Ecological Studies of the Timber Wolf in Northeastern MinnesotaMech, L. David
Science
Ecological Studies of the Timber Wolf in Northeastern Minnesota
Mech, L. David
Deer -- Minnesota; Gray wolf -- Behavior -- Minnesota; Gray wolf -- Ecology -- Minnesota
No. 1057 and No. 1059 were both members of packs. No. 1057 was captured
during the night after a pack of 13 wolves was seen heading toward the
area; 5 days later she was seen with 10 other wolves, which no doubt
represented this same pack. This wolf's association with the pack was
interrupted, however, because of the foot injury sustained during
capture. When 1059 was caught, tracks of two other wolves were seen in
the immediate vicinity, and one of the animals was seen within a
quarter mile of the trapped wolf. Three days after 1059's release, and
perhaps sooner, she was back with her pack, with which she remained at
least through March.
The detailed histories of the associations of the radiotagged wolves
will be discussed in a later section.
Radiotagged wolves were tracked every day that weather permitted during
December, January, and February; every week during March, April, and
May; and once a month during June, July, and August (fig. 16).
Information was obtained for a total of 570 "wolf-days"--a wolf-day
being a day in which one radiotagged wolf was located; a pack of five
being located for 1 day would constitute 5 wolf-days.
[Illustration: _Figure 16.--Distribution of the days on which data were
obtained for each of the radiotagged wolves. Because tracking success
was 99 percent, this also represents the distribution of effort. During
June, July, and August, wolves 1053 and 1059 were located 1 day each
month._]
The last day that animals 1051 and 1057 were heard from was April 24,
1969. Both had traveled long distances during the previous week and may
have moved out of range. Signals from wolf 1055 were last heard on May
30; this animal had also been ranging widely. Circles with radii of at
least 50 miles around the last known locations of each wolf were
searched unsuccessfully for the signals. During all subsequent tracking
nights for the remaining wolves, the missing animals were also sought,
but to no avail. Before the last dates that signals from these animals
were heard, attempts to locate marked animals from the air had failed
in only three instances.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] _David W. Kuehn, Personal correspondence to L. D. Mech, 1970._
Daytime Activity Patterns
When radiotagged wolves were located, notes were kept on the type of
activity they were engaged in; the results are summarized in figure 17.
In a total of 171 observations made between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.,
the wolves were resting 62 percent of the time, traveling 28 percent
and feeding 10 percent. They tended to travel more before 11:00 a.m.
and after 3:00 p.m., although resting still composed at least 45
percent of the activity during every hour (fig. 18).
[Illustration: _Figure 17.--Percentage of time spent by radiotagged
wolves in various types of activity throughout the day, from December
through April._]
[Illustration: _Figure 18.--Generally the wolves rested during most of
the day. (Photo courtesy of L. D. Mech.)_]
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