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Moose hunt helps caribou, gov’t says Mark Nielsen Citizen staff
Limited entry hunting of moose cows and calves is drawing fire from two Central B.C. MLAs and B.C. outfitters.
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UNBC chemistry professor Todd Whitcombe leans on a signpost in Invercargill at the southernmost part of New Zealand.
UNBC prof finally back home from New Zealand lockdown ted clarke Citizen staff
After he’s finished his 14-day quarantine, which came on the heels of an 80-day pandemic lockdown that extended his trip to New Zealand, UNBC chemistry professor Todd Whitcombe knows what he will make his top priority. “I’m going to Thanh Vu,” proclaimed Whitcombe, referring to his favourite Vietnamese restaurant. “I miss the food.” Whitcombe left Prince George last summer on July 8 on what he thought was going to be a nine-month sabbatical from his usual duties at UNBC. The longtime science and political
columnist for The Citizen was scheduled to return on April 6, but by then New Zealand had sealed its borders. He had planned to tour the South Island for the final month of his trip and was in Invercargill, on the southernmost tip of New Zealand, when Canada went into lockdown mode and began closing its borders. “I headed off down there knowing the disease was rampant and kept in touch as best I could and by the time (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau was telling us to come home I was on the southern tip of the South Island and the only airport operating was at the north end of the North Island, in Auckland,” Whitcombe said.
On March 26, the day New Zealand announced its lockdown, he had just arrived in Nelson, a small city on the South Island overlooking Tasman Bay. “If I had pushed it really hard, I probably could have got back to Auckland, but there was only four ferries running per day between Wellington, on the North Island, and Picton, on the South Island and they only have capacity for 280 cars,” he said. “There were 24-hour ferry lineups running past the lockdown date and the ferries ran for two extra days and one extra sailing, just to deal with the backlog. As I knew I would have to isolate wherever I was, I got to Nelson and just stayed there.” — See ‘THEY LITERALLY’ on page 4
In a statement issued shortly after this year’s LEH synopsis was issued, Nechako-Lakes MLA John Rustad and Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett, both members of the Opposition B.C. Liberals, said continuing the hunt makes little sense given that the animals’ population is struggling. “I can’t emphasize how irresponsible it is to open up the hunt on moose calves and their mothers,” said Rustad. “The record wildfire seasons throughout the province in 2017 and 2018 have significantly reduced moose habitat, making them far more susceptible to predators such as wolves.” However, provincial government officials say the moose cow calf hunt is limited to about 12 per cent of the where they live in B.C. - where their territories now overlap with those of endangered caribou herds as part of a complex strategy designed to provide the buffer they have had against predators. Wildlife biologists contend that areas that have been logged generate the type of habitat that attract moose. Predators, notably wolves, follow and in the process encroach on the safe havens caribou use to avoid their attackers. Because they don’t reproduce at the same rate as other ungulates, like moose and deer, the caribou suffer a drop in their numbers without a corresponding decrease in the number of predators because caribou are incidental to their main types of prey. — See ‘OUTFITTERS’ on page 4