While bears might be the most daunting residents of Banff National Park, it’s also home to wolves. But what about them? How many wolves are there in Banff? Where can you see them? In this post, we’ll have a closer look at this impressive predator’s presence in the park.
Elusive, evasive, and fiercely effective. Wolves are successful predators, almost mythical animals. And they are abundant in Canada. In fact, Canada has the biggest population in the world, with more than 50,000 wolves.
Approximately 7,000 of them live in the province of Alberta. They can be found in the Rocky Mountains, the foothills, and boreal forest regions. So yes, also in Banff National Park.
How Many Wolves Are There in the Park?
According to Parks Canada, there are currently four wolf packs in the park, amounting to 35 – 40 wolves in total. That’s fewer than the number of bears in Banff, which lies between 85 and 105 for black bears and grizzlies combined.
In Canada, the wolf is also not protected. The government allows licensed hunting of these animals. The exception is wolves inside the national parks’ perimeters. The Canada National Parks Act has the wolf registered as a protected species.
Humans have hunted wolves in Canada for decades but they still occupy about 90 percent of their historic range. The wolf has only disappeared along the border with the United States in the south.
The average Banff wolf’s home range is 1,709 square kilometers (660 sq. mi), according to a 2002 Banff research. Due to this vast area, the large-ranging wolves also leave Banff, where people can legally hunt and/or trap them.
As a result, the population of the Banff wolves has decreased over the years. According to the same study, humans were responsible for 75 percent of wolves’ deaths between 1987 and 2001. Sixty-nine percent is a result of hunting and trapping outside the park’s perimeter. This results in fifty-two wolves near Banff and Jasper being killed yearly.
The Wolf packs in Banff National Park are named according to their territory. These packs wander in sizes of 3 to 9 wolves.
In the recent past, there were these four packs:
- Bow Valley Pack
- Fairholme Pack
- Panther-Cascade Pack
- Red Deer Pack
However, the Panther-Cascade pack has almost certainly disappeared due to wolf kills by humans outside the park boundaries.
Wolves have been extirpated in large areas of North America. That’s why the US had the animal on the Endangered Species List but removed it from this list in January 2021.
What Wolf Species Live in Banff?
Banff National Park is home to the grey wolf (Canis lupus). According to The Wildlife Society, it returned to the Bow Valley park in 1985 after a 30-year absence, and has never left since. In 1991 wolves recolonized another area of the park. As of now, there are four packs in the park.
It doesn’t mean wolves are thriving in Banff. In 2016, an alpha female and another adult of the Bow Valley Pack wolf were put down because they showed aggressive behavior. They had gotten accustomed to humans and their food. Moreover, some pups died.
Where to See Wolves in Banff?
One of the park’s wolf packs is sometimes seen along the Bow Valley Parkway (Highway 1A), between Banff and Lake Louise. It’s the only place in the park known for wolf sightings. And yes, they are also spotted near the town of Banff.
In February 2021, for instance, a naturalist saw the Bow Valley pack on the ice of Lake Minnewanka. Still, don’t count on seeing a wolf, as spotting them is extremely rare.
Are Wolves Dangerous to Humans?
The answer to this question is yes, as there have been fatalities all over the world. However, the likelihood of being attacked by a wolf is almost zero, as worldwide data from 2002 to 2020 shows.
The last incident in the park dates from august 2019 when a wolf attacked a man lying in his tent in the middle of the night at the Rampart Creek Campground.
So yes, incidents do happen, but they are extremely rare. Wolves, in general, don’t prey on humans. They’re afraid of people and usually don’t approach them. In the park, their main prey is elk, abundant in Banff.
Wolf Tours
As should have become clear from the information above, you’re not likely at all to spot a wolf during your visit to Banff National Park. There’s also no Banff wolf sanctuary. However, if you’re keen on seeing wolves, you have two more or less nearby options outside the park: the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary and the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre.
Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary
You can visit the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary and the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre.
The Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary is situated in Cochrane, between Calgary and Banff. At this sanctuary, you’ll find wolfdogs (a mix between a domestic dog and a grey wolf, eastern wolf, Ethiopian wolf or red wolf) and wolves.
It offers three tours: the Sanctuary Walk (minium 6 years old), the Intro Tour (minium 10 years old) and the Interactive Tour (minium 15 years old). More information can be found on their website.
Open hours:
Thursday – Monday, 10am – 5pm
(closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays)
Admission – Sanctuary Walk
General: CAD 25
Youth (6-11yrs): CAD
Admission – Intro Tour:
General: CAD 38 per person
Availability:
Saturdays and Sundays at 10:45am, 12.15pm, 2.15pm and 3.45pm
Admission – Interactive Tour (requires booking)
General: $63 per person
Availability:
Thursday – Monday: 10.30 am, 12.00 pm, 2.00 pm and 3.30 pm
Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary
Address: 263156 Range Road 53, Rocky View County, Alberta
Phone: +1 587-890-9653
Website: yamnuskawolfdogsanctuary.com
E-mail: yamnuskawolfdogsanctuary@gmail.com
Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre
The Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre is just outside the park, in Golden, BC. It ‘promotes conservation throughout the natural environment’ and ‘love to educate people about wolves’, as is written on their website.
The centre has Interpretive Family tours and Blackwolf Photography tours. More information can be found on their website.
Admission
Family of 4: CAD 35
Infant (0 to 3): Free
Child (4 to 11): CAD 6
Youth (12 to 16): CAD 9
Adult: CAD 12
Senior (65+): CAD 9
Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre
Address: 1745 Short Road, Golden, BC
Phone: +1 250 – 344 6798
Website: northernlightswildlife.com
E-mail: info@northernlightswildlife.com
You can also book these tours through Banff Adventures and Banff Tours. However, booking through these tour companies means you’ll need to shell out more money than booking directly with Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre or Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary.
Selected Sources
- Parks Canada
- International Wolf Center
- The Wildlife Society
- M. Hebblewith, J. Whittington, Wolves without borders: Transboundary survival of wolves in Banff National Park over three decades, Elsevier, December 2020
Want to read more about other animals in the park? I wrote an in-depth post about wildlife in Banff National Park.