Wolves draw double feature crowd at Mazama lecture
By Mike Maltais
If the Methow wolves had an ounce of business sense between them, they would have hired an agent long ago to negotiate their personal appearances.
Take, for example, the “Soup and Wildlife” lecture last Thursday at Mazama’s North Cascades Basecamp: Just a percentage of the gate would have kept them in ungulate bones for weeks.
Wolves have been a topic of intense discussion in these parts ever since their presence was confirmed in documented sightings three years ago. And biologist Scott Fitkin of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been one of the researchers at the center of the debate.
When Fitkin agreed to present a slideshow and lecture on the Cascades wolves at the Basecamp last week, he got more than he bargained for. Interested area residents filled the parking lot to overflowing, ate all the soup and persuaded Fitkin to add a second 7:15 p.m. presentation to the original 5:30 lecture.
Fitkin began by explaining the identifying characteristics of a wolf as compared to a more common and much smaller coyote. He went into detail about the distinguishing differences between wolf tracks and those of other area carnivores; how the irregular four-toed structure of a cougar’s foot – similar in size to a wolf’s - differs from the mirror image symmetry of the wolf ‘s pad; how to recognize the five-toed wolverine print or the hair-covered track of the lynx.
Listeners learned that wolves reach breeding age at about three years. When pups are born in the spring, following a gestation cycle of about 63 days (same as a dog), they are weaned at about eight weeks and can then move from the den site to the pack rendezvous site. At 12 weeks of age the pups are ready to begin following the adults and learning how to become part of the hunting pack.
“Wolves are coursing predators as opposed to stalking predators,” Fitkin said, noting that they chase down their prey. ‘They’re not really effective hunters,” Fitkin added, pointing out a study that calculated out of 131 large animals targeted, only about six end up as kills.
“Wolves are a keystone species,” Fitkin said, explaining how, like beavers, the presence of wolves in an area changes the ecological dynamic of the land and the wildlife on it. Using Yellowstone National Park as an example, Fitkin pointed out that the reintroduction of wolves to the park in 1995 began to reduce the over-populated elk herd, dispersed coyote numbers and triggered an increase in beavers. The reduction of elk numbers helped the winter range to recover, Fitkin noted, and more beavers helped create more water habitat for other species.
When population numbers and trends from other areas of the Rocky Mountain states, Canada and the Northwest indicated that wolves would sooner or later make their way to the Cascades, wildlife researchers decided to be proactive.
“We wanted to get out in front of this,” Fitkin said. “By 2005 sightings were starting to ramp up in Washington.” Researchers got to work on a draft plan to deal with the arrival of what is currently an endangered species in Washington state.
“In the spring of 2008 we recorded our first sightings of wolves in this area.” Fitkin said, showing the audience a sampling of photos of adults and young. Since then several specimens have been trapped and collared to further document pack movements and population numbers.
Fitkin also shared with listeners the “wolf calling” sequences recorded when researchers “howling” near a suspected pack concentration were answered by wolf howls of both adult and young.
One of the interesting facts to emerge from the DNA testing conducted on wolves trapped in this area reveals that the Methow area wolves share a genetic link to populations along the coast of British Columbia, Fitkin said.
In the months ahead, aerial sightings, field surveys, remote cameras, radio collars and live traps will continue to add data to the database being compiled on local wolves.
And lectures like last week’s gathering at the Basecamp will, no doubt, add to the number of area residents who want to know more.
(One of the interesting facts to emerge from the DNA testing conducted on wolves trapped in this area reveals that the Methow area wolves share a genetic link to populations along the coast of British Columbia, Fitkin said.)
http://www.methowvalleynews.com/story.php?id=5027 July 25, 2008
Gray Wolves are back in Methow Valley Washington
The WDFW is leading the investigative fieldwork on the now confirmed wild gray wolf pack in the Methow. The agency decided to trap and take DNA samples of the canines heard howling in the Methow Valley and sent the DNA samples to the University of California-Los Angeles Conservation Genetics Resource Center.
DNA tests showed that the wolves originated from a population in the northern British Columbia and Alberta provinces of Canada.
http://myyellowstonewolves.typepad.com/myw/2008/07/gray-wolves-are.html
