WALKING WITH WOLVES

Meet the Opoyastin pack, the charismatic wild wolves who inhabit the icy wilderness of Canada's Kaska Coast

- Words and photos by ANDY SKILLEN

I LOOKED DOWN AT MY hands, shielded in red mittens, and flexed my fingers.

They were badly blistered from frostnip, and I winced. It was early March and, despite the azure sky above, it was a bone-chilling -50°C.

Beside me stood wildlife guide Adam Reimer. Born and bred in the Canadian bush, this willow-slip of a 20-something had a seemingly genetic indifference to the temperatures and an intrinsic understanding of tracking.

On this particular day, we had already been riding our snowmobiles for seven hours, with the last 12km spent following the rambling tracks of some of the world’s most elusive and charismatic predators: grey wolves. More specifically, we were on the trail of the extraordinary Opoyastin pack, a 13-strong family unit that roams the Kaska Coast on the southern side of Hudson Bay.

Though numbers are hard to estimate, it is believed that Canada currently holds as many as 50,000 grey (or timber) wolves, second only to Russia in terms of the size of population. No other animal is more emblematic of a wilderness than The wolf, yet the species remains persecuted across its entire range. Indeed, apart from the limited protection afforded to the species within a few national parks, these predators are hunted, trapped and poisoned seemingly at will.

Unsurprisingly, wolves remain aloof and distant, wary of humans. That is, with the exception of the Opoyastin pack, whose members ignore the traditional script and view humans with interest.