The Wolf Who Trusted Too Much

Takaya roamed B.C.’s coastline with little fear that a human would harm him—until one did

- Larry Pynn

Who killed Takaya the wolf?

The simple answer is the hunter who legally shot the animal—a celebrity to wildlife lovers around the world—during a chance encounter on a Vancouver Island logging road.

The fuller explanation is nuanced and says more about society’s conflicted views of predators than a fatal single bullet fired from a hunter’s rifle.

Takaya is thought to have lived a celibate existence for almost eight years on Discovery and Chatham islands, the traditional territory of the Songhees Nation. The islands rest in the Salish Sea; only a thin barrier of water separated Takaya from the tourist shops and manicured flower beds of Victoria.

Takaya began to assume celebrity status in 2012 when he was fully grown and two or three years old. He is estimated to have weighed 36 to 40 kilograms—about the size of a large German Shepherd.

Boaters, kayakers and photographers occasionally spotted this wild predator in his archipelago home.

“It was magic, such a beautiful animal,” recalls Mark Malleson, a boat skipper with Prince of Whales, a Victoria marine eco-tourism company.

Wolves are pack animals, and it was highly unusual for Takaya to be living a solo existence for so long. No one knew where he came from, whether he had been exiled by his pack or whether he had left on his own in hopes of starting a family.

Sometimes Takaya would reveal himself on a stretch of shoreline by lounging in the open. He came to accept the gawking of visitors aboard their boats. “Everyone would sit there, take a few minutes and watch,” Malleson says.