Wolves of the High Arctic – Research on the Arctic Wolves of Ellesmere Island

Due to other priorities, Dave Mech does not expect to continue with these studies himself. The native Inuit are no longer allowing any animals in Nunavut, where Ellesmere is located, to be ear-ta...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2012/07/due-to-other-priorities-dave-mech-does.html

For only the second time since 1986, the Ellesmere wolves will not be receiving their usual summer scientific attention this year.  Due to a blood clot in the lower part of one leg, Dave Mech ha...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2011/06/for-only-second-time-since-1986.html

The new results from the fifth member of the litter we observed in July are now in.  They confirm that Brutus was probably not the father of any of the pups.  (See September 15 posting).  In a...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/11/genetic-results-for-fifth-pup.html

Again the sun sets at 80° North, not to be seen until late February.  Despite the loss of Brutus, his pack clearly is thriving without him as the attached photo sent by Eureka Weather Stati...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/10/sunset-on-ellesmere.html

In honor of Brutus' contributions to science, he has been mounted and placed on display at the Eureka Weather Station along with a plaque explaining his background.  A map of the GPS locatio...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/10/brutus-immortalized-at-weather-station.html

Following is a quote from a 27th September 2010 report by Weather Station manager, Rai LeCotey, about our study pack. This represents the first piece of information we have since leaving the stu...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/10/pack-minus-brutus.html

The final results from Brutus' spleen are back from the veterinary pathologist, and no sign of cancer was found, other than that the spleen was enlarged. However, hemangiosarcoma is not distribut...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/cause-of-brutus-death-indeterminate.html

These pup-poop results just in from the geneticists: "We feel confident in saying that these pups are not from this father ." The above was based on genetics of a specimen from Brutus and of...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/brutus-probably-not-father-of-pups.html

Good news so far regarding the pup poop.  The geneticists HAVE been able to extract DNA from the pup scats.  This approach to obtaining DNA is always a challenge.  So far the geneticists have...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/08/progress-on-pup-poop.html

We have been trying to catch up on office work that accumulated while we were on Ellesmere. However, we have not forgotten our important follow-ups to the Ellesmere adventure, and we've made some...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/08/post-ellesmere-progress.html

Although our main interest for the past several days was trying to gather as much info as we could from around the den, Dan was also focused on getting as many data as he could from the Brutus lo...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/although-our-main-interest-for-past.html

Because it was important to see if Brutus was the father of the pups we were observing, and to see if the batch of pups had two mothers, our primary quest became to gather a large number of pup ...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/we-got-poop-on-pack.html

When just a few miles out along our route to the den north of Slidre Fiord and paralleling it, we encountered a wolf heading in the same direction. It was quite important to see whether this wol...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-nursing-females.html

After pondering and discussing our observations around the den this year and reviewing our data on Brutus' travels, we suddenly noticed that not long before he died in mid-April, Brutus had visit...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/are-these-brutus-pups.html

Now, knowing where the den is, and with our newly constructed ATV pass through the canyon, we were on track for some more efficient den watching. Because this would be our first full session ob...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/fifth-pup.html

Picking up our wolf tracking in the mud and sand where we had left off yesterday, we had to stop and do a bit of "road construction."  Large, sharp rocks blocked our route through the neck of a...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/success-finding-den.html

With our initial searches of the possible kill clusters of locations out of the way, we turned our attention to trying to find this year's den and the pups. We had already been checking various...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/searching-for-2010-den.html

Our dilemma in trying to check our many location clusters by helicopter was that we wanted to check as many sites as possible for as long as we needed at each site, like we did yesterday from th...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/checking-possible-kills-by-helicopter.html

Heading out on our ATVs on July 5, we were anxious to arrive at our first cluster of locations that we hoped would indicate a kill. The first hour or so of driving was easy, for it was over sandy...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/grueling-journey.html

As soon as we were organized, had 3 ATVs running, and determined that neither the old den nor the 2009 den were being used, we headed out on a long journey to search sites where we expected to f...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/searching-possible-kill-sites.html

Although we were anxious to check out the possible kill sites, our first order of business was to try to determine if the wolves are denning in either of the dens we know about. We quickly determ...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/where-are-wolves-denning-this-year.html

We began our  2010 trip to Ellesmere on July 3 with colleague, Dan MacNulty, to try to examine the clusters of consecutive similar locations that might represent places where Brutus and pack ma...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/back-again-to-ellesmere-for-new.html

It's official, the Inuit have refused to allow any more animal collaring, and our application to collar has been denied.  Again we were very lucky to be given approval to collar last year. Thu...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/yes-no-collaring-this-year.html

Although we had hoped to collar a few remaining members of Brutus's pack in July 2010, that possibility is now in doubt.  We were very fortunate to receive approval in 2009 to collar Brutus bec...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/2010-trip-no-collaring.html

Our analysis of the locations of Brutus and pack so far indicates that between July 9 and December 21, 2010 the pack made about 30 possible muskox kills. Our main assumption in this analysis is ...

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/brutus-packs-kills-and-rendezvous-sites.html