Aerial observations made during this study involved 490 hours
distributed as follows: January, February, March 1967--124 hours;
February 1968--10 hours; December 1968 through August 1969--356 hours.
Seventy-seven observations involving a total of 323 wolves were made
(table 1), excluding animals located through radiotracking.
One male and four female wolves were radiotagged, and they and their
associates were followed intermittently for periods of 5 to 8 months
(table 2). All except one initially suffered some injury to a foot.
Three of these animals were seen limping, but only in one case was the
limp judged extreme enough to have significantly affected the movements
or behavior of the animal. In that one case, the wolf (No. 1057) was
caught in a steel trap on an extremely cold night, and her foot froze.
After that she was often seen hopping on three legs. She was not able
to keep up with her pack, which consisted of 10 to 13 members, and her
movements were much restricted compared with those of other wolves.
However, she was frequently observed feeding on fresh kills, and may
even have made them herself.
_Table 1.--Sizes of wolf population units observed in northeastern
Minnesota_
#: _Number_
%: _Percent_
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| | Wolf observations |
|Population unit[3]+----------+----------+----------+----------+
|(number of wolves)| Winter | Winter | Total |Winters[4]|
| | 1966-67 | 1968-69 | | 1948-53 |
+------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| # % # % # % # % |
| 1 8 31 17 33 25 32 48 43 |
| 2 3 12 6 12 9 12 24 22 |
| 3 3 12 2 4 5 6 7 6 |
| 4 -- -- 7 14 7 9 7 6 |
| 5 2 7 4 8 6 8 8 7 |
| 6 3 12 4 8 7 9 7 6 |
| 7 2 7 1 2 3 4 4 4 |
| 8 3 12 3 6 6 8 3 3 |
| 9 -- -- 2 4 2 3 3 3 |
| 10 2 7 2 4 4 5 -- -- |
| 11 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- |
| 12 -- -- 1 2 1 1 1 1 |
| 13 -- -- 2 4 2 3 -- -- |
| --------------------------------------------+
|Total number |
| of wolves 109 -- 214 -- 323 -- 318 -- |
|Total number |
| of observations 26 -- 51 -- 77 -- 112 -- |
|Mean population |
| unit size 4.2 -- 4.2 -- 4.2 -- 2.8 -- |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+