A wolf was found dead in the ditch along the Trans-Canada Highway at the west end of Yoho National Park last week.
About 8:30 p.m. on Thursday (June 22), a Parks Canada employee driving westbound spotted the wolf carcass on the side of the road. Officials say they plan to do a necropsy, but say it was a juvenile wolf, probably under the age of two.
“It was already deceased,” said Jon Stuart-Smith, human-wildlife conflict specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, noting no one reported hitting the animal.
“It looked like it was struck in the driving lane and then dragged off to the side.”
The wolf is not a collared wolf and not one ever handled by Parks Canada.
Stuart-Smith said there is a wolf pack that regularly uses the west side of Yoho National Park, so it’s presumed it was one of the those animals.
“They come into the west side of Yoho and then will go into the Beaverfoot Valley and possibly into Kootenay National Park on the south end,” he said.
“They get hunted once they leave the Yoho boundary into the Beaverfoot, so their numbers fluctuate quite a bit, but there’s been a pack in that area for a number of years.”
Parks Canada encourages drivers to stick to posted speed limits in the parks, obey no-stopping zones and pay extra attention at dusk and dawn. Report any sightings of roadside carcasses, or if you hit an animal, to Banff’s dispatch at 403-762-1470.
