Some of the movements of the wolves during the Directional Movements
Phase could in part have resulted from a tendency for the animals to
home, that is to return to their home territory. Packs have been
observed to travel 45 miles (72 km) in 24 hours in Minnesota (Stenlund
1955), Alaska (Burkholder 1959) and on Isle Royale (Mech 1966). In
Minnesota, a radioed wolf was tracked a straight-line distance of 129
miles (208 km) over a 2-month period before being lost by researchers
(Mech and Frenzel 1971), and annual migratory movements of over 200
miles (320 km) have been reported for Canadian wolves (Kuyt 1972).
Therefore it seems within the capabilities of the released wolves to
return the 270-mile (434 km) straight-line distance, or the 340-mile
(547 km) travel distance around Lake Superior to Ray, Minnesota, if the
orientation ability and inclination were present.
Homing tendencies have been reported in wolves and other carnivores. One
of five laboratory-reared wolves returned to her Barrow, Alaska homesite
within about 4 months after a 175-mile (282 km) displacement (Henshaw
and Stephenson 1974). An adult female red fox (_Vulpes vulpes_) returned
to her homesite within 12 days after being displaced 35 miles (56.3 km)
(Phillips and Mech 1970). For black bears there are many records of
apparent homing. Harger (1970) displaced 107 adult black bears from 10.0
to 168.5 miles (16.1 to 270.3 km) with an average displacement of 62.5
miles (100.6 km). Thirty-seven of them homed and 11 others moved long
distances toward home. The longest distance homed was 142.5 miles (229.4
km). The return travel routes seemed direct, with little evidence of
wandering or circling. Harger (1970) concluded that bears could navigate
by some means, as yet undetermined.
There is some indication that the pack of three wolves may have
attempted to return home to Minnesota, although it is possible that
exploration itself also may have produced the movement pattern observed.
If the translocated wolves were to try homing directly toward their
previous territory, they would have had to travel west-northwestward.
However, within a few miles they would have encountered Lake Superior.
The next closest choice would have been to head westward, and this is
what the pack did (Fig. 17). The next possible barrier to their homeward
movements would have been Huron Bay, which would have forced them
southwestward, at least temporarily. Again this is what actually
happened. The pack maintained its southwestward movement beyond Huron
Bay until reaching a point southeast of the next possible barrier,
Keweenaw Bay. They then continued westward south of Keweenaw Bay to the
Prickett Dam area, and veered northwestward to Twin Lakes on March 25.
By this time, the wolves had traveled for 13 days and covered a minimum
distance of 59 miles (94.9 km), and they were 42 miles (67.6 km), closer
to home (16% of the straight-line distance between home and release
site). The directions of the movements of the wolves were consistent
with what they would have to be if the wolves were to return home.
However, after March 25, the directionality in the movements of the pack
ended (Fig. 17), and the animals began what we consider the Exploratory
Phase of their movements. If the wolves actually were homing, perhaps
the tendency diminished as they failed to encounter familiar terrain, or
perhaps they met too many obstacles, or became confused after
encountering too much human activity. Or possibly these factors or the
need to find food and security overcame the homing tendency. As
discussed earlier in relation to the unusual number of times the wolves
were observed, it is clear that they were not moving normally during
this period.
The lone wolf, No. 10, dispersed from the release site in as much of an
opposite direction as it could from the pack (Fig. 20). Thus there is no
evidence that this animal was trying to home. However, it is of interest
to note that the first 32 miles (51.5 km) of her travel was directional
rather than random. Furthermore, when the animal encountered what
probably was a psychological barrier, a high concentration of human
activity along Highway 41, she reversed her movements but still
maintained a directionality by returning to the release area. In fact a
striking pattern of southeast-northwest movements characterized this
wolf's travels for several months after her release, with a gradual
westward drift developing in the southeast-northwest movements (Fig.
20).
Mech and Frenzel (1971) found that a wolf dispersing from his former
home range in Minnesota maintained a general southwestward movement for
a straight-line distance of 129 miles (207.6 km) over a 2-month period,
and Mech (unpublished) has three additional records of dispersing wolves
that maintained directionality for distances of 48 to 130 miles (77.2 to
209.2 km). Storm (1972) followed 12 dispersing red foxes in Iowa,
Illinois, and Minnesota that moved directionally for distances of 12 to
110 miles (19.2 to 176.0 km).
The ability of wolves to orient and navigate even in unfamiliar
surroundings was demonstrated dramatically by the separation of Wolf No.
13 from his two packmates and his later rejoining of them. On May 2 he
was 51 miles (82.1 km) away from them. Five days later he and his
packmates were only 6 miles (9.6 km) apart, in an area 62 miles (99.8
km) from where No. 13 had been on May 2, and 45 miles (72.4 km) from
where his packmates were on that date (Fig. 18 and p. 11).
Because No. 13 had taken such a divergent route from that of No. 11 and
12 upon splitting, and then had met them again at a point so far from
(1) where they had split and (2) where either had gone after the split,
mere backtracking would seem to be ruled out as explanation of how they
were able to rendezvous. Possibly No. 13 backtracked to the separation
point and then followed the others by scent, although this seems
unlikely because of the amount of time that had elapsed. Perhaps a
combination of memory of the general lay of the land, and some
backtracking and eventually howling and the crossing of each group's
fresh tracks could explain this remarkable feat.