[5] Wolf 1059, when killed by a trapper on January 10, 1970, appeared
to be of the same size and condition as when radiotagged; she only
weighed 53 pounds, however, indicating that probably all the weights
are overestimated.
[6] Tracks of a pack of at least two other wolves came by trap where
1051 was caught; however, there was never any other indication that
1051 may have been a member of a pack.
[7] A frozen foot prevented 1057 from staying with her pack; but she
did associate with other wolves intermittently and with the whole pack
when it came by her restricted area.
The precise ages of the radiotagged wolves were unknown. All
individuals, however, had sharp unworn teeth, indicating that they
were all relatively young. No. 1051, the only male studied, had testes
2.0 cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide; their volume therefore would be less
than 4.5 cc. The small size of these testes, compared with the 7 to 28
cc. reported by Fuller and Novakowski (1955) as the volume of the
testes from wolves taken during fall, would indicate that 1051 had not
yet matured. Since the animal's testes and canine lengths were
considerably greater than those of pups caught in a later study, we
presume 1051 was 18 or 30 months old.
Two of the females, No. 1055 and No. 1059, both captured in January,
had vulvas that seemed to be beginning to swell. No. 1059 was killed by
a trapper about a year later, on January 10, 1970, and an examination
revealed that she had bred in 1969 and carried five fetuses. Sectioning
her incisors and reading the apparent annulations indicated that she
probably was 3+ or 4+ years old.[8]
Three of the wolves were basically lone individuals. One of these, No.
1051, was captured on a night when tracks of at least two other wolves
came by the trap, and this could mean that he had been part of a pack.
However, it is also possible that these were merely tracks of
non-associated wolves that were also traveling through the area. In any
case, 1051 was not seen associating with any other wolf until 4 months
after he was caught, and even then the association seemed to be
temporary and casual. It could be argued that capture, handling by
humans, or wearing a collar prevented him from regaining old
associations or making new ones. However, the wolves radiotagged by
Kolenosky and Johnston (1967) were quickly accepted back into their
packs, and so were two of ours. Thus we conclude that 1051 probably was
a lone wolf when captured.
When 1053 was trapped, her tracks were the only ones in the area, and
she was never seen closely associating with another wolf. No. 1055
probably was with another wolf when captured, as evidenced by tracks.
About a month after she was radiotagged she associated with another
wolf intermittently for about 2 weeks, after which she was only seen
alone.
No. 1057 and No. 1059 were both members of packs. No. 1057 was captured
during the night after a pack of 13 wolves was seen heading toward the
area; 5 days later she was seen with 10 other wolves, which no doubt
represented this same pack. This wolf's association with the pack was
interrupted, however, because of the foot injury sustained during
capture. When 1059 was caught, tracks of two other wolves were seen in
the immediate vicinity, and one of the animals was seen within a
quarter mile of the trapped wolf. Three days after 1059's release, and
perhaps sooner, she was back with her pack, with which she remained at
least through March.
The detailed histories of the associations of the radiotagged wolves
will be discussed in a later section.
Radiotagged wolves were tracked every day that weather permitted during
December, January, and February; every week during March, April, and
May; and once a month during June, July, and August (fig. 16).
Information was obtained for a total of 570 "wolf-days"--a wolf-day
being a day in which one radiotagged wolf was located; a pack of five
being located for 1 day would constitute 5 wolf-days.
[Illustration: _Figure 16.--Distribution of the days on which data were
obtained for each of the radiotagged wolves. Because tracking success
was 99 percent, this also represents the distribution of effort. During
June, July, and August, wolves 1053 and 1059 were located 1 day each
month._]
The last day that animals 1051 and 1057 were heard from was April 24,
1969. Both had traveled long distances during the previous week and may
have moved out of range. Signals from wolf 1055 were last heard on May
30; this animal had also been ranging widely. Circles with radii of at
least 50 miles around the last known locations of each wolf were
searched unsuccessfully for the signals. During all subsequent tracking
nights for the remaining wolves, the missing animals were also sought,
but to no avail. Before the last dates that signals from these animals
were heard, attempts to locate marked animals from the air had failed
in only three instances.