Day 4
DAVE: Disappointment! We checked the gully where the male disappeared yesterday, hoping it was the den or a rendezvous site, but unfortunately it had only been a temporary resting spot for the male. But we did have a big breakthrough! We saw the real breeding 
female today and stayed with her from 9:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Glad it’s light all night! We could see at least 6 well-used nipples, indicating she’s still nursing pups and probably 3 – 6 of them. Dean got some good pictures of her and was able to backtrack her about 5 miles in the sand and dust while I stayed with her waiting for her to return toward the den. When she did head out, however, she did some fancy maneuvering and gave me the slip after a mile. I spotted her again with binoculars a couple of miles away and lost her again. One thing interesting is that she did not backtrack the way she had come but rather paralleled that route about 1.5 miles to the north. So the question is: Will the backtrack help us find the den, or would it be better to search where I lost her as she returned? We will first try the backtrack because that is where there are many tracks of many wolf trips.Dean took a picture of a female wolf with dark, swollen nipples. (See photo) It is obvious she has pups. If the den or rendezvous site is close to the researchers’ base, the pups could be quite young, perhaps 5 weeks old. At that age, they need to nurse about every 5 hours, and the mother would not leave them to travel a great distance. Young as they might be, however, they are active and robust and growing rapidly. They are beginning to eat solid food regurgitated by the breeding pair and by the older siblings that have remained with their natal pack. Trying to figure out where the rendezvous site is located is part of the frustration and part of the fun of field work. Ideally, a rendezvous site is situated where the adults can leave the pups while they hunt. This “wolf pup nursery” provides shelter and protection from predators. It is located near a water source if possible. Sometimes an older brother or sister will remain behind to babysit while the other adults search for food.
Day 3DAVE: We tracked a wolf we think may be the breeding male tonight. We observed 
lots of raised leg urinations (RLU’s), and he disappeared into a gully about 2 miles away and stayed there for 30 minutes. We were watching with binoculars from half a mile away. Finally we howled, and he popped up out of the gully. Not sure what he was doing there, but we like to think he was there because it is a den or rendezvous site. Probably not, but could be. So that’s our first order of field work tomorrow evening. This wolf looks a bit like the breeding male of 2006 (see 2006 trip blog) but with a gray streak on his back, so he must be someone else. In any case, that really makes us optimistic that we will find the rendezvous site.DEAN: Saw a dominant male wolf tonight, several RLU’s. When the wolf left the area where we were, we followed him a bit to the north but lost him in a gully. We didn’t see him leave the gully, so he had to still be there. After about ½ hour Dave and I howled, hoping to bring him out, and sure enough, we did. We didn’t get a reply to our howls. Could be we just didn’t hear them. We were hoping that after this male popped up from the gully, another wolf would, too, but alas, none did. Tomorrow, we’ll check out that spot. I think we’re going to have some fun this week.
Day 2
DAVE: Things are looking up. Lots of fresh and old tracks every place one would expect if wolves are denning in area. Tonight we followed a wolf we think is a breeding female toward the den but lost her across a creek. But this could be a very good lead. Weather is great - but not the mosquitoes.
The researchers go from disappointment and uncertainty to optimism and renewed expectations! The fresh tracks are evidence that wolves are somewhere in the area, and the sighting of the single wolf, perhaps the mom, could be the first major clue that a pack is raising pups somewhere in this limitless landscape. But, where?
Day I
DAVE: Arrived safely at the base camp in Eureka. No wolves at the rock den.
This is a discouraging discovery for the
researchers, especially since the wolves did not den there in the summer of 2007. It is puzzling. The rock den, a number of miles from the weather station, has been a chosen spot for countless generations of wolves in this area. It’s impossible to know why this favored place has been rejected for two years in a row. One theory is that ice might have still been present in the cave-like opening in the rocks when the female was selecting a place to have the pups. But wolves are elusive animals, and Dave and Dean are accustomed to having to use all their skills to figure out where a pack of wolves might be and where they might have their pups securely situated at a den or summer rendezvous site. None of these wolves has a radio tracking collar, a piece of sophisticated hardware that helps to locate wolves in more southerly latitudes. This is the challenge of field work in a place so remote that it requires three days of travel just to get there from the lower 48 states – that is, if the weather cooperates. Nothing is guaranteed. Persistence, patience and determination are basic requirements, and “technology” in the high arctic consists of binoculars and spotting scopes.
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The summer of 2008 marks the 23rd year of the Ellesmere Island Arctic Wolf Research Expedition conducted annually by Dr. L. David Mech, senior research scientist with the Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey. “Dave” is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. Each summer, he has been granted a research permit from the territorial government in Canada. He has observed wolves for weeks at a time, traveled with them, watched them hunt and recorded their behavior
as they raised their pups in this stark and hauntingly beautiful landscape.
This summer, Dave is accompanied by Dean Cluff, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada (http://www.nwtwildlife.com). Dean has traveled several times to Ellesmere Island with Dave Mech, including the summer of 2007 when there were no wolves to be found in the vast study area. Sometimes that happens. Wolf numbers fluctuate as prey populations flourish and wane. Some years no pups are produced. Other years, the breeding pair may be parents to 5 or more offspring.
The 2008 Ellesmere Island Arctic Wolf Research Expedition began with the hope that wolves would be raising pups at the rock den discovered years ago by Dave Mech, a beautiful outcropping of huge boulders and rocky rubble on a hillside with a panoramic view of a broad valley laced with meandering streams where muskoxen crop the meager vegetation. For photos and more information about this den site, go to http://www.wolf.org/wolves/experience/field_notes/field_notes_main.asp. You can click on the Ellesmere 2006 Research Expedition or on the 2001 Expedition. For a photo slide show, go to www.davemech.org. Click on Dave’s Personal Web Site and then on the 2006 trip photos.
After the long trip north to 80 Degrees North Latitude, Dave and Dean arrived at their base near a small weather station at Eureka on Ellesmere. Here, so close to the North Pole, the sun never sets in mid-summer. This is truly the Land of the Midnight Sun. Thus, the researchers must re-set their own inner clocks so they can observe wolves heading out to hunt during the bright evening hours and, if they are fortunate, see them return, perhaps to regurgitate meat to the pups that are still nursing but transitioning to solid food.
Here, in their words from their base camp, are the daily reports from Dave and Dean. Dean will send photos when possible.
female today and stayed with her from 9:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Glad it’s light all night! We could see at least 6 well-used nipples, indicating she’s still nursing pups and probably 3 – 6 of them. Dean got some good pictures of her and was able to backtrack her about 5 miles in the sand and dust while I stayed with her waiting for her to return toward the den. When she did head out, however, she did some fancy maneuvering and gave me the slip after a mile. I spotted her again with binoculars a couple of miles away and lost her again. One thing interesting is that she did not backtrack the way she had come but rather paralleled that route about 1.5 miles to the north. So the question is: Will the backtrack help us find the den, or would it be better to search where I lost her as she returned? We will first try the backtrack because that is where there are many tracks of many wolf trips.
