The amazing SEA WOLVES OF THE Great Bear Rainforest

FIRST NATIONS AND SCIENTISTS WORK SIDE BY SIDE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND PROTECT COASTAL WOLVES LIVING IN THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST

- ZIYA TONG

“THE WOLVES EAT THE BRAINS” says William Housty. If you’re walking along the creek beds of the Great Bear Rainforest and see decapitated salmon scattered about, it’s a telltale sign that sea wolves have been in the area. “They just take a bite out of the head, and everything else is left fully intact.” This unusual feeding strategy has evolved among the coastal wolves that live in and around Bella Bella, B.C.

Housty was born and raised here. His grandmother is head of the Wolf Clan of Heiltsuk Nation, and he chairs the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department Board. The wolves, he says, are shrewder than the local bears, who eat the fish whole and as a result are often riddled with tapeworm. Eating the head alone might also be a way to avoid “salmon poisoning,” a bacterial infection from eating raw fish with infected parasites that can be fatal to dogs and other canids. “Wolves are very, very intelligent animals,” continues Housty, “We respect them, and they respect us.” I listen rapt as he shares stories of living alongside these beautiful howlers in his home territory, but I’m also a bit embarrassed — embarrassed as I, too, grew up in British Columbia, but never realized we had “sea wolves” living on the coast.