Takaya
Takaya was born on Vancouver Island, but nothing else is known of his early life. He became a well-known wolf in 2012 when he traversed through the city of Victoria, swam across a channel, and landed on the nearby archipelago consisting of Discovery Island and the Chatham Islands.
There were no other wolves on these islands and Discovery Island is a Provincial Park, which sparked concern about whether this was an appropriate area for a wolf to take up residence. But Takaya thrived in his new environment; he became adept at hunting seals and otters and was quite comfortable swimming from island to island. He occasionally showed curiosity towards dogs and people, but had never acted aggressively towards anyone visiting the islands.
Takaya stayed within his claimed island territory for 8 years, and then in January 2020, for reasons unknown, he swam back to Vancouver Island and entered Victoria. After multiple sightings over 2 days, he was finally tranquilized, captured, and relocated to an area about 75 miles from his home.
It must have been quite disorienting for Takaya to wake up in a completely unknown area, but he tried to find his and was successfully hunting in his new range. There are multiple reports of him curiously approaching dogs during this time, but none that reported any sort of aggressive behavior.
2 months after his relocation, Takaya approached a hunter’s dog. Wolf hunting season was open, and the hunter legally killed Takaya.
Wolves are social pack animals, but Takaya spent his entire adult life without a pack of his own. He was often heard howling during his time on Discovery Island, which is a wolf’s way of long-distance communication with other wolves. After all his years alone, did he still have the urge to find a mate and have a pack of his own? And after so many years without the interaction and social structure of other wolves, did he consider dogs to be an acceptable substitute?
We’ll never know for sure what Takaya’s motivations and thoughts were, but his many years of frequently seeing humans visit the islands may have caused him to lose his natural fear of humans and therefore feel more comfortable approaching their dogs. What we do know is that this peaceful and curious wolf deserved better from us.