Ottawa (AFP) - Pop star Miley Cyrus and former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson added their voice to opposition to a government plan to shoot wolves to reduce their population and save caribou herds in western Canada.
British Columbia said the killings are needed to save herds of caribou whose numbers have plummeted to 1,500 and are now at risk of extinction.
The province's wolf population, which is estimated to top 8,500, is not endangered.
Anderson, who hails from the region, said in an open letter to British Columbia Premier Christy Clark that she is "deeply disturbed that my beloved province is allowing people to hunt and kill wolves."
"We all want to restore the populations of endangered caribou, but gunning down wolves is not the answer," she said.
Cyrus traveled to the Great Bear Rainforest on Canada's Pacific Coast over the weekend to meet a group of conservationists and aboriginals opposed to the cull.
"When I first spoke out, I knew in my heart that the wolf cull was wrong," Cyrus said. "But after this visit, I know science is on my side."
Earlier this month Cyrus asked her fans to sign a petition against the hunt, which prompted Clark to deadpan that Cyrus should stick to twerking (provocative dancing).
The conservation group Pacific Wild, which invited Cyrus to the forest, said the killings ignore the root cause of the problem facing caribou, which it said is habitat encroachment by human activity.
The government acknowledged that habitat recovery is important for the caribou's recovery, but said it does not address an urgent threat.
"Evidence points to wolves being the leading cause of mortality," it said.
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