Alberta’s new wolverine trapping rules lead to divide between trappers and researchers

Researchers studying wolverines warn a recent decision by the Alberta government to lift trapping quotas on wolverines could lead to notable population decline while failing to produce meaningful data.

The warning comes as Alberta trappers argue their year-round presence on the landscape puts them in a unique position to gather data that others might miss.

The Alberta government recently lifted trapping limits on wolverines and other species, a move Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen said was intended to improve population data.

“It seems like it’s reckless. It is not. This is the best thing that we have done for furbearer management in decades,” Bill Abercrombie, president of the Alberta Trappers Association (ATA), told CBC News. “Maybe the best thing we’ve ever done.”

However, researchers say the plan is inconsistent with years of wolverine studies and poses a risk to populations given wolverines’ low reproductive rates, small population size and sensitivity to environmental threats.

“I, and I think most other wolverine researchers, sincerely believe that unrestricted trapping for wolverines is going to be a mistake, and we’re going to end up in a very bad situation in another two or three years,” said wildlife biologist Jason Fisher, director of the ACME Lab at the University of Victoria. 

Under the new framework, trappers must log their “harvests” (the capturing or killing of an animal) to provide real-time population data, according to the province.

“Data on frequency of harvests, and health, age and gender of the animals can then be used to estimate the size, health and diversity of the larger populations — giving us the tools needed to make informed decisions,” reads a statement attributed to Alexandru Cioban, spokesperson for Loewen.

In 2002, a Report of Alberta’s Endangered Science Conservation Committee estimated the Alberta population of wolverines at being fewer than 1,000 breeding individuals, and said it was considered to be declining at an unknown rate.

That’s the most recent population estimate for wolverines conducted by the province.

That report went on to say that the wolverine, which historically had been found across Alberta, was now restricted to the northern half of the province and along the mountains and foothills. 

“The wolverine has a low population density and, as is true for most large carnivores, its reproductive potential is naturally low,” the report reads.

“As a result, the trapping of only a few individuals has a large potential to affect negatively the reproductive success of the population, and recovery from any population decline will be slow.”

LISTEN | Naturalist Brian Keating explains what the policy means for wolverine populations:

Alberta has lifted most trapping and harvesting limits for fur-bearing animals this winter, meaning, it’s now open season for lynx, river otters, fishers, and wolverines. Our homestretch naturalist Brian Keating joined us to take a closer look at the new policy and what it means for wolverine populations.

Province says previous research was lacking

Alberta’s quota system dictates how many furbearing animals trappers can harvest. But the province says the quota system was “indefensible, as it was outdated and not based on any real science.”

“[There are] quotas in place in areas where wolverines have not been seen in decades, and low quotas in place in areas where wolverines are abundant,” reads a statement attributed to Cioban.

Cioban said only licensed trappers are permitted to harvest furbearers. She added that the decision to update the regulations came following extensive consultations with the Alberta Trappers Association, which she said has long been the primary source of baseline data on the species.

The association’s Abercrombie said he’s familiar with the research that’s been done around wolverine populations but isn’t convinced by it. 

He said the research that has been conducted has been very localized, and that trapping has suggested there’s a “tremendous variance” between wolverine population status depending on habitat and location in the province. 

“We’re getting data from different traplines all across the province,” Abercrombie said, adding that it tracks not only the number of animals harvested but also age and sex. 

“That is a much more robust, much richer data pool than a study done in a small location and then making assumptions that that research applies to everywhere else, which it doesn’t.” 

Abercrombie said the goal of trappers is to ensure sustainable management, not maximum harvest.

“Allow the trappers to do their work, and that research will be available to any researcher that wants to look at it,” he said.

Calls for more science

The way this process has played out has been received negatively by a local conservation group, particularly when it comes to what it views as a lack of consultation.

“We generally expect that our government is going to be open and transparent and make decisions for all Albertans,” said Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.

“We feel like this decision didn’t meet those requirements, and we also feel like these decisions aren’t based on any scientific evidence, and, in fact, ignore a lot of scientific evidence.”

Fisher, the wildlife ecologist, said the science “does agree with the head of ATA that wolverine populations vary around the province.”

“That is what populations do,” he wrote in an email. 

“It is also true there are some gaping holes in our knowledge: nothing is known about the boreal northeast, for example. All of that means we need more science, not more trapping. Opinion cannot change the fact that trapper harvest tells you only what animal has died.”

If one can properly identify age and sex, that’s important information, Fisher said — but it’s only one part of the equation. The future population of the species is determined by the current population plus the number of births minus natural deaths and harvest deaths, he said.

“Trappers can give us harvest deaths only. We’re blind to the other vital pieces without science,” he said.

WATCH | Trappers and researchers at odds over Alberta’s wolverine policy:

The Alberta government said the decision to lift limits on trapping and harvesting for animals like wolverines is being done to get more data on how many there are.

Fisher cited a recent study that found that wolverine populations across national parks in the Canadian Rockies dropped by about 39 per cent between 2011 and 2020. 

“That’s in the mountains, where they’re supposed to be doing the very best, right? That’s fully protected from development and trapping, most trapping, and all the things that hit the wolverine population hard,” Fisher said. 

“So we don’t know what’s happening in the rest of Alberta. We can infer pretty easily that those declines are probably widespread. And wolverines only have one child every one to two years. They can’t bounce back from something like unrestricted trapping very quickly — or at all.”

Wolverine population today

Mirjam Barrueto is a member of the independent research group Wolverine Watch, which has been running since 2010. 

The group tracks wolverine sighting data across Alberta and British Columbia and shares data with researchers and some government bodies for research, conservation and management purposes.

Barrueto estimates that, today, Alberta has fewer than 1,000 wolverines in total, adults and juveniles. That includes approximately 200 to 250 reproductive females.

She said the ATA’s plan to use logbooks for tracking wolverine and other furbearer harvest is well-intentioned but insufficient. 

Reliable population management requires both long-term harvest data and quality scientific population data, she said.

“Because of the issues with small sample sizes, [it] would require extensive trapping at high rates, which would be guaranteed to lead to even further population declines of Alberta wolverines,” she wrote in an email. 

“The proposed plan tries to cut corners but even a minister cannot cheat statistical laws and mathematical principles.” 

Barrueto said biologists agree that past studies were localized, and that larger studies are necessary if harvest is to be managed sustainably.

“While there are differences in densities across the province, there is no region of the province with the kind of fantastical abundance that the head of the trappers association likes to conjure up,” Barrueto said.

She added that wolverines are already most likely a threatened species in Alberta.

Quotas can be reinstated, province says

In Fisher’s view, Alberta needs a co-ordinated, annual, government-funded wolverine science program, in addition to the proposed full and complete reporting from trappers.

“Organizations [such as universities, Parks Canada and the Alberta Conservation Association] have indeed supplied the Alberta people with real science about wolverines’ current state in Alberta. To say otherwise suggests it just hasn’t been read,” he wrote in an email. 

Abercrombie with the trappers association said the data coming back from trapping will be of collective value.

“Researchers will be welcome to chime in, as will government managers and everybody else. I think researchers should just allow this to play itself out, and then they’ll see the benefits of it,” he said. 

“And not be so narrow in their observations and then their judgment of what is actually happening.”

Cioban, the spokesperson for the Alberta Forestry minister, said quotas can be restored if needed.