What
is the "Wolf Gathering" at the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge?
Formerly called the
"Wolf Walk"
Would you like to learn all about wolves, and their roles in nature? Every day at around 10 am, except Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the Refuge is closed, Steve and Alex enter the half acre wolf enclosure, and visitors watch as one of us interacts with the wolves, while the other delivers an entertaining and educational narrative, which sheds light on many aspects of wolves lives: Why are wolves called "keystone predators", and how do they control wild mammals like beaver, deer, moose, elk and caribou? Are wolves ruthless killers as they are sometimes portrayed in Hollywood movies, or are they a family-oriented predator, whose tendency is to remove the very old, very young, the sick, and the lame from their target species? Do wolves damage the species they hunt, or strengthen them, by eliminating animals who may breed weakness and vulnerability into the species, as wolves try to earn a living, in that beautiful, but difficult and unforgiving environment we call Nature? How do wolves patrol and defend their territories, and what exactly is a wolf "pack"? Where do dogs come from, why do they display the behavior that they do, and why did we end up with dogs as "man's best friend"? What kind of wolves live in the Adirondacks? Are wolves dangerous to people, and how did the return of wolves to Yellowstone affect the Park's ecosystem, as well as Yellowstone tourism? The Wolf Gathering
lasts
about an hour and a half, and is fairly detailed, but if you are
interested in wolves, or want to photograph a wolf up close, without
leashes or collars, or just
want to
enjoy a casual walk along the beautiful Wolf Walk trail, which will
take you to enclosures for bobcats and lynx, fox, bald eagles and other
Adirondack birds of prey, you'll
enjoy the
"Wolf Gathering". We used to have visitors call ahead and register for
what
we then called the "Wolf Walk", but with the wolves in their new large
enclosure, we can accomodate many more visitors, and everyone gets the
same clear field of vision, standing outside the enclosure, watching
the wolves eat, play and run around, and making photography much more
rewarding. There
is no set fee for admission to the Refuge, but keeping in mind that the
Refuge is a nonprofit,
which is supported mainly by visitors donations, most visitors, if
they
find the
experience enriching and educational, make some kind of donation,
typically $20
to $50. If you have
questions call us at 855-Wolf-Man (855-965-3626) or 914-772-5983.
Both numbers hit Steve's cell, but try not to call between 10 and
11:30 am, as I'll be with the wolves and unable to take your call.
Steve Hall |
The Wolf De-Listing Debate: What
They Will Not Tell You! Steve Hall |
Wolves as
Keystone predators Few
animals have been as
romanticized and vilified as wolves have, but after five decades of
collecting
data and studying wolves in the wilds of Isle Royale National Park in
Lake
Superior, researchers Durward Allen, Rolf Peterson, L. David Mech, John
Vucetich and their teams, have greatly enriched our understanding of
wolves.
Isle Royale is a 200 square mile island in Lake Superior, about 15
miles from
the international shore-line boundary where Minnesota meets Ontario.
Moose swam
to Isle Royale about 100 years ago, and wolves wandered across the ice
from the
mainland about 50 years later, during a bitterly cold Winter. Warming
climate
has made it unlikely that more wolves will be crossing over any time
soon, so
Isle Royale sits out in Superior as a perfect natural laboratory,
enabling the
longest continuous study of predator-prey relationships in the history
of
modern science. The
core of a wolf pack consists of
the breeding male and female, who generally turn out to be “Mom” and
“Dad”, and
the pups of the year, who, following the mating in February, are born
about 60
days later, towards the end of April or in early May. The other members
of the
pack are usually older siblings from the two previous years, which are
physically mature in terms of size by the time they are 8 or 9 months
old, but
not sexually mature until sometime between their second and third year.
Throw
in the occasional outsider absorbed or dispersed from another pack,
and you
have a wolf pack, curiously similar in structure to a human family. Older
siblings, along with Mom and
Dad, protect the pups of the year, and offspring can obtain food by
approaching, and nuzzling or licking the muzzle of any grown wolf,
which then
regurgitates undigested food. Pups begin exploring and wandering from
the den after 4 weeks,
and, as use of the den lessens, and the pups begin weaning, they are
led to kill sites to feed and begin learning
the ways of adults. This happens at about 4 months of age, and these
"rendevous sites" become the gathering spots for the family. At
sexual maturity, wolves disperse
from their packs, seeking to fill a position in another pack, or find
an area
where the pressure from resident, territory defending packs is
diminished, and
where they may start their own pack with a dispersing or wandering
member of
the opposite sex. This leads some young wolves to disperse up to 600
miles away
from their natal pack, and explains how wolves spill over into
adjoining areas,
such as Minnesota wolves spreading to Wisconsin and the upper peninsula
of
Michigan. Now and then, the
over-abundance of prey animals will result in larger packs, where more
than one
pair of wolves is mating. Loyalty
within the wolf pack is
strong, and while you may observe much dominant posturing, snarling and
growling by Cree, the gray male, born in 2006, in the role of older
brother,
and correspondingly submissive behavior by Zeebie, the younger black
male, born
in 2009, there is no actual violence. Look for Cree to carry himself
upright,
with his tail slightly cocked and raised in these encounters, and for
Zeebie to
approach Cree with a lowered posture, with tail down or tucked, while
attempting to lick Cree’s muzzle in a sign of deference. The
starvation factor is most
difficult for us to appreciate, as we live in a culture that provide
safety
nets, such as medical care, life insurance, unemployment, welfare,
savings
accounts, etc. In other words, whether I'm a great provider, or
merely an
adequate provider, I am protected against the strains of periods when I
am less
able to provide for my family. While some predators, like foxes and
goshawks
may cache food, generally speaking, if you're a wolf or other predator,
and you
follow 8 months of successful hunting with several months of poor
hunting, you
and your family will likely starve. By definition then, any predator
that so
much as survives through a given year, is not only a good hunter, but a
great
hunter, or being supported by a great hunter. Diseases
like parvo virus and
distemper take their toll, as do parasitic critters like the mite that
causes
mange. With respect to wolves from one pack killing trespassers from
other
packs, or transient wolves passing through a territory at the wrong
place and
time, breeders may kill 3 or 4 wolves from other packs during their
lifetime.
Because of frequent turnover in the pack, there are times when
an
outsider may enter the territory at the right time, and become
incorporated
into the pack. Wolves also eliminate competition, by killing smaller
predators,
such as coyotes and foxes, when they encounter them, which enables a
larger
number of smaller prey animals for the wolves to take. Incidentally,
something to ponder
when considering the proposed reintroduction of wolves
to the Adirondack Park: as of 2010,
there are an estimated 800 moose within the Park's 9,400 square
miles,
compared with 500 moose within Isle Royale's 200 square miles. And
while moose numbers seem to be increasing at an accelerated clip, there
are, on the other hand, probably 80,000 white-tailed deer within the
park. Wolves are keystone predators, who alter the ecosystems in which
they live. When wolves were introduced out west, into Yellowstone Park,
Idaho and Montana, they may have eliminated half the western coyote
population, and a
good percentage of an increasing beaver population, within
their
territories. Gray wolves kill mesopredators (like coyotes) to eliminate
competition for smaller game. But according to DNA studies, the eastern
coyote is part wolf, thus accounting for its enhanced
size, but the wolf component is mainly eastern wolf, like those
found in Algonquin Park, and closely related to the red wolf, which is
being reintroduced into the Carolinas with mixed success. This is
because the red wolves are interbreeding with local coyotes. While
there is very limited livestock within the Adirondack Park
itself, there are livestock farms outside the Park, and the spreading
of wolves through dispersal would probably necessitate the control of
wolves through hunting, an idea unpopular with many pro-wolf groups,
who would prefer no wolves to a recovering wolf population subjected to
hunting. Compromise may be a prerequisite to any wolf reeintroduction.
David Mech has a 2006 paper, Wolf
Restoration to the Adirondacks, and there's a ten year
old study on wolf restoration from the Conservation Biology Institute
at wolf-reintroduction-feasibility-in-the-adirondack.
Wolf
packs defend territories
ranging in size from 20 square miles to 2000 square miles, depending on
the
amount of prey of varying sizes available within their territory, the
number of
wolves in the pack, and the pressure of adjoining packs defending their
territories. Howling is an important means of communication among
wolves, both
within the pack, for example, to identify location viz a viz another
pack
member, or as a pack bonding activity, and between neighboring packs,
as a
means of avoiding confrontations by indicating a pack’s current
location. While
the packs cover large territories, the boundaries of these territories
are
somewhat fluid, so, to avoid confrontations with neighboring packs, the
pack
may only enter the fringe buffer zone in pursuit of prey. Breeding
wolves continually mark
their territories by "RLU", raised-leg urination, in males, and “FLU”,
flex-Leg urination in females, while submissive wolves, male or female,
perform
"SQUs", or urinations by squatting. Defecating is another form of
marking, as is vigorously scratching the ground with the front paws,
which
opens the scent glands between their toes, thus leaving their scent as
a
warning to tresspassers. You will notice on the wolf walk, that Cree
growls
when covering the scent spot of an unwelcome tresspasser, like a
coywolf, black bear
or a
dog he does not like. When wolves roll in a scent, it may be a way of
carrying
information of some discovery back to the pack, so that the pack can
decide
whether to visit and perhaps appropriate the source of the odor. On
Isle Royale, the principal prey
of the wolf are moose, and over the fifty years of the study, the
number of
resident moose on the island, has ranged between the 500 surveyed in
2009,
to a
high of 2,500 in 1998, while the number of wolves varied from a dozen
to 50,
with average being about 20 wolves spread over 2 or 3 packs. In 2010,
there
were 19 wolves comprising 2 packs, whereas in 2009, there were 22
wolves in 5
packs, in addition to a couple of "floaters", loners who lead furtive
lives,
scavenging at
the edges of territories, either avoiding resident packs, or cautiously
trying to assimilate into one pack or another. In 2010, there was
estimated to be 510 moose.
You may
follow the annual reports and articles from Isle Royale at www.isleroyalewolf.org. While
wolf predation is an important
contributing factor, particularly when moose numbers are down and wolf
numbers
are up, moose are also affected by over-browsing of balsam fir, hot
summers,
deep winter snow, which affects the ability of moose to move around
more so
than it affects wolves, the amount of infestation by ticks, as well as
the mite
that causes mammalian mange. Another serious problem for an animal that
in
maturity consumes an average of five tons of vegetation per year. is
the
gradual deterioration and breakdown of tooth and jaw. While half of all
moose over ten years old, sooner or later develop arthritis, a recent
important study by
Peterson
found a correlation between earlier onset of arthritic joints in moose
born to
undernourished cows. The average lifespan of moose on Isle Royale is 12
years
for bulls and 16 for cows, with 20 being the record. Wolves are affected by starvation, mange, distemper, introduced diseases like parvo virus and inbreeding caused by the fact that the entire wolf population can trace its ancestry to a single female that was one of the first wolves to migrate across the ice from Canada. There has been debate whether to release some unrelated wild wolves on Isle Royale, as an attempt to encourage genetic diversity. The
wolves tend to take mainly
older, arthritic or otherwise infirm moose, as well as bulls weakened
by
exhaustion and the injuries they often sustain during the autumn rut.
Calves
are another important target, but in 2009, no calves were taken during
the winter,
there being an abundance of older moose. Once moose reach the age of
two, and
particularly when they reach the breeding age of five, and until they
are nine
or ten, they are less vulnerable to wolf attack, representing as they
do, a very dangerous target..
|
How Did We Get Dogs From Wolves?
Steve Hall |
The
Co-Evolution of Wolves and Humans Wolfgang M. Schleidt/Michael D. Shalter |
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes
on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves
inside us all. |
The Bloody Sire By Robinson JeffersIt is not
bad. Let them play.
Let the
guns bark and the bombing-plane
Speak his
prodigious blasphemies.
It is not
bad, it is high time,
Stark
violence is still the sire of all the world’s values.
What but
the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine
The fleet
limbs of the antelope?
What but
fear winged the birds, and hunger
Jewelled
with such eyes the great goshawk’s head?
Violence
has been the sire of all the world’s values.
Who would
remember Helen’s face
Lacking
the terrible halo of spears?
Who
formed Christ but Herod and Caesar,
The cruel
and bloody victories of Caesar?
Violence,
the bloody sire of all the world’s values.
Never
weep, let them play,
Old
violence is not too old to beget new values.
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Adirondack
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Steve & Wendy
Hall
PO
Box 555, 977 Springfield Road, Wilmington, NY 12997
Toll Free:
855-Wolf-Man (855-965-3626)
Cell Phones:
914-715-7620 or 914-772-5983
Office Phone:
518-946-1197 or 518-946-2428
Fax: 518-536-9015
Email us: info@AdirondackWildlife.org