Alberta rancher praised for no-kill method for dealing with wolves

Researchers with the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the University of Wisconsin are studying how to reduce conflict between livestock and predators by examining non-lethal methods used by a Rancher in Alberta.

Manager of the Spruce Ranching Co-op, south of Calgary in Longview, Joe Engelhart overlooks thousands of cattle on public grazing land, where in surrounding areas, live wolves, bears, cougars and coyotes.

“A lot of ranchers view predators as something that definitely needs to be there, until they have a predator problem, and then quite a few ranchers want to eliminate the predator,” Engelhart told Daily Hive, “wolves especially.”

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In the summer of 2003, Engelhart said there was a large pack of wolves that made their living by killing livestock, and a lot of cows were also wounded. This pack of wolves also had a grizzly bear that would follow the pack.

“He [the bear] would wait for the wolves to kill a cow, or a calf, or a yearling, and he would run them off the kill, so the wolves would have to go kill again,” Engelhart said,  “basically they spent the whole summer feeding themselves, plus that grizzly bear.”

“I definitely don’t want to have another summer like that,” he said, “I shot two wolves that summer.”

That was the last time Engelhart shot a wolf — and that’s also around the time biologists put radio collars on the wild animals.

Engelhart said by using the information from those collars, he decided to learn more about the wolf and the pack’s travel patterns over the following year, then changed his cow rotations throughout the seasons.

Another method he used, is a low-stress way of range riding, which is getting cattle from Point A to Point B calmly, and without separating calves from their mothers.

Engelhart describes it as a “dinner bell” for predators when the babies are separated.

“Wolves and grizzly bears really thrive on chaos, if they can get a group of animals to panic and run, especially wolves, that’s how they really thrive,” Engelhart said.

“There is no easy life for the wolf,” Engelhart said, “a pack of wolves at times will go up to a week without having a fresh kill to feed on, and it’s amazing how resilient they really are and how smart they are.”

Since using these methods over the years, Engelhart said he saw a significant drop in predator attacks.

Interested in examining his methods further, Engelhart was connected to the lead of the Alberta Predator Project, PHD student Naomi Louchouarn, through a group called Wolf Awareness.

The project started in 2019 for two months, and again in 202o from July to October. Louchouarn said the findings of the study were recently submitted for peer review.

“The goal was to examine: does it reduce attacks on cattle? Can it be taught to new people? And, does it reduce the presence of predators?” Louchouarn said.

They studied camera data and brought in two extra range riders, and Louchouarn said during the time of the study, there were no attacks on the cattle.

“Predators, one, have a right to exist on the landscape, particularly on public land which is kept in trust for future generations of people and animals, and it’s supposed to be kept healthy,” Louchouarn said.

“Predators provide an important service within the ecosystem, they keep it healthy and a healthy ecosystem is more resilient to climate change and other impacts from people,” she said, adding predators are also helpful to ranchers because they help to ensure healthy grass for the cows to eat.

Engelhart said reaction to his kill-prevention tactics from other ranchers varies, “a lot of people that I talk to, they like the idea of it, and others kind of scoff at it,” adding, “even the people that like the idea of it, when it comes to the work end of it… that’s when they lose interest in it.”

The radio collars haven’t been used since 2008, Engelhart said, but the wolves’ patterns are still the same today, for the most part.

Both Engelhart and Louchouarn hope after the study is peer reviewed, it will gain traction and lead to more financial support for ranchers to hire range riders, and to change of government policies.

“All these governments have policies in place for coexistence,” Louchouarn said, “but a lot of them have not been proven in the literature, or in some cases, have been proven to be not effective in the literature,” such as lethal control.

Engelhart said what’s important to him is running his cattle and wildlife living their life separately.

“I believe that everything that’s out there has a purpose,” Engelhart said, adding he believes in leaving the land in better shape than it was found.