Our success in locating the translocated wolves by aerial radio-tracking
was 95% (Table 3), similar to that of Mech and Frenzel (1971) working
with wolves in their native range in Minnesota.
During the part of the study in which extensive snow cover was present
(March 13 to April 20) wolves No. 11, 12, and 13 were observed 14 times
from the aircraft. The first time they were seen, near Laws Lake, they
appeared alarmed and moved into heavy cover. The next day, however, and
on all subsequent observations, the aircraft appeared to have little
effect on their behavior, although they sometimes looked up at it. No.
10 was seen only once by a passenger in the tracking aircraft, and she
immediately hid from view. It seems likely that she avoided the
aircraft. After the snow melted and leaves appeared, we no longer saw
the wolves.
The activities of the three wolves during the 14 aerial observations
were as follows: traveling 4 (Fig. 15), feeding and scavenging 5 (Fig.
16), resting 4, and sleeping 1.
_Table 3. Success in locating wolves by aerial tracking_
---------------------------------------------------------
Wolf Number 10 11 12 13
---------------------------------------------------------
Number of
tracking attempts 113 65 59 67
Number of
times located 105 62 59 61