Wolf Tracking

This animal is one of the most elusive animals to locate in the wilderness. Many wolf biologists have spent many years in the wilderness & have seen very few wolves. I have spoken to many loggers, naturalists & woodsmen who have either not seen any or seen very few.

Doug Smith, Yellowstone Wolf Project leader stated, "I worked on wolves for 13 years in Isle Royale National Park, hiking 500 miles each summer & if I saw one wolf it was an accomplishment. Now, Doug works in Yellowstone National Park where wolves are observed on a daily basis by biologists & visitors alike.

Winter is the best season to track wolves because of the snow. Even radio collared wolves are more easily detected in the winter from aircraft then in the summer. The Algonquin wolf study in Ontario found that 80% of their radio telemetry recordings occured in the winter.

Wolf tracks that are observed in the snow by experienced aerial trackers are then relayed to wolf biologists to track on the ground. They are attempting to locate wolf kills, scat, urine marking & scent marking. This will establish their territories as well as data on wolf predation.

Even to the experienced tracker, it is very hard to distinguish between a wolf paw print & a paw print of an Alaskan Malamute. The easiest way to differentiate a wolf trail from a domestic dog is that wolves generally travel in single file & have a definite purpose to where they are going. Domestic dogs tend to wander all around with little purpose to their travel.

The front paw of northern gray wolves measure 4-51/4 inches in length & 3-41/8 inches wide. Wolves lope where the rear paw print lands in the same spot as the front paw print. Dogs are not able to do this.

My Wolf Tracking

In the North Vancouver Island area, I have been tracking wolves for about one year. I am trying to establish a rough inventory of these wolves as MOE has no accurate count & my count will likely be the most accurate.

On the island that I reside on, there used to be a pack of 12 wolves. Some were trapped & executed, puppies were killed so now I am aware of only one wolf on the island. I hike on the beaches & logging roads every day with Meshach & Tundra. We find (they find it first) wolf scat, deer carcasses & urine marking, but I have not seen a wolf on the island. Except for the wolf that visited Meshach & Tundra at the fence on our property.

About 1 year ago late at night, I heard Tundra & Meshach get quite agitated. I went to investigate & on the driveway near our garage stood a black wolf. I could see it quite well with the flashlight & the street light which is very close. The wolf (I could not tell which gender) observed me for 4-5 seconds & then crossed the road & jumped into the bushes.

On our walks on the island, Tundra & Meshach have located wolf scat & in early December 2009, we came upon a freshly killed deer. The rib cage was intact with small remnants of meat on the ribs & the skull was 15 feet away. The deer was probably killed 4-5 days previous. It could have been a cougar who killed it but within a 1KM radius of the deer kill, I observed wolf scat containing deer fur & bones a couple of weeks after locating the deer. It therefore was very likely a wolf kill.

On North Vancouver Island, we have not been as successful. We have spotted wolf scat but no signs of deer kills.

I am in the process of developing a network of individuals who work in the bush to record any sightings of wolves, hearing them howl, discover any wolf scat or deer kills. I will record this on my Excel spreadsheet & then start to develop an inventory & rough territories.

My quest continues!

Tundra & Meshach

For December, January & February we will be conducting our wolf tracking. In March, I will start up the school visits & have a couple in the works. I am also preparing for the summer visitors who come to see Tundra & Meshach. That activity allows me to fund my school visits.

Books & Websites on Wolf Tracking

I am currently reading Yellowstone Wolves, In the Wild by James C. Halfpenny which contains many pictures of the Yellowstone wolves that he tracks. The pictures are beautiful & they are all of wild wolves. Many calendars & other pictures of wolves are captive wolves because it is very unlikely you will see a wild wolf let alone have the time to get a picture of it. Yellowstone is the best place to observe & photograph wolves. It has spawned a very profitable industry in Yellowstone.

Dr. James Halfpenny does tours & workshops on Yellowstone wolves. You can obtain more info on his website, www.tracknature.com