A walk on the wild side

BY KERITH WADDINGTON

Spring is a spectacular time to enjoy the wildlife of Vancouver Island. Whether you’re hiking the woods, cruising the ocean or simply gazing at blue skies, we live in a temperate rainforest that boasts black bear, cougar, wolves and elk, alongside killer whales, seals, otters, eagles and much more. To encounter wildlife, you really just have to step outside your door.

Which makes the warming weather a good time to review some basic rules of safety, says BC Conservation Officer Chris Miller.

“At this time of year, black bears are emerging from their dens with new cubs of the year. It is always important to keep your distance from all wildlife, especially bears. You may or may not see the cubs, and if you get too close, a mother bear may become defensive,” she says.

Miller offers other bits of advice.

“We want wildlife to remain wild,” she says. “Never get too close or allow wildlife to become comfortable around your home. And please don’t feed them — there is plenty of food for the animals. Finally, keep attractants around your home secured. Vancouver Island is bear country. Don’t be the reason a bear becomes food-conditioned and loses its fear of people”.

Katelyn Dyck with a confined deer. Photo: Andrew Riddell

The chances of spotting wildlife on Vancouver Island depends, of course, on where you are and what season it is. Islanders and visitors are treated each year to the Brant geese migration, the grey whale migration, the Paci fic salmon spawn, the Paci fic herring spawn and the turkey vulture migration.

Of less fanfare, perhaps, but a lot more importance to Howie Davis is the annual migration of Roosevelt elk off his farm fields by Ladysmith back into the mountains each spring.

Farmer Howie Davis. Photo: Marina Sacht

For the fourth time in as many years, a large herd of Vancouver Island’s largest ungulate set up camp at Davis’s Misty Valley Farms in a field where his 125 head of cattle are meant to graze. The unusual sight provided much delight to locals and passersby alike these past three months until the herd crossed back over the highway and headed up the mountain on March 18.

Davis himself loves wildlife, but after another winter of broken fences, crop loss in the thousands of dollars and field damage, he admits he’d like to shoot the elk — and not with a camera the way local photographer Bob Burgess does.

Roosevelt elk are a protected species on Vancouver Island as their numbers were dangerously low not long ago. They have, however, bounced back well with protection and are believed to now number about 3,000 on the Island. Indigenous to the Island and Coastal BC, Roosevelt elk are found locally in the Ladysmith, Duncan and Youbou areas — and further north by Campbell River.

While admittedly impressive, the elk are growing in number every year, and Davis believes it’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured, or worse, by migrating herds.

Five Roosevelt elk were hit crossing the highway to his farm this year and had to be put down. “That’s not something anyone wants to see,” he says. “I hope the government does something soon because I am hearing about problems with these animals up and down the island.”

Dave Judson, president of the Ladysmith Sportsman Club (LSC), believes carefully managed hunts can be part of a larger strategy to control species population and movement.

“I feel for Howie,” he says. “He’s doing everything right. But the truth is the elk are doing a tremendous amount of damage each year to his field. Living in harmony with wildlife is not always easily achieved.”

Judson teaches hunter-training education and fi rearms safety at the Club, an organization started by his grandfather and his grandfather’s friends in the mid-1940s.

Now, Judson’s brothers, nephews and sons are members, benefitting from the presence of respectful elders and mentors while exploring alternative food sources, healthy eating and learning how to care for the land and the wildlife it supports. “The Ladysmith Sportsman Club does restoration projects and clean-ups every year,” he says. “No one respects the land, or the animals on it, more than hunters and fishers.”

Judson’s favourite Vancouver Island mammal is the cougar, a majestic, stealthy cat he says he has had the good fortune to track and photograph about 200 times thanks to his cougar dogs.

“I have seen cougars only three times without having my dogs along, despite Vancouver Island having the largest population of this wild cat in the world,” he says. “They are incredibly elusive and use our thick vegetation to hide. It’s a real honour to spot one. Considering Cougar Clem was a relative of mine down the line, I guess I come by this passion naturally,” laughs Judson.

“We are blessed to have the mountains in our backyard and the ocean in our front,” says the president of the LSC. “Whether you’re on horseback, dog walking or simply sightseeing, everyday is earth day on Vancouver Island!”