In a large Provincial Park of BC, a park ranger observes two people from his vantage point high up on a ridge in the alpine. He observes one person picking the alpine flowers which are in full bloom. The silence of the alpine environment is violently disturbed as the hunter takes down a grizzly bear (during an open hunting season).
The park ranger approaches the park visitor holding the alpine flowers and issues this person a violation ticket under Section 9 of the Park Act. No ticket violation is issued to the hunter.
Section 9 is titled Natural Resources Protected but this section does not apply to wildlife being hunted & trapped in BC Provincial Parks, Recreation Areas or Conservancies. In the Regulations, Division 6, Section 32(1), prohibited activity is defined. A person must not;
a) damage or destroy any natural resources or property in a park, conservancy or recreation area
b) possess any natural resource or property of a park, conservancy or recreation area
c) remove any natural resource or property from a park, conservancy or recreation area.
Subsection (2) exempts wildlife under this regulation.
I agree that flowers & other natural resources should not be damaged, destroyed, possessed or removed from a park, conservancy or recreation area. But how absurd is this law & policy when it does not apply to wildlife?
Most BC residents I have consulted along with politicians are suprised and dismayed that hunting & trapping are allowed in BC Parks, Conservancies & Recreation Areas. Barry Penner, Minister of Environment, states in his Oct. 2/2008 letter to me that these hunting & trapping activities are the result of public consultation thru Land Use Planning processes & subsuquent Park Management Plans.
What this means is the local & regional consultation included submissions from the local rod & gun clubs, hunting groups advocating their right to hunt & trap in the parks in their region. These parks, conservancies, & recreation areas belong to all BC residents & the many visitors outside of BC who visit our parks. These people want to observe wildlife in these protected areas & not see the peace & tranquility of the park violated by hunters & trappers, who are killing the precious wildlife.
These local residents do not have the authority to use this Land Use Planning process to impose their local will upon the majority of BC residents who want these parks protected from hunting & trapping. Canada's National Parks do not allow any hunting & trapping because all Canadians want to protect all natural resources in these parks. The few residents of Banff & Jasper do not dictate to the Federal Government to allow them to hunt or trap in Banff National Park or Jasper National Park. So why can a very small group of BC residents impose their will upon the vast majority of BC residents? Because we let them!
Mr. Penner states that 250 BC Parks are closed to hunting & trapping. I researched the BC Parks website & the BC Hunting & Trapping regulations to see which parks are open to hunting & trapping. The 250 parks that Barry Penner refers to are very small parks, many of which are near large populated areas where there is no wildlife. These parks would include Alice Lake, a popular campground near Squamish & Cultus Lake. It is ridiculous & misleading to promote these parks being closed to hunting & trapping because public safety would be seriously compromised & these parks have not seen any wildlife for decades.
What Barry Penner is hiding is the fact that most large Provincial Parks are open to hunting & trapping. These parks contain most of the wildlife & this list includes Manning Park, Stratchona Park, Wells Gray Park, Tweedsmuir Park & Spatsizi Wilderness Park just to name a few. On my blog, my letter dated Oct. 31, 2008 challenges Barry Penner's misleading statements. Over 90% of Northern BC Provincial Parks, Conservancies & Recreation Areas allow hunting & trapping to occur. The southern half of the province is not any better.
Here are three notable, illogical situations which allow hunting & trapping in these parks.
Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park is sandwiched between Kootenay National Park on the west & Banff National Park on the east. As stated earlier, there is no hunting & trapping in National Parks. But if wildlife moves from these protected federal lands into Mt. Assiniboine Park, they can & are being killed. How absurd is that to have an unprotected area between two protected areas? Wildlife do not understand boundaries of safety & harm. Why would the Provincial Government not ban hunting & trapping in Mt. Assiniboine Privincial Park? This brings up the topic of having larger buffer zones around National Parks to fully protect the wildlife who use their habitat outside the boundaries of National Parks.
Khutzeymateen Park is a grizzly bear sanctuary where they are protected from hunting & trapping. However, hunting is allowed in this park above 1,000 metres. How can this park be a sanctuary when hunters either hike thru the park to reach this altitude of above 1,000 metres or planes & helicopters are flying these hunters in there disturbing the grizzly bears? Not to mention the gun shots which would frighten the grizzly bears. Why can't the Provincial Government state there is no hunting & trapping in Khutzeymateen Park?
Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park contains an Ecological Reserve at Gladys Lake which is in the middle of the park. There is no hunting & trapping allowed in Ecological Reserves but there is hunting & trapping allowed in the rest of the Spatsizi. Again, wildlife do not recognize artificial boundaries.
Many more visitors to our parks, conservancies, recreation areas are using these areas during the Fall, Winter & Spring when hunting & trapping take place. These visitors are under the illusion that they are safe in these parks from these activities and it will be only a matter of time before they are seriously injured or killed from these activities while recreating in our parks.
I think most BC residents are shocked when they find out that hunting & trapping is so extensive in our Provincial Parks, Conservancies & Recreation Areas. These areas should be completely off limits to hunters & trappers so the wildlife have a safe refuge.
Barry Penner, you protect the flowers by legislation & regulation, why not the same protection for wildlife?
I encourage readers to contact Barry Penner, Minister of Environment to pressure him to address this problem & correct it. He can be contacted by email env.minister@gov.bc.ca , fax 250.387.1356 & phone 250.387.1187
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Coastal Wolves
BC's coastal wolves are a very unique species of gray wolf (canis lupus) but they are not a new subspecies. Since 2000, these wolves have been studied extensively by the wolf biologists of Raincoast Conservation Foundation. Here is a summary of their research.
Wolf Range
These coastal wolves roam from Cape Caution in the south (51,10' degrees north, 127,47' degrees west) to the Nass River in the north (54,44' degrees north, 130,11' degrees west). This area would comprise more than 40,000 square km. The study area which the Raincoast wolf biologists conducted their research in was 19,300 square km.
This central coast & north coast of BC is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the western border & the Coast Mountain Range on the eastern border. There are many islands which make up the western border such as Banks Island, Calvert Island, Aristazabal Island, and Hunter Island, with long narrow fjords cutting into the eastern border where rivers follow into the fjords from the Coast Mountains.
This area is very sparsely populated with small Native villages such as Bella Bella (Waglisla) & forestry communities such as Ocean Falls. With this rugged coastline & sparse population, it is an excellent area to study wolves because they experience little human disturbance. The human caused mortality rate of wolves is 2.3% annually which is low compared to other areas of BC where the rate is 11-15% annually.
Within this two zone geography of islands, fjords & river valleys, Raincoast biologists found two distinct wolf groups. The western zone wolves which lived on the islands & swam between the islands looking for food while the eastern zone wolves lived in the valleys & mountains of the Coast Range.
Since the distances are too great between these two zones, there is little interaction between these two wolf groups. When the wolves living on the islands disperse, they travel amongst the islands to find a mate & establish their territory. They do not disperse eastward to the eastern zone wolves while the eastern zone wolves do not disperse westward.
This remote, self-contained area with these two impenetrable borders has created such pure genetic similarity amongst these wolves as they do not interact with the interior wolves of BC. The Heiltsuk people of Bella Bella told the wolf biologists that from their traditional knowledge, they knew the two wolves groups did not mingle.
Raincoast's wolf biologists found wolf sign (scat, hair, deer kills) on all 18 mainland sites & all 21 island sites. Most den sites located were in low elevation old-growth forests which would be true for both island den sites & mainland den sites.
Wolf Demographics
In the 19,300 square km land base of the study area, the researchers estimated the wolf population to be 406-473 wolves. They reached that estimate by applying a known wolf density of 30/1000 square km to habitat where wolf diet consists mainly of deer. The wolf biologists found a higher density on the islands than the mainland valleys.
The average late-summer litter size was 3.3 pups which suggests that these pups were the survivors. With low levels of human interference & human harvesting, this wolf population should be stable.
A unique feature of these coastal wolves is their travel between islands. On some of the island archipelegos, there is not enough prey so they swim between the islands looking for prey. The wolves use the tides & currents to assist them & some wolves have swam 8-10km in open water to reach nearby islands. At one presentation I did with Tundra, one participant who lived on the central coast of BC was with her family on a boating trip west of Bella Bella near the Goose Island group. They spotted what they thought was a dog swimming in open water. Upon closer examination, it was a wolf swimming but it was struggling & near drowning. Wolves are very strong swimmers but these waters are very treacherous with strong currents & high waves, so no doubt some wolves have drown as they swim amongst the islands.
Most coastal wolves are born black & 25% of the 64 wolves sighted in the research were black. More black wolves were sighted on the mainland than the islands. The other wolves sighted were grey in color with a red tinge. Coastal wolves underfur is more brownish than the interior wolves of BC.
Diet
The coastal wolves diet consists mainly of deer (Sitka black tail) at 83%, salmon 9%, beaver 1%, & black bear 2% with 5% unknown. The unique feature of coastal wolves is their use of fish & seafood in their diet. The coastal wolves will eat seal, crabs & intertidal zone sea creatures. When the wolves eat salmon, they only consume the head of the salmon. The brain contains important nutrients for the wolf while the body of the salmon contains parasites which are apparently harmful to the wolf. So if you see headless salmon on the riverbanks or estuaries of the central coast, then wolves reside in the area. The eagles, bears & ravens consume the remainder of the salmon.
In the analysis of wolf scat, the researchers found evidence of both black bear & grizzly bear. This shows that the wolf is the apex predator of the coast sharing it with the grizzly bear when it is not hibernating.
Raincoast Research Project
When Raincoast began their research project in 2000, these coastal wolves had not been studied before. Forest companies, universities & BC MOE had not conducted any research on these wolves. Raincoast involved the First Nations peoples of the central coast to ascertain their traditional knowledge.
Raincoast employs a non-invasive approach to studying the wolf. They do not trap & radio collar wolves but they do DNA analysis of their scat, hair, & other genetic material of the wolf to make their findings.
Tundra & Meshach
October has been a very busy month for the three of us. I have travelled with them to Campbell River on two trips to visit schools with Tundra. We have visited 5 schools and seen between 500-550 students & teachers doing presentations on wolves. Tundra is the star of the show and the students all get to pet her. I have received very good comments from the staff & parents as well.
We also were the guest speaker to the Port Hardy Chamber of Commerce luncheon & Tundra attracted more visitors to the luncheon than their normal attendance. The Chamber members were very impressed with her and this group is certainly looking to capitalize on the tourism potential of all their wildlife from the North Island.
Finally, Tundra & Meshach accompanied me to the North Island Teachers Pro D day to speak on wolves & promote Tundra's school program. The teachers were very impressed with her, so no doubt we will receive further invitations to attend local schools.
If your school or community group is interested in Tundra & I visiting you, please find all the info on my website.
Good book to read
For much further info & pictures on the coastal wolves, please read Ian McAllister's book, The Last Wild Wolves. This book contains a DVD which shows the wolves & other wildlife which suppliments Ian's beautiful photography of the wolves. The text of the book describes the different wolf packs he has come to know intimately from his 17 year study of these wolves. Ian & his wife Karen & family live near Bella Bella & they were cofounders of Raincoast Conservation Society. This book is an excellent examination of these wonderful, intelligent wolves.
Website
Raincoast Conservation Foundation's website www.raincoast.org contains all their research on the coastal wolves. You can read the reports as well their conservation work they are doing on wolves, grizzly bears as well as other environmental issues in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Ian McAllister's website, Pacific Wild www.pacificwild.org is also an excellent website to visit. There are webcams which are situated to see the coastal wolves in the wild.
Wolf Range
These coastal wolves roam from Cape Caution in the south (51,10' degrees north, 127,47' degrees west) to the Nass River in the north (54,44' degrees north, 130,11' degrees west). This area would comprise more than 40,000 square km. The study area which the Raincoast wolf biologists conducted their research in was 19,300 square km.
This central coast & north coast of BC is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the western border & the Coast Mountain Range on the eastern border. There are many islands which make up the western border such as Banks Island, Calvert Island, Aristazabal Island, and Hunter Island, with long narrow fjords cutting into the eastern border where rivers follow into the fjords from the Coast Mountains.
This area is very sparsely populated with small Native villages such as Bella Bella (Waglisla) & forestry communities such as Ocean Falls. With this rugged coastline & sparse population, it is an excellent area to study wolves because they experience little human disturbance. The human caused mortality rate of wolves is 2.3% annually which is low compared to other areas of BC where the rate is 11-15% annually.
Within this two zone geography of islands, fjords & river valleys, Raincoast biologists found two distinct wolf groups. The western zone wolves which lived on the islands & swam between the islands looking for food while the eastern zone wolves lived in the valleys & mountains of the Coast Range.
Since the distances are too great between these two zones, there is little interaction between these two wolf groups. When the wolves living on the islands disperse, they travel amongst the islands to find a mate & establish their territory. They do not disperse eastward to the eastern zone wolves while the eastern zone wolves do not disperse westward.
This remote, self-contained area with these two impenetrable borders has created such pure genetic similarity amongst these wolves as they do not interact with the interior wolves of BC. The Heiltsuk people of Bella Bella told the wolf biologists that from their traditional knowledge, they knew the two wolves groups did not mingle.
Raincoast's wolf biologists found wolf sign (scat, hair, deer kills) on all 18 mainland sites & all 21 island sites. Most den sites located were in low elevation old-growth forests which would be true for both island den sites & mainland den sites.
Wolf Demographics
In the 19,300 square km land base of the study area, the researchers estimated the wolf population to be 406-473 wolves. They reached that estimate by applying a known wolf density of 30/1000 square km to habitat where wolf diet consists mainly of deer. The wolf biologists found a higher density on the islands than the mainland valleys.
The average late-summer litter size was 3.3 pups which suggests that these pups were the survivors. With low levels of human interference & human harvesting, this wolf population should be stable.
A unique feature of these coastal wolves is their travel between islands. On some of the island archipelegos, there is not enough prey so they swim between the islands looking for prey. The wolves use the tides & currents to assist them & some wolves have swam 8-10km in open water to reach nearby islands. At one presentation I did with Tundra, one participant who lived on the central coast of BC was with her family on a boating trip west of Bella Bella near the Goose Island group. They spotted what they thought was a dog swimming in open water. Upon closer examination, it was a wolf swimming but it was struggling & near drowning. Wolves are very strong swimmers but these waters are very treacherous with strong currents & high waves, so no doubt some wolves have drown as they swim amongst the islands.
Most coastal wolves are born black & 25% of the 64 wolves sighted in the research were black. More black wolves were sighted on the mainland than the islands. The other wolves sighted were grey in color with a red tinge. Coastal wolves underfur is more brownish than the interior wolves of BC.
Diet
The coastal wolves diet consists mainly of deer (Sitka black tail) at 83%, salmon 9%, beaver 1%, & black bear 2% with 5% unknown. The unique feature of coastal wolves is their use of fish & seafood in their diet. The coastal wolves will eat seal, crabs & intertidal zone sea creatures. When the wolves eat salmon, they only consume the head of the salmon. The brain contains important nutrients for the wolf while the body of the salmon contains parasites which are apparently harmful to the wolf. So if you see headless salmon on the riverbanks or estuaries of the central coast, then wolves reside in the area. The eagles, bears & ravens consume the remainder of the salmon.
In the analysis of wolf scat, the researchers found evidence of both black bear & grizzly bear. This shows that the wolf is the apex predator of the coast sharing it with the grizzly bear when it is not hibernating.
Raincoast Research Project
When Raincoast began their research project in 2000, these coastal wolves had not been studied before. Forest companies, universities & BC MOE had not conducted any research on these wolves. Raincoast involved the First Nations peoples of the central coast to ascertain their traditional knowledge.
Raincoast employs a non-invasive approach to studying the wolf. They do not trap & radio collar wolves but they do DNA analysis of their scat, hair, & other genetic material of the wolf to make their findings.
Tundra & Meshach
October has been a very busy month for the three of us. I have travelled with them to Campbell River on two trips to visit schools with Tundra. We have visited 5 schools and seen between 500-550 students & teachers doing presentations on wolves. Tundra is the star of the show and the students all get to pet her. I have received very good comments from the staff & parents as well.
We also were the guest speaker to the Port Hardy Chamber of Commerce luncheon & Tundra attracted more visitors to the luncheon than their normal attendance. The Chamber members were very impressed with her and this group is certainly looking to capitalize on the tourism potential of all their wildlife from the North Island.
Finally, Tundra & Meshach accompanied me to the North Island Teachers Pro D day to speak on wolves & promote Tundra's school program. The teachers were very impressed with her, so no doubt we will receive further invitations to attend local schools.
If your school or community group is interested in Tundra & I visiting you, please find all the info on my website.
Good book to read
For much further info & pictures on the coastal wolves, please read Ian McAllister's book, The Last Wild Wolves. This book contains a DVD which shows the wolves & other wildlife which suppliments Ian's beautiful photography of the wolves. The text of the book describes the different wolf packs he has come to know intimately from his 17 year study of these wolves. Ian & his wife Karen & family live near Bella Bella & they were cofounders of Raincoast Conservation Society. This book is an excellent examination of these wonderful, intelligent wolves.
Website
Raincoast Conservation Foundation's website www.raincoast.org contains all their research on the coastal wolves. You can read the reports as well their conservation work they are doing on wolves, grizzly bears as well as other environmental issues in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Ian McAllister's website, Pacific Wild www.pacificwild.org is also an excellent website to visit. There are webcams which are situated to see the coastal wolves in the wild.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wolf Pack
"For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack."
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Mr. Kipling's quote describes the most important feature of wolf biology - the Pack. The social organization structure of wolves is the pack. This is where pups are born, reared, educated in wolf behavior such as hunting, defending their territory and learning to live in a cooperative environment.
Size & Composition
Wolf packs have ranged from 2(pair) to 42 members in one pack in Alaska. The usual size of a pack is 5-14 members which flucuates as wolves disperse from the pack. The pack consists of a breeding pair (alpha male&female) and the offspring of the breeding pair. Sometimes packs will adopt stray wolves but mostly it consists of offsring up to 4 years.
Wolves are considered eusocial species because they live in groups in which at least two generations live together, reproduction is restricted to a few individuals, and nonbreeders cooperate to care for the offspring of breeders.
Pack as Nursery
We know that wolves are cared for by their parents as well as the other members of the pack. Wolves get very excited about new arrivals, are very tolerant towards playful pup behavior but teach the young offspring the behavior and skills they need to survive in the wild. This transference of both social and genetic information occurs between generations to keep the pack strong and intact. Wolves have sophisticated learning abilities to teach the young pups how to cooperatively hunt and forage for food. They also teach them how to establish and defend their territories. To instruct them well, the pack is the perfect social organization system to keep the wolf strong and therefore the pack strong. This prolonged learning process requires the young pups to be dependent on the pack for 25-30% of their normal lifespan.
One wolf biologist desribes a pack as, "high intelligence, expressiveness, and unusual emotional depth enable wolves to maintain sophisticated social bonds, to work together as highly skilled cooperative hunters."
Disruption to Pack
Throughout BC, wolves are harvested by hunters and trappers extensively. One out of every 8 wolves is killed annually in BC (over 1,000 wolves in 2007). This high harvest rate creates much instability and fragmentation to wolf packs.
Gordon C. Haber, in his article "Biological, Conservation, and Ethical Implications of Exploiting and Controlling Wolves" ( Conservation Biology, Volume 10, No. 4, 1996) found that from his 40 years of studying wolves in Alaska, Yukon, and Northern BC where they are extensively harvested, the following disrutions occur to their pack structure:
a) more population fragmentation with less selectivity in some important aspects of behavior
b) mating is less selective with more litters per population and higher pup ratios
c) more pairs were created as they disperse from these fragmented packs. Pairs can kill as much as packs of 6-7 wolves. Therefore there can be up to 3 times more prey killed by pairs then a stable pack of 6-7 wolves.
Haber describes how this disruption to the packs results in increased hunting by wolves with higher kill rates with increased selection of potentially vulnerable prey. There is more scavenging by ravens and other scavengers on prey killed by pairs, so there is the need to hunt more.
In Denali National Park, Haber has studied wolf packs for 30 years. There is no hunting or trapping in the Park, so he was able to observe stable, long standing packs. He found that there was impressive social stability and continuity in these packs.
The Toklat/East Fork pack during one period had the same female in the breeding pair for 13-14 years. She died naturally at age 18. For this uninterrupted period, it allowed this transference of social and genetic information to create social stability and this pack would be able to defend its territory, raise its offspring well and not overhunt which can occur due to fragmented packs.
Wolf packs are highly complex, sophisticated social organization systems which need long periods of social stability to transfer important social and genetic information to its offspring. Through human harvesting, it disrupts this transference of information which weakens the pack and therefore the wolf. Wildlife managers that promote culling the wolf to strengthen their prey numbers are doing more damage by disrupting the pack. These managers would be well advised to remember Rudyard Kipling's quote.
Tundra & Meshach
So far, five school districts on Vancouver Island have approved Tundra's School Program for their schools. I am already receiving requests from these schools to bring Tundra & Meshach. I will report on how these visits in October went in next months blog. If you are interested in Tundra visiting your child's classroom, please let the school know about the program. All information is found on my website.
Good book to read
For further info on wolf packs, I can recommend two books. The first one is, The Wolf by L. David Mech. This textbook was written by Dr. Mech in 1970 but is still relevant today. The second book is Wolves, Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. It is edited by L. David Mech and Luigi Boitani and was published in 2003. Both of these books contain detailed info on wolf pack behavior.
Website
I would refer you back to the International Wolf Centre's website (www.wolf.org) for really good info on the behavior of wolves in their packs.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wolf Dispersal
This is the process whereby young wolves leave their natal (birth) pack and establish their own pack. A successful dispersal involves three critical factors: 1) the young wolf must be able to successfully hunt on its own, 2) it must find a mate and 3) the pair must be able to establish and defend their own territory.
As Fall approaches, wolf dispersal is an important topic to discuss particularly with male wolves, because this is a season when they routinely leave the pack. Competition for food is increasing as this year's pups are growing so quickly and need more food. The yearling and older males are experiencing increased competition for the pack's food supply.
The Fall is also a good hunting time because many of the male ungulates (moose,elk, & caribou) are rutting. Many of them get injured and are in a weakened state making them vulnerable to wolf predation.
Another major time for male wolf dispersal is the winter and early spring. There is competition for mating rights, so younger male wolves will leave the natal pack and seek out a mate. Female wolves are not seasonal in their dispersal movements as they leave the pack anytime throughout the year.
Most wolves leave on their own when they disperse and dispersal is not usually a single event but a continum of short separations from the pack until the final, complete separation.
The average age span for dispersal is 11-24 months but some wolves have left the natal pack as young as 5 months and as old as 52 months. The younger dispersing wolves travel the farthest to establish their territory. Their new territory is usually four territories away from their natal territory. Most dispersing wolves remain within a radius of three territories from their natal territory. Wolves that establish their territory next to their natal territory are called "budders".
Three radio collared young wolves in Alaska travelled 732km from their natal territory in the Nelchina Plateau to the Brooks Range. This is the longest recorded dispersal but one Canadian female wolf dispersed from her natal pack in Banff National Park, travelled south to Glacier National Park in Montana and then headed back into Canada. She travelled all along the Rocky Mountain Trench to the Dawson Creek area where she was unfortunately caught in a trap and executed by the trapper. It is not known whether she found a mate or was a lone wolf wandering throughout this vast territory. Her travels would have exceeded the 732km trek by the Alaskan wolves.
Why they disperse
As mentioned earlier, social competition for food and mating are the primary reasons why wolves disperse but there are other important reasons for wolf dispersal.
An important result of wolf dispersal is genetic exchange. This decreases the potential of inbreeding and wolves have substantial genetic variation across North America but relatively little differentation in local populations, so long distance dispersals help to spread the genes around.
Dispersal in wolves is also an important mechanism for population regulation as the dispersing wolves seek out new territories where prey is more abundant.
While there are benefits to wolves dispersing, there are definite risks associated with this activity. Lone wolves will likely be trespassing on established wolf territories and unless they are adopted by this resident wolf pack they may very likely be killed. Both male and female wolves have to escape detection by other resident wolves to find each other. The two most effective means to find a mate is scent marking and howling and both these means can also bring death and/or injury to themselves.
Once a new pair has been established, this pair must establish and defend its new territory. The new territory must be expansive to include a large enough territory to raise pups. The new pair might adopt another wolf into the pack to assist with hunting and defending their new territory as it would be difficult for two wolves to defend a territory as large as 400 square km.
For children and adults to understand the rigors of wolf dispersal, there is a wonderful educational video game which is free to download. It is called WolfQuest and can be found at http://www.wolfquest.org/. The graphics are great and it is very educational. Parents should supervise their children when they are on this site as there is an online chat capability.
There is an interesting study done on wolf dispersal over a 18 year period in Glacier National Park. Two wolf biologists, Diane Boyd and Daniel Pletscher studied 58 radio collared wolves in this park from 1979-1997. The wolves were colonizing Glacier National Park from Canada as wolves had been extirpated from this park in past years.
Some of their findings on wolf dispersal were:
As Fall approaches, wolf dispersal is an important topic to discuss particularly with male wolves, because this is a season when they routinely leave the pack. Competition for food is increasing as this year's pups are growing so quickly and need more food. The yearling and older males are experiencing increased competition for the pack's food supply.
The Fall is also a good hunting time because many of the male ungulates (moose,elk, & caribou) are rutting. Many of them get injured and are in a weakened state making them vulnerable to wolf predation.
Another major time for male wolf dispersal is the winter and early spring. There is competition for mating rights, so younger male wolves will leave the natal pack and seek out a mate. Female wolves are not seasonal in their dispersal movements as they leave the pack anytime throughout the year.
Most wolves leave on their own when they disperse and dispersal is not usually a single event but a continum of short separations from the pack until the final, complete separation.
The average age span for dispersal is 11-24 months but some wolves have left the natal pack as young as 5 months and as old as 52 months. The younger dispersing wolves travel the farthest to establish their territory. Their new territory is usually four territories away from their natal territory. Most dispersing wolves remain within a radius of three territories from their natal territory. Wolves that establish their territory next to their natal territory are called "budders".
Three radio collared young wolves in Alaska travelled 732km from their natal territory in the Nelchina Plateau to the Brooks Range. This is the longest recorded dispersal but one Canadian female wolf dispersed from her natal pack in Banff National Park, travelled south to Glacier National Park in Montana and then headed back into Canada. She travelled all along the Rocky Mountain Trench to the Dawson Creek area where she was unfortunately caught in a trap and executed by the trapper. It is not known whether she found a mate or was a lone wolf wandering throughout this vast territory. Her travels would have exceeded the 732km trek by the Alaskan wolves.
Why they disperse
As mentioned earlier, social competition for food and mating are the primary reasons why wolves disperse but there are other important reasons for wolf dispersal.
An important result of wolf dispersal is genetic exchange. This decreases the potential of inbreeding and wolves have substantial genetic variation across North America but relatively little differentation in local populations, so long distance dispersals help to spread the genes around.
Dispersal in wolves is also an important mechanism for population regulation as the dispersing wolves seek out new territories where prey is more abundant.
While there are benefits to wolves dispersing, there are definite risks associated with this activity. Lone wolves will likely be trespassing on established wolf territories and unless they are adopted by this resident wolf pack they may very likely be killed. Both male and female wolves have to escape detection by other resident wolves to find each other. The two most effective means to find a mate is scent marking and howling and both these means can also bring death and/or injury to themselves.
Once a new pair has been established, this pair must establish and defend its new territory. The new territory must be expansive to include a large enough territory to raise pups. The new pair might adopt another wolf into the pack to assist with hunting and defending their new territory as it would be difficult for two wolves to defend a territory as large as 400 square km.
For children and adults to understand the rigors of wolf dispersal, there is a wonderful educational video game which is free to download. It is called WolfQuest and can be found at http://www.wolfquest.org/. The graphics are great and it is very educational. Parents should supervise their children when they are on this site as there is an online chat capability.
There is an interesting study done on wolf dispersal over a 18 year period in Glacier National Park. Two wolf biologists, Diane Boyd and Daniel Pletscher studied 58 radio collared wolves in this park from 1979-1997. The wolves were colonizing Glacier National Park from Canada as wolves had been extirpated from this park in past years.
Some of their findings on wolf dispersal were:
- the combined mean dispersal distance for male & female wolves was 96.3km. The wolves tended to disperse in a notherly direction back into Canada where there were other wolves. Dispersing further south in the US would mean new territory with increased prey but very little chance of finding a mate.
- they dispersed in all months of the year but males preferred the first half (Jan. - June) due to breeding and strife around breeding.
- 13 of 23 dispersing wolves found mates the first breeding season and all but 2 failed to produce pups in the first denning season.
Other studies showed that dispersing wolves were paired within 8-30 days of leaving their pack and other dispersers took 95-148 days to find a mate.
From this information, you can see that wolves have a driving force to leave their natal pack due to social competition of food and mating. They can travel long distances or move just next door from their natal territory. They are able to find mates quite quickly and produce pups the next breeding season. For all these factors, wolves have been described by biologists as dispersal pumps that converts prey into young wolves and spews them far and wide over the landscape.
Tundra & Meshach
Both have had a busy summer meeting many fine people either at resorts, summer festivals or stopping by their territory on Malcolm Island. We appreciate getting to meet everyone and it looks like they will be busy meeting school children in the Fall as I have had enquiries about Tundra's school program. Right now they are resting in their territory awating their next walk and/or next group to visit.
Good book to read
One of my favorite books on wolves is, Arctic Wild by Lois Crisler. This book was published in 1964 and chronicles her travels with her husband in the Brooks Range of Alaska in the late 1950's. They originally went to the Brooks Range to film caribou migrations for the National Geographic Society but also got involved in a study on wolves.
Lois describes her relationship with two wolf pups they raised in this remote area of Alaska. I have read many wolf studies where they have referenced Lois's descriptions of wolf behavior. When reading this book, remember that back in the 1950's wolves still had a bounty on their head, were poisoned and generally very disliked.
Lois Crisler in writing this book was able to describe the wolf as an important species in the ecosystem and it was not a ravaging beast. The book is very entertaining as well very educational.
Website
The quintessential website for wolf info is the International Wolf Centre's website, http://www.wolf.org/. This website has basic wolf info for children and adults, scientific articles and cameras to observe the captive wolves at the Centre. Feel free to browse the site as it contains way to much info to mention here.
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