After we pulled the putrid carcass of the female wolf out of the Laphroaig Pack den (see yesterday’s post), we crawled back in to look for any pups hunkered down in the back of the den. We saw nothing so we looked at the footage recorded by the 2 trail cameras we had deployed the first time we visited the den 8 days earlier.

These photos are a bit graphic but they illustrate the difference in appearance of deer that have and haven’t been killed by wolves. Wolves definitely consumed the carcasses of all the deer in the photos but they did not kill all of them.
Our hope in showing these photos is to help folks hone their natural history skills and recognize the difference for when they come across something similar in the woods.

We just published a new study that found that every major way humans have altered the landscape—logging, road and trail creation, and infrastructure development—have substantially altered the relationship between wolves and deer. More specifically, we found that humans have fundamentally reshaped where wolves hunt and kill deer fawns (read the study for free at the link at end of thread).

This camera was in the woods for almost 2 years (2021-2023)...this is the "highlight reel"! We got footage of virtually every large carnivore in northern Minnesota aside from the “black cougar” that some locals claimed to have seen and the famed but elusive ’squatch. And by large carnivore we mean anything the size of a pine marten or bigger. Unfortunately, we did not get footage of otters which are only large carnivore missing. But we did get lynx, a badger(!), bobcats, wolves, a red fox, coyotes, martens, fishers, a skunk, and black bears!

We recently unraveled a perplexing mystery. This spring, we collared a female wolf in the Clearcut Pack territory. The wolf was clearly not, based on her appearance, one of the 3 Clearcut Pack members. But she has remained in the Clearcut Pack territory since we collared her. This left us a bit confused as to what was going on. If the female was a lone wolf, we would not be surprised if she lingered for a while before moving on but her movements were as if she were part of the pack…and we had good evidence to suggest she wasn't.

Turns out, having 99.99% of a cattle ranch fenced in is not sufficient to keep wolves out. The last 0.01% is absolutely critical…you can see why in this video. For background: In 2021 and 2022, our project, the rancher and his family, and USDA Wildlife Services worked together to install a 7.5 mile “wolf-proof” fence around a cattle ranch in our study area.

If you wanna know what wolves 'fishing” looks like from GPS-collar data, check out these maps from late May when we had 5 wolves from 3 different packs—3 Windsong Pack wolves, 1 Lightfoot wolf, and 1 Paradise wolf—all fishing at the same river for several days. You can hardly see the river in the maps b/c of all the GPS-locations. When wolves start fishing, they really seem to go at it and they do little else during that time, which likely allows them to capitalize on an abundant source of food that is only available for a few weeks.

Two breeding males in two packs 10 miles apart. Drastically different predation behavior. A fascinating example of how variable wolf predation can be even in the same area, which begs the question: why? Since April 15, we have been intensively studying the predation behavior of Wolf Y1T, the breeding male of the Blood Moon Pack, and Wolf B2L, the breeding male of the Vermilion River Pack.

Wolves are resilient creatures...here is one example!

The Windsong Pack breeding female broke her back leg about 1 year ago. We are not sure from what but probably from chasing prey or something similar. She would not put any weight on this leg for the rest of the winter. Come spring, she had a litter of pups nonetheless. At least 5 pups and maybe more. We tagged 4 of them. She still was not putting much weight on this leg in spring from what we could tell, however, her body was healing as a calcified mass started to form in her leg at the break.

Another mortality signal came in yesterday, and somewhat stunningly, in a matter of 7 days, the Bluebird Lake Pack is dead and gone.

This mortality was from Wolf P0C, the breeding male of Bluebird Lake Pack and the mate of the wolf (P3S) who was killed a week ago. Once we got the mortality signal, we quickly headed out to recover P0C’s body and figure out what happened. Luckily, it had not snowed recently and that was helpful for piecing together what had occurred.

By killing the breeding male, a neighboring wolf pack prevented the Lightfoot Pack from having pups this year…below is an interesting example of how wolves killing each other can alter the trajectory of a wolf pack.

This photo shows how we found the breeding male last winter... During 2017-2022, Wolf V071, the breeding male of the Lightfoot Pack, and his mate had produced a litter of pups annually. In 2021, they had 5 pups and successfully reared all of them to winter.

Last spring, we figured we would put a camera on this short canoe portage between two remote lakes where the Nashata and Cranberry Bay Pack territories overlap. We weren’t sure how it would work out but figured it was worth a try.

Had to split video in 2 parts (both in thread!) Turns out, this is a pretty great spot. We got both the Cranberry Bay and Nashata Packs on camera routinely—and both packs scent-marked this spot a lot, likely to send a message to their neighbors that this was their turf.

Out with the old pups and in the new: this sums up the annual cycle of the typical wolf pack in our area...and the saga of Wiyapka Lake Pack over the past year is a perfect example of this! In early 2021, the Wiyapka Lake Pack was 2 wolves: the breeding pair. In Spring 2021, the pack had 6 pups, three of which survived to adulthood. Thus, the pack was 5 wolves strong in last winter (the breeding pair plus 3 pups).

Unfortunately, our last post on “thin wolves during summer" was twisted by several folks/groups who claimed our post was evidence that wolves had killed all their prey and thus we need to "thin them out” and reduce their populations.

Long thread on why this is not correct! Now, before we begin, we want to make explicit that this thread is not a statement on wolf management whatsoever one way or another. Instead, we want to clarify what the science does, and in this instance, does not say.

This year, Wolf R1T only killed 1 animal from July 17 to September 6. In other words, 1 kill in 51 days. And the animal he killed was a raccoon.

Long thread about summers, starvation, and survival... If we assume the raccoon weighed 30 lbs, which is a chunky raccoon, then R1T consumed 30 lbs in 51 days or 0.6 lbs of food per day for almost 2 months. Wolves in our area likely need ~5-6 lbs/day to maintain body weight, anything less than that and they are likely losing weight.

We are still trying to unravel a little mystery surrounding the most distinctive looking wolf (at present) in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem—or at least, we think he is the most distinctive wolf currently but check out this montage to see if you agree. Wolf Y1T is the dominant male of the new Blood Moon Pack, which took over the Moonshadow Pack territory this past winter when the Blood Moon Pack was 4 wolves strong.

Here is a little trivia question: How does a wee little trail camera on the edge of a massive lake survive a historic flood? Answer: It doesn’t.

And that is a real bummer! This spring and early summer, we had crazy flooding in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem with water levels in many of the major lakes reaching or surpassing historic flood levels. It was pretty crazy to observe and the flooding caused a lot of damage.

Each year we get asked by folks how we protect ourselves from wolves when we are in the field. The short answer is we don’t. We simply don’t need to.

Long thread below but feel it is worth sharing... Now before we continue, we want to make clear that we are not trying to convince people that they need to like or even value wolves. If someone doesn’t like or value wolves, that is fine. Our intent here is to provide an accurate description about what wolves are actually like.

An iconic wolf for our project died in the wintry darkness of Monday night.

We got a mortality signal from Wolf V071, the breeding male of the Lightfoot Pack, at 5:45 am yesterday.

By 7:00 a.m. we were headed out in -30 F to recover his body. The mortality signal was very close to a main road and snowmobile trail so we initially suspected vehicle collision or foul play.

A really nice look at 3 Cranberry Bay pups this fall, or at least what we think are 3 pups! Once pups reach the October/November period, it can be tough to tell them apart from adults. The easiest way to tell pups from adults at this time is facial features. Pups often have faces that just don’t quite look like adults. In other words, pups' faces don’t look fully developed. In particular, their snouts look shorter and more “boxy” or blunted than an adult.

The 2021 field season—the 7th season for the project—is officially in the books! Check out some pictures from the season below! (1/7) We have been in doing fieldwork from mid-April until now trying to understand the wolves of the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem. And while we are all tired and ready for a break, it was another very successful field season! (2/7)