Two different incidents involving the same doomed wolf in Banff have resulted in $1,000 fines for two men.
Thien Vinh Le and Peter Thang Nguyen each received the steep fine in Canmore Provincial Court from Judge Les Grieve last week when they pleaded guilty to contravening the regulations of the National Parks Act.
Nguyen and Le had similar explanations for the court about why the campsite they were in charge of had human food out that attracted a wolf on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, just days before Parks Canada managers decided to kill the wolf as it posed too much of a threat to humans having become food habituated.
The yearling female wolf was attracted to food left out in campsites overnight at Two Jack Lake campground, said federal Crown prosecutor R. Jeremy Newton.
Newton said wardens tracking the wolf, as she was collared, found her eating food from Le’s campsite one night and Nguyen’s the next – in unrelated incidents.
“They observed the wolf eating from an unattended fire pit,” Newton said regarding Nguyen’s campsite.
The wolf apparently got into some seafood leftovers at the campfire, including shrimp.
Duty counsel Linda Levesque spoke for both Le and Nguyen, who were with groups at the time of the incident. In both situations, the groups did not speak English as their first language.
Levesque said Nguyen explained on the first evening camping to his visitors from Vietnam that food should not be left out and that there is wildlife in the area.
“The second evening he had hoped they took into account everything he told them,” she said. “He was awoken by a warden to find out his visitors had not cleaned up.
“He is taking responsibility for their actions and acknowledges harm was done.”
Grieve noted how serious the actions of both groups were and the consequences were that the wolf was killed.
“A wolf was eating right out of your campfire only steps from where you were sleeping,” said the judge. “Thank goodness no one got hurt, but the wolf.”
Le took responsibility for a large group church group that was camping in Banff with him.
The group had thrown dry rice as an offering to nature, said Newton, but that rice ended up attracting the wolf, which was seen eating it off the ground.
The incidents represent two of six that occurred at the campsite over the weekend in August with that particular wolf. At the time, Parks Canada visitor experience managers said the wolf was obtaining food rewards and “displaying some pretty bold behaviours and she is not responding to aversive conditioning.”
The fact that aversive conditioning, using negative experiences like yelling or bean bag guns to deter an animal, was not working and the wolf was behaving in an unwary way toward humans and seeking out food, was why Parks Canada decided to kill her.
The wolf was a yearling of the beleaguered Bow Valley wolf pack that has lost multiple animals this year. That includes the alpha female being killed by Parks staff on June 7 after bold behaviour caused concern for public safety and four pups from the pack were killed on the train tracks in two incidents.
- With files from Cathy Ellis
