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
However, because the incisors had been lost from many of the
wolf-kills, and because the tooth-wear technique was used at checking
stations, both methods were applied in the laboratory. Mr. David W.
Kuehn (1970) sectioned and aged the incisors. Fortunately there was a
sufficiently large sample of mandibles with molariform teeth and
incisors from both wolf-killed and hunter-killed deer to enable us to
devise a table showing the actual ages (based on incisor-sectioning) of
each of the jaws assigned to various tooth-wear classes. This table was
then used to distribute the ages of specimens that contained only
molariform teeth. For example, because it was found that 37 percent of
the jaws aged 4-1/2 years old by tooth wear were actually 5-1/2 years
old, we assigned 37 percent of the incisorless jaws aged 4-1/2 by tooth
wear to the 5-1/2-year category. Similarly, another conversion chart
comparing field age determinations of hunter-killed deer with ages
based on incisor sectioning of the same jaws was employed to distribute
the ages of field-aged, hunter-killed deer for which jaws or incisors
could not be collected.
RESULTS
We flew a total of 480 hours during this and related research, mainly
during January through March 1967 and December 1968 through March 1969;
about one-third of this time was devoted primarily to searching for
kills. Jaws were examined from 93 wolf-kills and 49 probable
wolf-kills.
[Illustration: _Figure 6.--All hunter-killed deer examined were checked
for age. (Photo courtesy of L. D. Frenzel.)_]
Hunter-check stations yielded information from 335 deer (fig. 6), and
data on 98 additional hunter-killed deer were contributed by other
hunters. Incisors were collected from 82 of 214 hunter-killed deer
checked that were older than yearlings; comparisons were then made
between ages of the deer based on incisor sectioning and those based on
field checks using the wear method. Similarly, incisors were sectioned
from 195 wolf-killed and hunter-killed deer older than yearlings that
had been aged by the tooth-wear method in the laboratory, so that these
two methods could be compared (Kuehn 1970). (Note: incisor-sectioning
is unnecessary for fawns and yearlings because animals of these ages
can be aged objectively by the progress of tooth replacement.)
Because age or sex distributions might differ in the various subsamples
of deer examined during this study, these parameters were compared in
subsamples of both wolf-kills and hunter-kills (table 1). No
significant differences were found in the age or sex structures between
the known wolf-kills and "probable" wolf-kills, so these subsamples
were pooled and considered wolf-kills for all subsequent comparisons.
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