This year we were able to get exceptionally early counts from the Junction Butte pack (first pup sighting was May 4 of a pup only ~15 days old) and tracked their survival throughout the entire year (figure 4). For some packs whose den sites are unknown or hidden, we do not get pup counts until the pups are moved to a rendezvous site in the early fall. Since wolf pups normally stay underground for their first three to five weeks, the earliest counts are often of two- to three-months-old pups. The Lamar Canyon pack began the year with varying levels of mange infection among individuals (some mild and some severe) but by the fall, the one male and two remaining females had recovered.Įach year staff attempt to establish early pup counts at dens by either observing from the ground through spotting scopes or, more often, taking photos of the den area during tracking flights. There was no evidence of any major disease mortality. In addition, staff recorded seven uncollared wolf deaths one was natural (intraspecific), and six were harvested during the wolf hunting season in Montana.
Ages of wolf mortalities varied, with two old adults (>6-years-old), one adult (2-5-years-old), one yearling, and one pup. Mortalitiesįive radio-collared wolves died in 2016 (table 2): two were killed by other wolves, one kicked and killed by an ungulate, one died of unknown natural causes (necropsy was delayed by river levels and exact cause of death could not be determined), and one was legally shot outside the park boundary. Wolves captured and handled on January 26, 2016.
We also detected two badgers and one snowshoe hare. We found 81 suspected kills or fresh carcasses of ungulate prey, which included 54 (67%) elk, 12 (15%) bison, 9 (11%) deer, two (2%) bighorn sheep, two (2%) pronghorn, one (1%) horse (scavenged after a concessionaire left the animal in the park), and one (1%) unknown species. Only some of the wolves in each pack wear GPS collars, and not all GPS collars are used to search for clusters. This was achieved by hiking to clusters (a location other than a home site where a wolf spent 30 minutes or more) generated from satellite collars (e.g., GPS collars) to search for prey remains. Wolf predation was also assessed from May through July. In addition, the wolves also killed one snowshoe hare. The wolves also fed on two bison that they did not kill. Four of the elk (36%) were calves, two (18%) were adult females, and five (45%) were adult males. Twenty (91%) of these ungulates were killed by wolves, which included 11 elk, three bison, two deer, and four unknown species. Wolves also fed on nine ungulates they did not kill, of which four were elk and five were bison.ĭuring November-December 2016, our “early” winter study period, a total of 22 ungulate carcasses fed on by wolves were discovered by air and ground teams. Four of the elk (36%) were calves, one (9%) was an adult female, and six (55%) were adult males. Thirteen (59%) of these ungulates were killed by wolves, including 11 elk, one bison, and one deer. However, predation on other prey such as bison may be changing with their increasing abundance (figure 3).ĭuring March 2016, our “late” winter study period, a total of 22 ungulate carcasses fed on by wolves were discovered by air and ground teams. The type of prey killed by wolves varies by time period and consists primarily of elk.
Wolf predation was monitored intensively for five months of the year – one month in early winter (mid-November to mid-December), one month in late winter (March), and three months in spring-summer (May-July). The composition of elk kills was 36.0% calves, 5.6% yearlings, 21.1% adult females, 26.7% adult males, 2.5% adults of unknown sex, and 8.1% of unknown sex and age. Project staff detected 235 kills that were definitely, probably, or possibly made by wolves in 2016: 161 elk (68.5%), 19 bison (8.1%), five mule deer (2.1%), 14 deer of unknown species (6% probably mule deer), four coyotes (1.7%), three wolves (1.3%), three pronghorn (1.3%), three bighorn sheep (1.3%), two badgers (0.9%), two snowshoe hares (0.9%), one moose (0.4%), one beaver (0.4%), and 17 unidentified animals (7.2%).
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