KELOWNA – There are countless educational tools at UBC-O in Kelowna.
On Thursday, one of them had four legs and sharp teeth.
A tame wolf from the Northern Lights Wolf Centre in Golden was brought into a classroom for a presentation that was mostly about biology but also had political overtones.
The session was organized by a fourth year zoology student who worked at the wolf centre last summer.
Enjulie Bedi’s presentation was motivated by the provincial government’s new wolf cull program.
Sharpshooters in helicopters will kill almost 200 of the predators in an effort to protect endangered Mountain Caribou populations.
“They tried a wolf cull in Alberta for the same reason, to increase caribou numbers. It didn’t work because killing one animal to protect another isn’t going to fix anything. What the caribou need is proper habitat,” says Bedi. “We’re introducing logging, heli-skiing, ATV-ing and all the other stuff and it’s happening around caribou and it’s stressing them out.”
The students were encouraged to get involved politically in the issue.
“We’re encouraging people to vote, to change government, so we have an environment for our future. We’re trying to encourage young people to start acting on things at this age and we feel working within the universities and schools is the target,” says Shelley Black of the wolf centre.
Two campus security guards were on hand during the presentation, just in case.
But the wolf spent much of the time taking a nap.
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