Staqeya: the lone wolf at the edge of its ecological niche

In May 2012, a lone wolf (Canis lupus) appeared in Victoria, British Columbia (BC), Canada, a metropolitan area on the southern tip of Vancouver Island with a population of 365,000 (Fig. 1A, B). After sightings in backyards over a few days, the wolf settled in the adjacent Chatham and Discovery Islands. This wolf traveled a minimum of ~40 km from the nearest known wolf distribution, and through at least ~20 km of suburbia before swimming 1.5 km to the islands. The island chain comprises only 1.9 km2 of terrestrial area, with 1.2 km2 owned by the Songhees First Nation, while a portion of Discovery Island and islets occurs within provincial protected areas (Gomes 2013).