukon really is a beautiful place to live and work. The high mountain alpine and subarctic tundra come together and create a fascinating ecology. Its landscape is spectacular, and its people are truly special.”