A Repeat --Sort of

As suspected, the pack did head south again, although nowhere near as far as on their January foray. Still, they seem to have accomplished what they probably set out to do, and that is to find more muskoxen and kill one or more. They spent 6 locations (2.5 days) basically in one spot (see close-up map) before starting on their long trek back to the northwest, covering 26.4 miles (42.2 km) straight-line distance in the 12 hr after they left their possible kill. Of course as they head back northward, they are also searching for muskoxen. Day in and day out, they search for food. After all, what else do they have to do anyway?

Heading South Again?

After making pretty extensive use of their recent range on the Fosheim Peninsula of Ellesmere and on eastern Axel Heiberg, the wolves may be heading on a new foray. At least, their Jan. 25 location in the lower right of the map certainly suggests another southeastward trek. On their earlier trek to and from the southeast, from January 19 to February 1 (see last few blogs), they seem to have made some kills in the new area. Time will tell if this is a repeat.

Dave

A Preliminary Look at Possible Kill Locations

The wolf pack has continued to travel within its usual range on the Fosheim Peninsula of Ellesmere Island and on nearby eastern Axel Heiberg. Meanwhile here is a preliminary estimate of the distribution of possible kills. We defined kill locations as any spot where the GPS location remained the same at least twice in a row, thus for at least 12 hr. In several cases, the locations were essentially the same as many as 5 times, and the wolves also revisited some of these locations daily or weeks later.

Our reasoning in judging these locations as indicative of kills was that when wolves kill a muskox, which weighs about 600 lb (273 kg), they would spend at least 12 hr feeding on it and sleeping nearby. Generally if wolves don't make a kill, they sleep for less than 12 hours. On the other hand, our technique probably misses kills of calves, especially in summer when a pack of 20 or more wolves could consume them and leave in less than 12 hr. Further refinements of our analysis will be required. Of course, next summer we will be checking as many possible kill locations as we can to try to find kill remains.

Return to the Old Routine

Now that the pack has finished its long trip to the south and returned to its usual range on the Fosheim Peninsula of Ellesmere and on northeastern Axel Heiberg, it has resumed its regular routine. The wolves spent February 5 and 6 on Ellesmere, then crossed to Axel for a couple of days and returned to Ellesmere. They visited the weather station twice, and folks, including Emily McCullough, got a a good shot at Brutus. Note the twilight as the sun prepares to rise for the first time in 4 months.

Dave

THEY’RE BACK . . .

. . . and they returned in a hurry to their regular range. In only 3.5 days, the pack covered 145 miles (234 km) or 41 miles (67 km) per day from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, straight-line distance between consecutive locations. The wolves certainly didn’t travel straight between each point, although on such treks they usually do move fairly directly. Still, they no doubt put on many more miles than we could measure. They also did not seem to make any kills along the way back, although it did look like they stopped at 1 or 2 kills made on the way south. Thus this very interesting push outside of their usual range, whose function we wondered about a few days ago, turned out to be a little hunting trip. By probing into new areas, not only do the wolves find new muskoxen to try to kill, but the muskoxen they do seek are less wary than those that the wolves test in their regular range. If the prey are less wary, they are probably easier to kill, with less risk to the wolves.

Check out the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet featuring Dave's research!