It's likely there are still between one and five wolves roaming the Whitehorse area, says the Yukon's coordinator of the wolf management program.

Alan Baer said he can say for sure there is at least one, but suspects there may be more.

Quick-kill neck snares set by Department of Environment staff in the area of the Whitehorse landfill caught one wolf last Saturday, six on Monday and another on Tuesday.

Baer said when he went to check the traps Monday and found the six wolves ensnared, there were two others he saw in the immediate vicinity that had not been caught. The two quickly fled the area.

One of the two was perhaps the one caught Tuesday, leaving at least one unaccounted for so far, Baer explained.

'I do not think it is more than five but it is probably more than one,' he said of the number of wolves remaining in the Whitehorse area.

Wolves are being blamed for the deaths of at least 12 pet dogs in and around Whitehorse since mid-November, based on tracks at kill sites, and regular sightings of the normally elusive animals. The last official report to the department involved a dog taken off the leash in Mary Lake last Saturday.

But officials with the department have also emphasized the 12 are only the ones they've received reports on, but have heard scuttlebutt of other pets gone missing but not reported.

Baer maintained the cautionary words the department has been telling pet owners keep close supervision of your pets.

Snares remain in place in the area of the landfill, as well in the area around Mary Lake, Wolf Creek and Cowley Creek.

Wolves, Baer point out, can travel 30 kilometres in a night.

It was decided to set snares in the area of the landfill before Christmas with the increasing amount of reports of wolves seen in Crestview, and particularly a sighting of several wolves seen at one time in Rabbit's Foot Canyon.

Baer said that given it's only a skip away for a wolf from the canyon to homes in Porter Creek, it was felt it was best to try to snare the pack before it started targeting pets in that neighbourhood.

The density of moose and caribou, a primary food source for wolves, is as low as he has seen it in the Whitehorse area, Baer said.

Dogs, he added, are easy prey for wolves, what they would consider small game.

He said it's not uncommon for wolf packs to split up into different groups when they are hunting small game. He suspects the main pack responsible for at least some of the deceased pets did indeed split up, though the majority were caught in the snares.

But Baer also suspects there may be other wolves outside the main pack that have also taken pets, whether it be a lone wolf, a pair or even up to three.

Wolves are very territorial and will defend their territory aggressively, he pointed out.

He said it could be a case of one pack having not yet run into the other pack, as small as it may be. Or perhaps it is a lone wolf. Lone wolves are sometimes tolerated by the main pack, as they are not seen as a particular threat.

But if a pair of wolves moves into the traditional territory of another pack, the pack will hunt them down and kill them or run them off, because a pair is seen a threat, he said.

It's difficult to tell, however, where a territory starts and the other ends, he said, suggesting the line in the sand may actually be in the Whitehorse area.

In any case, Baer reiterated, pet owners must remain aware they live in wolf country, and wolves will eat their pets if the opportunity presents itself.

They are cagey predators and it would be nothing for a wolf to hang around for hours on end waiting for the opportune time to strike.

Baer said he still finds it amazing that he can be 10 or 15 kilometres away from town in the bush, and he'll see somebody's family pet out romping around on the railway tracks or chasing bunny rabbits.

When he sees the notices on the grocery store bulletin boards asking for assistance in locating a pet, he often wonders of its fate.

Up until Dec. 12, there had been nine reported cases of pets being killed by wolves.

The number has risen to 12 with the Dec. 23 report of a dog taken in the Mendenhall subdivision, the Christmas Day report of another dog taken in the Golden Horn subdivision and the report from Mary Lake last Saturday.

Environment spokesman Dennis Senger said today that since news of the snared wolves has gone out, the department is getting second-hand reports of even more dogs being killed or gone missing.

See letter, p. 11.