Features - International Wolf Center · Features THE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOLF CENTER VOLUME 18, NO. 4 WINTER 2008 On The Cover ... book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology…

Features

THE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOLF CENTER VOLUME 18, NO. 4 WINTER 2008

On The CoverThree young wolves near Eureka,Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada,react to their human observers, July 2008. See page 20 for story.

Photo by Dean Cluff.

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Whatever Happened to theTerm “Alpha Wolf ”?

For years books and articles about wolves have mentioned thealpha male and alpha female or the alpha pair. In muchpopular writing the term is still in use today. However, duringthe past few years the trend has begun to wane. This changein terminology reflects an important shift in our thinkingabout wolf social behavior.

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Alpine Murder Mystery: Are Sheep-dogs Being Poisoned to Save the Grey Wolf?

Since January 2008, 17 sheepdogs have been poisoned in the mountains ofthe Maurienne range, just inside the French frontier with Italy. No one issure what is going on, but everyone is clear about one thing: the killings arerelated to the battle that has been waged between shepherds and wolves—and between sheep-lovers and wolf-lovers—since the European gray wolfrecolonized France from Italy 16 years ago.

J o h n L i c h f i e l d

Our Memorable Visit to theInternational Wolf Center

After 14 years as a member of the International Wolf Center, actress AmberTamblyn, along with her parents, Russ and Bonnie, accepted an invitation to see the new pups in early June and fulfilled a longtime desire to visit the Ely, Minnesota, interpretive center.

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4 3 From the Executive Director

17 Tracking the Pack

18 Wolves of the World

24 A Look Beyond

Departments

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13 one easy way for you to help us conserve

natural resources is to make sure we have your email address!

Simply email your address to:[email protected]

Did you know...

International Wolf (1089-683X) is publishedquarterly and copyrighted, 2008, by theInternational Wolf Center, 3410 Winnetka Ave. N.,Minneapolis, MN 55427, USA. e-mail: [email protected]. All rights reserved.

Publications agreement no. 1536338

Membership in the International Wolf Centerincludes a subscription to International Wolfmagazine, free admission to the Center, anddiscounts on programs and merchandise. • Lone Wolf memberships are U.S. $35 • Wolf Pack $60 • Wolf Associate $125 • Wolf Sponsor $500 • Alpha Wolf $1000.Canada and other countries, add U.S. $15 per year for airmail postage, $7 for surfacepostage. Contact the International Wolf Center, 1396 Highway 169, Ely, MN 55731-8129, USA; e-mail: [email protected]; phone: 1-800-ELY-WOLF

International Wolf is a forum for airing facts, ideasand attitudes about wolf-related issues. Articlesand materials printed in International Wolf do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of theInternational Wolf Center or its board of directors.

International Wolf welcomes submissions ofpersonal adventures with wolves and wolf photographs. Prior to submission of other types of manuscripts, address queries to Mary Ortiz, publications director.

PHOTOS: Unless otherwise noted, or obviousfrom the caption or article text, photos are ofcaptive wolves.

International Wolf is printed entirely with soy ink on FSCcertified paper. We encourage you to recycle this magazine.

2 W i n t e r 2 0 0 8 w w w . w o l f . o r g

Publications DirectorMary Ortiz

Magazine CoordinatorSharon Reed

Graphics CoordinatorCarissa L.Winter

Consulting EditorMary Keirstead

Technical Editor L. David Mech

Graphic DesignerTricia Austin

September Surprise: Wolves in the Upper Midwest Back on Endangered Species List

After nearly two years of state and tribal management, a U.S. District Court placed the gray wolf once again under the full protection of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in Michigan, Wisconsin

and Minnesota. On September 29, 2008, the court ruled that the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) decision to delist the wolf in the WesternGreat Lakes may have been based on a misinterpretation of the ESA.

The ruling was handed down in response to a lawsuit filed in April2007 by the Humane Society of the United States and three other groups.The litigants claimed the USFWS acted unlawfully in delisting wolves inthe Upper Midwest, and they say that under state management, thespecies’ long-term survival remains in doubt. The plaintiffs insist thatincreasing habitat loss in the region, hunting and perhaps disease willcause wolf populations to plummet in coming years.

In March 2007, the USFWS removed the estimated 4,000 wolves inthe Western Great Lakes “distinct population segment” (DPS) fromprotection under federal law because the species was biologically recov-ered in that specific geographic area.

The judge did not address whether the Upper Midwestern wolves are biologically recovered. Nevertheless, he contended that neither thelanguage nor the purpose of the ESA supports identifying and delisting a“cluster” (DPS) of wolves in the Western Great Lakes region separatelyfrom wolves in the rest of the country where the species is not recoveredover significant portions of its historic range. Thus, the judge ordered theMarch 2007 delisting vacated and reinstated previous protections: threat-ened status in Minnesota and endangered status in Wisconsin andMichigan. He ordered the USFWS to reconsider the 2007 rule and tofigure out how wolves in the Upper Midwest can be delisted in compli-ance with the intent and the language of the ESA.

The plaintiffs have scored a victory, but not everyone is celebrating.Farmers and ranchers are disappointed. In their view, the state manage-ment plans ensure a viable gray wolf population while providing optionsfor protecting livestock. It will now be illegal to kill wolves that areattacking domestic livestock in Michigan and Wisconsin. In Minnesota,where the wolf is listed as threatened, only a government agent can kill awolf unless it is posing a direct danger to human life. Sport hunters seetheir plans for a regulated hunting season scuttled. And the USFWS isdisheartened. Wolves in the Western Great Lakes DPS have exceededrecovery goals. Wolf mortality has not increased sharply after nearly twoyears of state management. While they try to figure out a way to satisfythe court’s ruling, some USFWS agency officials worry that public confi-dence in the ESA will erode. If the courts will not allow the delisting ofbiologically recovered wolf populations, what does this imply for otherspecies? And what will be the cost to the public? ■

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We have had a busy past few months at the International Wolf Center. Two graywolf pups were transferred to the Center in Ely, Minnesota, in May and weremonitored around the clock by our Wolf Care staff and volunteers during the

12 weeks leading up to their introduction to our ambassador pack. The move of the twopups, named Aidan and Denali, into the main living area on August 4 was a completesuccess due to the extraordinary planning and effort of our Wolf Care team led by WolfCurator Lori Schmidt. Preparations and the pups’ socialization were carefully orchestrateddown to the finest detail, gradually increasing the pups’ exposure to people and the packso when the big day finally arrived, it came off without a hitch. The pups spent much oftheir first day swimming in the pond and, like most adolescents, pestering the adults.

Our thanks and appreciation go to all the volunteers who monitored the pups 24/7,braving the elements and Minnesota mosquitoes throughout the nights to ensure their

safety and health. And we cannot say enough about the job done by LoriSchmidt, whose attention to detail and tireless dedication went well beyondthe call of duty. Thanks, too, to Sharee Johnson, director of the Center in Ely.

Also new, the Center took concrete steps to protect wildlands and habitatby joining a broad coalition of 200 conservation and wildlife organizationsin supporting the Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. By increasing the state sales tax a mere 3/8 percent, the initiative, if passed,will spend over $5 billion during the next 25 years to protect Minnesota’sspectacular natural resources. This decision reflects our commitment tobroaden our mission beyond teaching about and protecting wolves to pro-tecting the water and the wildlands that are critical habitat for all wildlife.Go to the Web site www.yesformn.org, and read Nancy Gibson’s “A Look

Beyond” article in this issue to learn about this important legislation. In addition, the Center is planning to launch a new program to protect wildlands by

hosting our first seminar on conservation easements to explain to private landowners howthey can ensure their wildlands remain undeveloped forever.

Some people may think that because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed wolvesfrom the endangered species list, we no longer need to be concerned about their survival,but just the opposite is true. With more wolves now covering more area, the need toexpand our reach and educate more people is greater now than ever.

The conservation, environmental, and scientific communities have long recognized anddefined the ultimate goal for how societies should organize themselves and how individualsshould live. It is, in a word, sustainability. Mother Nature, signaling us through globalwarming and the pending energy crisis, makes the point clear that humans cannot sustainthemselves unless all the intricate and interdependent balances of the planet’s ecosystemsare managed toward sustainability. This is why we seek not only to educate the world aboutwolves but also to educate the world about the critical need to protect wildlands.

By working together, we can make a difference. ■

From the Executive DirectorINTERNATIONAL

WOLF CENTER

BOARD OF DIRECTORSNancy jo Tubbs

Chair

Dr. L. David MechVice Chair

Dr. Rolf O. PetersonSecretary

Paul B. AndersonTreasurer

Dr. Larry AndersonCree BradleyTom Dwight

Amy Bromberg FunkNancy Gibson

Hélène GrimaudJim Hammill

Cornelia “Neil” HuttDean JohnsonLinda LemkeDania Miwa

Mike PhillipsDebbie Reynolds

Jerry SandersKaren Saul

Paul SchurkePaul Sletten

Ted SpauldingTeri Williams

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Marc Anderson

MISSION

The International WolfCenter advances the survival

of wolf populations byteaching about wolves, their

relationship to wildlands and thehuman role in their future.

Educational services and informational resources

are available at:

1396 Highway 169Ely, MN 55731-8129, USA

1-800-ELY-WOLF1-218-365-4695

e-mail address: [email protected]

Web site: http://www.wolf.org

Marc Anderson

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WhateverHappened

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The word alpha applied to wolveshas had a long history. Formany years books and articles

about wolves have mentioned thealpha male and alpha female or thealpha pair. In much popular writingthe term is still in use today. However,keen observers may have noticed thatduring the past few years the trend has begun to wane. For example, 19prominent wolf biologists from both


Europe and North America nevermentioned the term alpha in a longarticle on breeding pairs of wolves. Thearticle, titled “The Effects of BreederLoss on Wolves,” was published in a 2008 issue of the Journal of WildlifeManagement. In the 448-page, 2003book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, andConservation, edited by Luigi Boitaniand myself and written by 23 authors,alpha is mentioned in only six placesand then only to explain why the termis outdated. What gives?

This change in terminology reflects an important shift in our thinkingabout wolf social behavior. Rather thanviewing a wolf pack as a group ofanimals organized with a “top dog”that fought its way to the top, or amale-female pair of such aggressivewolves, science has come to under-stand that most wolf packs are merelyfamily groups formed exactly thesame way as human families areformed. That is, maturing male andfemale wolves from different packsdisperse, travel around until they findeach other and an area vacant ofother wolves but with adequate prey,court, mate, and produce their ownlitter of pups.

Sometimes this process involvesmerely a maturing male courting amaturing female in a neighboring packand then the pair settling down in a territory next to one of the originalpacks. In more saturated populations,this may mean wolves moving many

miles to the very edge of wolf rangeand finding mates there that have similarly dispersed. This is the processthat helps a growing wolf populationexpand its range. A good example isthe ever-increasing wolf population inWisconsin. There, not only is the mainpopulation in the northern part of thestate continuing to fill the north withmore and more pack territories, butwolves have managed to form a sepa-rate population in the central part ofthe state through this dispersal andproliferation of packs. Currently about18 packs live in central Wisconsin.

But now back to the family. As theoriginal, new pairing wolves raisetheir pups, they feed and care for themjust like any other animals care fortheir young. As the pups grow anddevelop, their parents naturally guide

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their activities, and the pups natu-rally follow. During fall when the pups begin to accompany theirparents away from the den or ren-dezvous site and circulate noma-dically around the territory, the pupsfollow the adults and learn their wayaround. The parents then automati-cally fall into the leadership role in the pack as they guide the pupsthroughout their territory. This leader-ship role, however, does not involveanyone fighting to the top of thegroup, because just like in a humanfamily, the youngsters naturallyfollow their parents’ lead.

Certainly as the pups furtherdevelop, they begin to gain someindependence, and individuals mighttemporarily stray from the group,exploring this and that along the

As the pups grow and develop, their parents naturally guide their activities, and the pupsnaturally follow. During fall when the pups begin to accompany their parents away from theden or rendezvous site and circulate nomadically around the territory, the pups follow theadults and learn their way around.

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almost all of them will disperse, try tofind mates, and start their own packs.

Given this natural history of wolfpacks, there is no more reason torefer to the parent wolves as alphasthan there would be to refer to theparents of a human family as the”alpha” pair. Thus we now refer tothese animals as the male breeder andfemale breeder and as the breedingpair or simply the parents.

So how did science get so far offtrack for so long and refer to theparent wolves as alphas? The answeris an interesting story that nicelyillustrates how science progresses.Several decades ago, before therewere many studies of wolves undernatural conditions, scientists inter-ested in animal social behaviorthought the wolf pack was a randomassemblage of wolves that cametogether as winter approached inorder to better hunt their large prey.Thus to study wolves in the only waythey knew how, these folks gathered

individual wolves from various zoosand placed them together in theirown captive colony.

When one puts a random group of any species together artificially,these animals will naturally competewith each other and eventually form atype of dominance hierarchy. This islike the classical pecking order origi-nally described in chickens. In suchcases, it is appropriate to refer to thetop-ranking individuals as alphas,implying that they competed andfought to gain their position. And sotoo it was with wolves when placedtogether artificially. Thus, the mainbehaviorist who studied wolves incaptivity, Rudolph Schenkel, publisheda famous monograph describing howwolves interact with each other in sucha group, asserting then that there is a top-ranking male and a top-rankingfemale in packs and referring to themas the alphas. This classical mono-graph was the main piece of literatureon wolf social behavior available when

pack’s travels. However, the parentscontinue to guide the group as theyhunt prey, scent-mark the territory,fend off scavengers from their kills, orprotect the group from neighboringwolf packs that they might encounter.

As the pups continue to developand reach 1 year of age, their parentsproduce a second litter of pups, whichbecome the younger siblings of thefirst litter. Again the parents continueto guide and lead the new litter alongwith the older litter and remain the pack’s leaders. The yearlingsnaturally dominate the new pups just as older brothers and sisters in a human family might guide theyounger siblings, but still there is nogeneral battle to try to gain pack leadership; that just naturally stayswith the original parents. Some of theolder siblings will disperse betweenthe ages of 1 and 2 in some popu-lations, and in others they mayremain with the pack through about3 years of age. However, eventually

Most wolf packs are family groups formed the same way as human families are formed.That is, maturing male and female wolvesfrom different packs disperse, travel arounduntil they find each other and an area vacantof other wolves but with adequate prey, court,mate, and produce their own litter of pups.

When one puts a random group of any species together artificially, these animals will naturallycompete with each other and eventually form a type of dominance hierarchy. In such cases, it isappropriate to refer to the top-ranking individuals as alphas, implying that they competed andfought to gain their position.

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I crafted my book The Wolf: Ecologyand Behavior of an Endangered Speciesin the late 1960s.

This book was a synthesis of avail-able wolf information at the time, so Iincluded much reference to Schenkel’sstudy. The book was timely because noother synthesis about the wolf had beenwritten since 1944, so The Wolf soldwell. It was originally published in1970 and republished in paperback in1981 and is still in print. Over 120,000copies are now in circulation. Mostother general wolf books have reliedconsiderably on The Wolf for informa-tion, thus spreading the misinforma-tion about alpha wolves far and wide.

Finally in the late 1990s, after I had lived with a wild wolf pack onEllesmere Island near the North Polefor many summers witnessing first-hand the interactions among parentwolves and their offspring, I decidedto correct this misinformation. Bythen, however, both the lay public andmost biologists had fully adopted the

Rather than viewing a wolf pack as a group of animals

organized with a “top dog” that fought its way to the top, or a

male-female pair of such aggressive wolves, science has come

to understand that most wolf packs are merely family groups

formed exactly the same way as human families are formed

alpha concept and terminology. Itseemed no one could speak about awolf pack without mentioning thealphas. Many people would ask mewhat made an alpha wolf an alpha andwhat kind of fighting and competitiondid it take to gain that position. Thus,in 1999 I published the article “AlphaStatus, Dominance, and Division ofLabor in Wolf Packs” in the CanadianJournal of Zoology formally correctingthe misinformation in the scientificliterature. I followed that up in 2000with the article “Leadership in Wolf,Canis lupus, Packs” in the CanadianField Naturalist, further elaborating on the role of the parent wolves in thepack’s social order.

However, it has been said that itgenerally takes about 20 years fornew science to fully seep down togeneral acceptance, including evennew medical breakthroughs. Suchseems to be proving true with thealpha-wolf concept. Several of mywolf biologist colleagues have accep-

ted the update, but others suddenlycorrect themselves in the middle oftheir conversations with me; stillothers seem totally oblivious to thewhole issue. It is heartening indeedto see newly published papers suchas the one I cited above in the intro-duction to this article that haveadopted the proper terminology.

The issue is not merely one ofsemantics or political correctness. It is one of biological correctness suchthat the term we use for breedingwolves accurately captures the biolog-ical and social role of the animalsrather than perpetuate a faulty view.

One place where this issuebecomes particularly confusing isYellowstone National Park, wheregreat numbers of the public spendmuch time observing wolves rightalong with wolf biologists and naturalists. Because the Yellowstonewolf population was newly restoredand enjoys a great surplus of prey(6,000 to 12,000 elk, 4,000 bison,

Some of the older siblings in a pack willdisperse between the ages of 1 and 2 in somepopulations, and in others they may remainwith the pack through about 3 years of age.

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to her daughters as “betas.” TheYellowstone observers commonly usethis phraseology, but too often itbecomes loosely applied to all thebreeding wolves, even in packs wherethere are only single breeders. While it is not incorrect to use alpha whenapplied to packs of multiple breeders,it would be possible and even desirableto use less loaded terminology. Forexample, the top-ranking female couldbe called the dominant female or thematriarch, and her breeding daughters,the subordinates. Or individually if thefemales actually show a dominanceorder, the second- and third-rankingindividuals could be called simply that.This approach would further reformwolf terminology and add to both

science’s and the public’s more accu-rate perception of the wolf.

Hopefully it will take fewer than20 years for the media and the publicto fully adopt the correct terminologyand thus to once and for all end the outmoded view of the wolf packas an aggressive assortment of wolvesconsistently competing with eachother to take over the pack. ■

L. David Mech is a senior research scientist for the U.S. Geological Surveyand founder and vice chair of theInternational Wolf Center. He has studied wolves for 50 years andpublished several books and many articles about them.

and hundreds of deer, pronghorn,bighorn sheep, moose and otherprey), the pack structure of its popu-lation is more complex than in mostwolf populations. There, young wolvesdisperse at a later age, when 2 to 3years old instead of 1 to 2, thusmaking packs larger and containingmore mature individuals than mostpacks do elsewhere. In these packswhere both the mother and some ofher daughters mature, all sometimesget bred during the same year, thedaughters usually by outside males.

When more than one female breedsin a pack, the females may becomemore competitive, so it is probablyappropriate to refer to the original matri-arch as the alpha female and

The issue is not merely one of semantics or political

correctness. It is one of biological correctness such that

the term we use for breeding wolves accurately

captures the biological and social role of the animals

One place where the “alpha wolf” issue becomesparticularly confusing is Yellowstone National Park.Because the Yellowstone wolf population enjoys agreat surplus of prey, the pack structure of its popula-tion is more complex than in most wolf populations.There, young wolves disperse at a later age, when 2 to 3 years old instead of 1 to 2, thus making packslarger and containing more mature individuals thanmost packs do elsewhere.D

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Reprint from July 18, 2008, THE INDEPENDENT

The French have an expres-sion—entre chiens et loups—between the dogs and the

wolves. It is a fanciful way ofdescribing the twilight, the myste-rious and uncertain time betweenday and night.

In the beautiful summer pastures of the Maurienne region of the FrenchAlps, something mysterious, andwicked, has been happening in thetwilight hours. The events are un-certain but one thing is clear. This is,literally, a story about dogs and wolves.

Since the start of the year, 17sheepdogs have been poisoned in themountains of the Maurienne range,which rise to more than 9,000ft, just inside the French frontier withItaly. The dogs have often died ingreat agony. They include several ofthe Patou or Pyrenean mountainbreed—enormous, white, mislead-ingly cuddly-looking dogs, which aretrained to give their lives, if neces-sary, to defend sheep from wolves.

No one in the Maurienne range is quite sure what is going on—or, at least, few people admit to knowingmuch. Everyone is clear about onething, however. The killings arerelated, in some way, to the longbattle that has been waged betweenshepherds and wolves—and betweensheep-lovers and wolf-lovers—sincethe European grey wolf, Canis lupus,decided to recolonise France fromItaly 16 years ago.

Alpine Murder Mystery:

Are Sheepdogs Being Poisoned to

Save the Grey Wolf?b y J O H N L I C H F I E L D

Dogs such as the Pyrenean mountain breedare trained to defend sheep from wolves.

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The most recent attack, earlier this week, destroyed—in the space of a few minutes—a four-month-oldPatou puppy called Dom Dom. Threeother dogs, including Dom Dom’smother, Belle, were poisoned by balls of pork meat soaked in a chem-ical used in slug-repellent. They arerecovering, after emergency interven-tion by the local vet, but may neverbe strong enough to work again.

“This can only have been the workof someone local, someone who knewthe area,” said Dom Dom’s owner,René Grange, a shepherd in thehamlet of Les Villards, near Valloire.“It is two hours’ hard walking, and1,000 metres steeply up hill from thenearest road to the Pain du Sucre[sugar loaf], the pasture where thesheep are grazing this week. Youwould have to know exactly wherethe night enclosures for the animalsare. You would have to know how toavoid the hut where my two youngshepherds were sleeping.

“The pork meat balls were left,some time during the night, mostlikely just before dawn, in a placewhere the dogs would be sure to findthem. This is the work of a maniac—a madman. What if the meat had beenfound by a small child? There aretourists everywhere at this time of year,including many British tourists.

“I bred Dom Dom myself and hewas a wonderful young dog. It issickening that he should die in sucha way. But you can always replace a dog. You can’t replace a child.”

There have been a dozen similarincidents in the past eight months,which have killed 16 other dogs,including Dom Dom’s father, Volcan,who died in early June.

Philippe Martin is the local vetwhose prompt action in finding an

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The sheep-grazing industry is animportant part of the economy in theMaurienne region.

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antidote saved M. Grange’s otherdogs this week. He said that thechemical placed in the meat balls isoften found in slug poisons. It causesinstant and catastrophic diarrhoeaand lung failure in small mammalslike dogs. “They finish up dyingcompletely dehydrated but, beforethat, they drown in their ownbronchial fluids,” he said.

Why should anyone want todestroy such beautiful sheepdogs? In such a brutal way? Several theorieshave been put forward.

The most obvious possible expla-nation is that the dogs are beingpoisoned by accident by wolf-haters.There have been dozens of incidentsof wolves being shot, or poisoned, illegally by shepherds in the FrenchAlps in the past decade. M. Grange—and the Gendarmerie—have dis-missed this possibility. “Anyone whoknew anything about the mountainswould not try to attack wolves byleaving poisoned pork near sheep-dogs,” M. Grange, 45, said. “This wasa deliberate attempt to kill my dogs.”

The second possibility is that thisis some kind of revenge attack bymilitant pro-wolf activists, angry atthe regular shooting and poisoning of wolves by French shepherds. Somelocal people are convinced that thismay be the explanation but it alsofails to add up.

The shepherds in the Mauriennearea, including M. Grange, are amongthose who have most successfullyadapted to living with wolves sincethe animals began to infiltrate acrossthe French-Italian border in the early1990s.

There are now thought to beabout 100 wolves living in France. A few have already left the Alps andcrossed motorways and railway lines

to recolonise the Massif Central tothe west, and the Jura and Vosges tothe north.

Most Maurienne shepherds haveaccepted the sheep-protectionmethods put forward by the Frenchgovernment’s Plan Loup (wolf plan)published four years ago. Theseinclude the permanent deploymentof Patou and Beauceron dogs andyoung shepherds to watch the flocksday and night in the high summerpastures and the building of electri-fied enclosures to protect the sheepafter dark.

There has been no wolf attack onsheep in the Maurienne massif formore than two years. There has been no recorded wolf-killing in theMaurienne area in the same period.Why would pro-wolf activists wantto attack such a successful exampleof precisely the kind of man-sheep-wolf co-habitation that they havealways insisted was possible?

The sheep-dog killings remain acomplete mystery, then? Possibly not.

Daniel Vejux is a wolf expert and amember of the national committee of the main French wildlife study and lobby group, L’Association pourla Protection des Animaux Sauvages.He is convinced that he knowsexactly what is going on.

“There are some shepherds, likethose in the Maurienne, who havenow accepted that the wolf is here in France to stay. But there areothers who have sworn never toaccept wolves,” M. Vejux told TheIndependent.

“There is a kind of civil warbetween shepherds, between thosewho accept government advice, andhave taken measures to protect theirsheep, and those who only care aboutone thing, driving the wolves out.

“These attacks on sheepdogs aremeant to destabilise the systemswhich have been adopted to protectsheep from wolves. They are poison-ing sheepdogs to intimidate the shepherds who are playing by thenew rules.”

M. Grange, the victim of the latestattack, refused to accept this explana-tion but looked uncomfortable whenit was put to him. “I don’t know. No one knows. I can’t say more thanthat. This is the work of a maniac.That’s all I can say.”

Other local people were equallydefensive. The renting of summerpastures (alpages) to graze sheepbrought from the coastal plains of the south of France—a system calledtranshumance—is an important localindustry. Many local people are in-volved, whether they are full-timefarmers or not.

Transhumance used to be relativelyeasy work. The sheep were let looseon the alpages, the meadows justabove the tree line, each spring. Theywere brought down in the autumn.In between, they were visited byshepherds occasionally. Otherwise,the sheep looked after themselves.The return of the wolf, driven out ofthe French Alps in the 1890s, haschanged all that.

“There are many local jealousiesand grudges,” said a shop-owner, whois himself involved in the sheepgrazing industry but preferred not tobe quoted by name. “Some peoplehave adapted to the new situation,the need to protect sheep fromwolves, better than others. Some arevery angry and don’t think the wolveshave a right to be back here, gobblingup their sheep.

“They think that they, the localpeople, are the victims. They blame


ecologists and city-dwellers andthink that they want to get rid ofshepherds and sheep and fill themountains with wild animals. Someof them are very angry. But there is a long way between being angryand going out to poison sheepdogs. A long way.”

A local gendarmerie spokesmandeclined to comment on the suggestion that the dog poisoningswere part of a pastoral civil-war. “All possible leads will be followedup,” he said. “That’s all we can say at present.”

The sheep-grazing industry is animportant complement to the incomebrought to the mountains aroundValloire, high above the Mauriennevalley, by skiing in the winter andwalking and climbing in the summer.Valloire is only 50 miles from Turin as the eagle flies but it is a picturepostcard French mountain town—the kind that you see briefly on thetelevision as the Tour de Francesweeps by. The 2008 Tour will, infact, sweep briefly through the townof Valloire next Wednesday.

Normally, the coming of the Tour would be the dominant topic of conversation. Not this year. Thedog killings, M. Grange said, havecreated a “mood of fear and incom-prehension”.

“My two young shepherds, whoare aged 21 and 23, thought theywere taking on a peaceful summerjob in the midst of the mountains.Now someone has crept past theirhut at night and poisoned the dogs of which they had become very fond.They are confused and scared.” ■

Wolves are slowly spreading westand north through France. Their presence, in small numbers, hasbeen confirmed as far west as theCantal mountains in the westernMassif Central and as far north asthe Vosges near Alsace and Lorraine.

The last of the original populationof native French wolves was shot in the Massif Central in 1939.Wolves had already been drivenfrom the Alpine regions of Franceby the close of the 19th century.

The wolf is a protected speciesunder both French and Europeanlaw. Around 1991-2, Italian wolvesbegan to creep back across theFrench frontier. Attacks on sheepbegan almost immediately.Shepherds protested and claimedthat the wolves had been deliber-ately re-introduced by ecologists.DNA tests on dead wolves showedthat the newcomers were indeed

immigrants from the native Italianpopulation, which had nevercompletely been wiped out by man.

In 2004, the French governmentintroduced a Plan Loup (wolf plan) to try to pacify shepherds andprotect wolves. A small, official cull of six wolves a year wasallowed. Sheep farmers were givengrants to create anti-wolf defences,including electrified night enclosuresand a permanent day and nightguard by dogs and “summer shepherds” (often students).

The plan has been a success butsome shepherds still complain that the arrival of the wolf has disruptedwhat was a fragile industry. Wild-animal campaigners point out thatthe 80 to 100 wolves in France kill a fraction of the number of sheepdestroyed by wild dogs, disease and avalanches.

Carnivorous survivors from the Ice Age

Lynn

Rog

ers


Bonnie:

After years of reading newsletters and magazines from the International Wolf Center

and wondering what goes on way upthere in Ely, Minnesota, the Tamblynfamily (Russ, Bonnie and Amber)finally had a chance to experience,snout to nose, the Center and thewonderful folks who support it. Wewere fortunate enough to receive aninvitation to see the new pups inearly June, an event that happensonly every four to five years. Ourdaughter, Amber Rose, is a busyyoung woman who has many invita-tions to support worthy causes. Butshe jumped at the chance to go seethe pups and support the Center.

Amber has loved wolves eversince she was a pup herself. We had a big Alsatian-malamute namedJoshua, and when she was young,Amber would cuddle with Joshua atnaptime. He was purported to be partwolf from the MacKenzie Valley area

b y B O N N I E A N D A M B E R T A M B L Y N

Our

Memorable Visit to the

International Wolf Center

Our

Memorable Visit to the

International Wolf Center

Top and bottom photos: International Wolf Center

Middle photo: Rory O’Neill Photography/

www.rory-photo.com

Amber Tamblyn andGrizzer observedeach other throughthe glass at theInternational WolfCenter in Ely,Minnesota.

Left photo: GeneOrtiz, InternationalWolf Center

Bottom photo:Rory O’NeillPhotography/www.rory-photo.com

auditorium, where we first beheld the“ambassadors,” a pack of four adultwolves in their natural habitat. It was hard to take in that we were soclose to these animals that we couldalmost touch them. They roamedthrough their enclosure or observedus while they lay on a rock in a regalpose. We were separated from thewolves by huge glass windows, andthe staff made sure that human inter-action was kept to a minimum andvery respectful. But the wolves knewwe were there and were occasionallycurious enough to come to thewindows to visit.


of Canada. Sometimes at night hewould be sleeping by our bed, rearhis head back and howl at some far-off call.

My own early relationship withwolves was influenced by fairy tales,in which wolves were to be feared and slain. I never bought into it, and I thought the wolves always got a badrap. As a child, I walked alone in thecanyons of Hollywood with our trustyGerman shepherd named Lobo.When we were greeted at the airportby one of the original stewards of theCenter, Mary Ortiz, sporting a funwolf hat and a smile, I was convincedthat I had met a kindred spirit.

Mary and her husband, Gene, werethe leaders of our pack. We were de-lighted to meet the team at theCenter’s office in Minneapolis and awe-struck at the mounted wolves ondisplay. They were big and magnifi-cent, and just the thought of meetingthe real animals was exhilarating. Thestaff was down-to-earth and friendly.We had no doubt that they love

what they do, andlove the wolves ofthe world.

Our d r i ve tonorthern Minnesotawas mystical. Andthe farther we went,the more mystical itbecame. As the sunset through the rain-soaked boreal forest,a mist came up off the highway. Ourimaginations went wild as deer andother creatures bounded out of thedarkness into the headlights. Perhapswe’d see a wolf!

In Ely, we were impressed first by the breathtaking building designedto hold the spirit of the wolves. Itsmassive gray timbers climb intogables to create the form of a wolf atfull gallop. The vaulted inside wasequally impressive. Friendly andknowledgeable staff gathered us forour tour. We visited the Wolves andHumans exhibit, the Little Wolfexhibit for children and the large

Russ, Bonnie, and Amber Tamblyn visited the InternationalWolf Center in June 2008.


At regular intervals, the staffwould present fascinating programs,with speakers, PowerPoint presen-tations and question-and-answersessions. The Center does a marvelousjob in educating the public about thenature of wolves and their interactionwith the human world.

And then it was on to the pups. . .Take it away, Amber.

Amber:

Like my mom, I grew upsurrounded by and obsessedwith the world of the wolf. Not

only did I have all the Canis lupusgarb you could imagine (still have afluorescent airbrushed T-shirt of anAlaskan white wolf from when I wasseven), but I also had very vivid anddetailed dreams about wolves. Theyappeared in my dreams throughoutmost of my youth, sometimes takingon the representation of something tobe feared, and sometimes somethingthat nurtured. I wrote poems aboutwolves and made them the topics ofany school thesis I could. They weremy unspoken childhood mentors.

Fast-forward 10 years to my mid-20s, where I have carved out a prettysuccessful life for myself as an actressand author. I have been a member ofthe Center since I was ten, and foryears I wanted to visit the interpretivecenter. Unfortunately, I could neverfind the time to do it. When I finallygot there, it was everything I dreamedit would be. I had never seen a wolfup close before, but, boy, did I!Grizzer, the Center’s biggest andburliest wolf, came up to me at thewindow one morning, and we staredat each other through the glass. Myheart began pounding with terror and excitement. Even with glassbetween us, I felt the might of his wildpresence while I looked at him withchildhood eyes, and he looked at mewith pure, unquestionable mystery.We stared at each other, nose to nose,for a good couple of minutes; then hetrotted off. . . wolf-style. It’s a momentI will never forget.

The next day I was invited by theCanis Queen herself, Wolf Curator

Lori Schmidt, to help look after thewolf pups and bring them into theaudience for a daily program. I wasfascinated to see the beginning oftheir survival behavior patterns. Loritold me that it is in their nature frombirth to be fearful of everything—it’swhat keeps them alive in the wild. It’s how they are able to explore andlearn to be leery of their surround-ings. The tiny yet incredibly sturdywolf pups played and peed all overthe place, marking their territory andenjoying the new company.

Later that evening, we howled towolves in the wild, waiting for aresponse, but they may have beensecretive and guarded because it waspup season. That was my dad’sfavorite part of the evening. I thinkhe howled the longest and hardest!We did actually see a lone wolf crossthe road. Our guide and teacher, JessEdberg, explained that he (thewolf—not Dad) had probably beenexpelled from his pack and had to go look for new mates!

We have so much admiration and appreciation for the Center andtheir devotion to the survival ofwolves worldwide. Thanks to theCenter’s founder, Dr. L. David Mech,and his vision, I lived out a long-standing dream—spending real timewith the beautiful creatures who kept me company through so muchof my youth. ■

Bonnie Tamblyn is a multimedia artistand teacher. As well as a singer-song-writer, she is a council facilitator and trainer for the Ojai Foundation(ojaifoundation.org). She performs with Amber, and you can hear her music on CD Baby.

Amber Tamblyn is an award-winningactress, a producer and a poet. She is best known for her role as Joan ofArcadia and her film Sisterhood of theTraveling Pants. Amber has a great lovefor the environment and its creatures,especially the wolves of the world. To find out more about Amber, go tohttp://www.myspace.com/ambertamblyn.

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INTERNATIONAL WOLF CENTER

Major Contributors and Special GiftsJ U N E 2 0 0 8 – A U G U S T 2 0 0 8

Major DonorsHoward Alton Jr. and Camilla Alton

Nancy Bain

Toxie Beavers

Patricia Bolger

Fred and CarolBreitling

Debra Broderick

Gary and Doreen Deutsch

Tom Dwight

Johanna Goering

Joe and JodyGreenhalgh

Julia and J. Parker Hall

Frank B. Hubachek Jr.

Ivancich, Inc.

Susan Johnson

Jayne Kalk

Jeanie and Murray Kilgour

Bud and Natalie Kraehling

H. B. Lynch and L. N. Ferrero

Dr. Mitchell Macenski

Dr. L. David Mech

Michael and Cheryl Mendez

Seamus P. Metress, PhD

William Miller

Thomas and Victoria O’Connell

Karen Pajari, M.D.

Yvonne Pettinga

Steven Portnoy

Judith Posnikoff

Dr. William Redel

Tanya Reiss

Susan Schmitt

Martha Schoonover

John Sheridan

Ted and BarbaraSpaulding

Dennis Sutliff

James Toscano

Helen Tyson

Douglas and Leonore Walters

Frank and Ada Warner

David J. Williams

Neal B. Wilson

John and Donna Virr

Memorials

In memory of Patrick Case:Joan Case

In memory of Barry Chase:Justin and IvyCarnegieBernard ChaseDavid Reams and Julie Carnegie ReamsCarol Hayes and Cliff RoehmThe Ladies at St. Sharbel Village

In memory of Cindy Eicher:Joseph Kozamchak

In memory of Raellen Tyson:Mr. and Mrs. James TysonBetty Kauffman

In memory of Stephen Renwand:Anne and Harry Hayes

In memory of Lucas:Joyce Wells

In memory ofMacKenzie:Marilyn FayBarbara HoveyThe Kolb FamilyThe Warner Family

EstatesViola M. Walkenhorst

Dorothy B. Webber

Honorary

In celebration of the graduation ofNadine Pellegrini with a master’s fromTufts University:Timothy andBernadette Feeley

In honor of Jerry Sanders:Richard and Joan Hinchcliffe

In honor of Dr. Kimberly Loomis:Cristine Brown

In honor of Lakota:Barb and Marc Farley

In honor of the 50th wedding anniversary of Don and Ida Neary:Brad and Jennie Neary

MatchingGifts andFoundations

Ameriprise FinancialEmployee Matching GiftProgram on behalf of Brian Ogren

BD on behalf of Clifford Boldt

CNA FoundationMatching Gift Plan on behalf of Sheila Jaimes

GE FoundationMatching GiftsProgram on behalf of Terry Phillips

General MillsFoundation GiftMatching Program on behalf of Kirsten Langohr

Hawksglen Foundation

Microsoft GivingCampaign on behalf of:Sherry GreenRaul Garcia

The Dorothy D. andJoseph A. MollerFoundation

JPMorgan ChaseFoundation on behalf of Geoffrey Shaver

Casey Albert T. O’NeilFoundation

R. C. Lilly FoundationFund of the St. PaulFoundation

US Bancorp Foundationon behalf of Diann Evans

In-KindDonationsCree Bradley

Linda Darling Fiedler

Kathleen Fischer

Dean Johnson

Andi Nelsen

Gail Ramee

Debbie Sales

Ted and BarbaraSpaulding

Gary Swedberg

Susan L. Sweeney

Target Corporation

Wendy Watson

Thank You


access to the wolf yard andthe increased staff contact.

The other firsts duringsummer 2008 included thepups themselves, Aidan andDenali, two males born atthe Wildlife Science Centerin Forest Lake, Minnesota,and socialized to the ExhibitPack at the InternationalWolf Center. The 2008 pupsare representatives of thewestern subspecies of wolvesCanis lupus occidentalis.This is the first time theCenter has exhibited threesubspecies in one exhibit,with three age structuresrepresented.

Introducing pups into anexisting pack of nonrelated,multiple-aged wolves withtheir own dominance hier-archy is far more challengingthan into a pack with a singleage structure. The dominantwolves always exhibit strongbonding behavior toward the pups, likely influencedby prolactin hormone andthe social pack behavior ofthe leader. This parental role may last well into thepups’ first year, but duringthe 2008 introduction, thesubordinate males are play-ing a more critical role in the introduction. Youngerwolves tend to move up inrank as they age, andbecause Grizzer and Malikare taking on subordinateroles to Shadow, we expected

them to be more inclined to keep Aidan and Denalilower ranking as these pupsintegrate into the pack. Wewere surprised when Grizzerdisplayed strong social care-giving behavior toward thepups, and no indication ofaggression.

There are no certaintiesabout wolf behavior, butthere is one certainty about

the Exhibit Pack: it will bemore dynamic than at anytime in the Center’s history.We invite you to watch theevents unfold from theviewing windows at the Ely, Minnesota, interpretivecenter, through the wolf logsand webcam at www.wolf.orgor by a special distance-learning broadcast to yourschool or organization. ■

Tracking the Pack

The Passing of Generations,Summer 2008b y L o r i S c h m i d t , W o l f C u r a t o r ,I n t e r n a t i o n a l W o l f C e n t e r

On May 21, 2008, MacKenzie (left) died, leaving Lakota(right) as the lone surviving member of the Retired Pack.

Wolf pups Aidan and Denali were introduced to the ExhibitPack on August 4, 2008. Aidan is shown here with Maya.

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Summer 2008 was asummer of pups and a summer of firsts

for the Wolf Care staff at theInternational Wolf Center.On May 21, 2008, stafffound that MacKenzie, a 15-year-old member of theRetired Pack, had died. Anecropsy later determinedthe cause of death to be apulmonary embolism.

With MacKenzie’s passing,Lakota remains as the lonesurviving member of theRetired Pack. Managementof a lone wolf, without pack-mates, is a first for the WolfCare staff, who have mademany management changesto ensure that Lakota’s phys-ical and behavioral needs are met. These include fenceplacement and walkwaysthat allow Lakota access tothe wolf yard and the wolflab but keep her separatedfrom the 2008 pups. Thereason for Lakota’s separa-tion from the pups wasconcern about their intro-duction to the Exhibit Pack.Successful introduction tothe Exhibit Pack dependedon the dominant pair,Shadow and Maya, takingownership of the pups. IfShadow and Maya hadviewed the pups associatingwith Lakota, the intro-duction might have beenless successful. Lakota doeswell with the increased

WashingtonOlympia

Seattle

OKANOGAN CO.

UNION CO.

Salem

Oregon

Portland

Pendleton

Walla Walla


Wildlife Wolf Coordinator RussMorgan paid big dividends. His howlswere answered by at least two adultwolves and two pups. The announce-ment followed the confirmation inJanuary 2008 of a female wolf fromIdaho residing in the prey-rich wildhabitat of northeastern Oregon.Wolves are listed as endangered understate law, and a goal of eight breedingpairs—four in western Oregon andfour in the eastern portion of thestate—has been established.

Meanwhile in north-centralWashington, reports of tones too deepand resonant to be coyotes howlinghave been making the rounds forseveral years. On July 18, 2008, inthe wild Methow River valley on the eastern flank of the CascadeMountains, Washington Departmentof Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) offi-cials live-trapped two canids: a maleand a lactating female. They took hair and tissue samples for DNAanalysis and fitted the pair with radiocollars. The news from the labconfirmed that the breeding male and female of the “Lookout Pack”were indeed gray wolves thought tohave moved into Okanogan Countyfrom nearby British Columbia.

The nonprofit organizationConservation Northwest stepped inwith its Cascades Citizen WildlifeMonitoring Project volunteers to

Northeastern Oregon has plenty ofbig wild spaces left. There is lots ofgood habitat there, a big prey base,a lot of places to roam and notcome into conflict with people.

—Steve Pedery, Oregon Wild

b y C o r n e l i a H u t t

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The Return of the Gray Wolfto the Pacific Northwest

It was just a matter of time.Reports of wolves returning to thePacific Northwest (Washington

and Oregon) have been circulatingfor several years, but no confirmationof an established pack could be made.

Then in July 2008, the wolveswon a doubleheader.

On July 25, in the UmatillaNational Forest in Union County,Oregon, a howling survey conductedby Oregon Department of Fish and

On July 22, 2008, a remote cameracaptured images of aradio-collared maleadult gray wolf (nearleft) and six energeticpups in north-centralWashington (far left).


To view a photo flip book and a

video of the Lookout Pack pups,

visit www.conservationnw.org.

The author thanks Conservation

Northwest for permission to

publish the photos taken by remote

cameras of the Lookout Pack

pups and the breeding male.

states since the return ofthe wolf to Yellowstoneand central Idaho, no resi-dent packs were known tohave become establisheduntil the recent discoveries.

The WDFW and ConservationNorthwest are planning to developand finalize a management andconservation plan for the wolves ofWashington. At present, wolves inthe eastern third of Washingtonremain under federal protection.They are also listed as an endangeredspecies under state law.

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coordinate with the WDFW to set upfour remote cameras. On July 22,2008, they struck gold—or in thiscase, gray! Captured on camera werevivid color images of the radio-collared male adult gray wolf and six energetic pups.

Wolves have been absent fromWashington and Oregon since the1930s, and while individualdispersers have drifted into both

one easy way for you to help us conserve



Did you know...


WWOOLLVV EE SS OO FF TT HH EE HH II GG HH AA RR CC TT II CC

The Ellesmere Island ArcticWolf Research Project: ATimeless Scientific Journey

One must understand the wolf in the wild to trulyappreciate the animal.

—L. David Mech, The Arctic Wolf: Ten Years with the Pack

After 23 summers of arctic wolf research on the wind-scoured landscape of Ellesmere Island,

one might wonder what more there is to learn. Why invest time andresources to travel for three days,weather permitting, to finally reach aremote base camp near a fjord whereicebergs drift placidly in July? What’sthe benefit of filing the mandatoryannual project proposal and keepingthe territorial government researchpermit current?

All photos:Dean Cluff


The simple answer is that there isalways more to discover, more to learn,more to confirm. The endless questfor knowledge about the naturalworld is the engine that drives and sustains long-term researchprojects like the 50-year Isle Royalewolf-moose study and the annualEllesmere expedition. Wolf researcherRolf Peterson said it well. “Science,”he wrote in a recent article, “is ajourney with no final destination, no definitive endpoint that can beanticipated.”

Working in a vast, forbiddingwilderness may sound alluring andromantic, but it isn’t easy. Collectingdata the old-fashioned way, withtools no more sophisticated thanbinoculars and spotting scopes, canbe grueling. And the wolves of theHigh Arctic don’t help out by wearingtracking collars. The landscape isimmense, and if a wolf pack is notnurturing pups at a known den orrendezvous site, the researchers mustsearch for clues throughout the seamless 24 hours of perpetualdaylight. This means looking for wolfsign such as tracks and scats overmiles of rugged terrain and scanningthe horizon from windy ridgetops,hoping that something white willappear in the distance—somethingtoo large to be an arctic hare. It

means swatting mosquitoes andstaying up all night and sometimesall the following day as well. Andobservations must be meticulouslyrecorded by hand.

The payoff for patience and persis-tence over the past 23 summers hasbeen enormous. The data collectedby Dave Mech, International WolfCenter founder, have been scruti-nized, analyzed and published inscientific journals and in populararticles and books. The 1986National Geographic documentaryfilm White Wolf about this project isstill popular. Because the family lifeof wolves in lower latitudes is almostimpossible to observe (or was priorto the return of the wolf toYellowstone), accurate informationabout “the way of the wolf” was hardto obtain prior to the Ellesmere study.Because they tolerate the presence ofhumans, the High Arctic wolves havetaught Dave Mech a great deal abouttheir social interactions, the raisingand tending of pups, hunting and

killing techniques, communication(scent marking, body posture andhowling), sleeping habits and travelpatterns. Additionally, he hasrecorded weather patterns over theyears and analyzed the effect ofphenomena such as early winters onthe populations of prey species(musk-oxen and arctic hare).

Some of the wolves camealmost daily to the base

camp, meaning they weretraveling a distance of at

least 24 miles round trip inaddition to hunting forays.

Join Dave Mech andDean Cluff as they

search for a wolf packwith pups on EllesmereIsland in the High Arctic.

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/

Post your comments!

Dea

n C

luff


So, what’s new in 2008? This summer, Dave Mech

was accompanied by DeanCluff, a Canadian wildlife biol-ogist. The upbeat news is thatthe two researchers foundand observed nine adultwolves—the breeding pairand their yearling offspringand perhaps some oldersiblings, too. The breedingfemale was lactating, sothat meant pups—some-where! But where?

The downbeat news isthat after days of intensive

searching, Mech andCluff determined the denwas perhaps 12 miles ormore from their base campand situated across anexpanse of impassable mud-flats. But some of the wolvescame almost daily to thebase camp, meaning theywere traveling a distance of at least 24 miles round trip inaddition to hunting forays.

The breeding female was a frequentvisitor, too, even though she had toreturn “home” to supplement regur-gitated meat with bouts of nursingfor the growing pups. No one couldever accuse a wolf of being a “stay athome, play at home” animal, but thissummer’s observations demonstratedthe truth of the old Russian adagethat a wolf is kept fed by its feet.

The researchers were also able toobserve some novel social behavior byusing a taxidermy wolf specimen(affectionately named “Elmer”) withadjustable tail positions. Mech andCluff watched from a respectfuldistance as the wild wolves inspectedElmer and reacted to his presence.Cluff captured the encounters withthe “intruder” on video and with astill camera, and these images will beanalyzed for behavioral clues.

We invite you to a new blog to livethe 2008 expedition day by day with Cluff and Mech. They sent dailydispatches from the weather stationat Eureka, and their lively accountsillustrate the euphoria of discoveryand the disappointment of dashedhopes as well. The International WolfCenter Web Specialist and the authorof this article edited these journalsand put them on the blog, high-lighted in the sidebar. Enjoy thephotos and slide show too, and pleasepost your comments! ■

Cornelia Hutt is an educator andInternational Wolf Center board memberwho lives in Purcellville, Virginia.

Top: Dave Mech has collected data about wolves onEllesmere Island during the past 23 summers.

Middle: In summer 2008, Mech and Dean Cluff found and observed nine adult wolves on Ellesmere Island. Three of them pause here to observe the researchers.

Bottom: Mech and Cluff (shown here) spent days of intensive searching before determining that the wolves’ denwas perhaps 12 miles or more from their base camp andsituated across an expanse of impassable mudflats.

The Ellesmere landscape is immense, andresearchers must look for wolf sign such astracks and scats over miles of rugged terrain.D

ean

Clu

ff

Top andmiddle

photos:Dean Cluff

Bottomphoto: L.

DavidMech


The first time I read Charlie andthe Chocolate Factory, I wantedto get inside that factory, to

sample sugar flowers and float downthe chocolate river. When I receivedmy invitation to the Alpha Weekendat the International Wolf Center,* Ifelt like I’d finally gotten my chance.

When I decided to write a novelabout how wolves evolved into dogs from the wolves’ perspective, Iknew I had a lot to learn. From thestart, the Center was an invaluableresource — from the informative Web site, to a wolf-watching trip in Yellowstone National Park, to the2005 international conference onwolves. But I’d never made it to theeducational center in Ely, Minnesota.Now I was on my way.

Ticket in hand, I arrived at theCenter and was whisked outside tomeet Aidan and Denali, the new,adorable members of the ambassadorpack, and to hear Lori Schmidt’s talkabout the pups. We Alpha membersthen got an insider’s view on wolfrecovery from Dave Mech and JimHammill. During the weekend, weobserved the pack devouring a deer,watched the pups snarl over a deerleg, and found wolf scats during ahike nearby.

But the visit to the Center wasmore than an opportunity to meet thewolves and gain insights from wolfexperts. It was a chance for me tobegin to realize a dream. My novel,Promise of the Wolves, is the story of a young wolf that discovers she isdestined to bring wolves and humanstogether. But it is also the story of ourrelationship with nature. It’s my goalto use the attention the book is gettingto help wolf conservation and, thus,

environmental conservation. I feelthat I have a special opportunity touse my novel to spread the word aboutwolves and their important place in our world. The inspiration and information I received at the AlphaWeekend have set me on my way. ■

* Individuals who have included the Center intheir wills or other estate plans and indi-viduals who support the Center with dona-tions of $1,000 are Alpha Legacy and Alphamembers. Alpha Legacy and Alpha membersare invited to an annual event as a way tothank them for their support.

Dorothy Hearst is an Alpha Wolf memberof the International Wolf Center and authorof the novel Promise of the Wolves.

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The Chance to Make a Differenceb y D o r o t h y H e a r s t


to seek solutions for a commonvision. The target was the MinnesotaLegislature. The initial reaction in thelegislature was that other prioritiestrumped wildlife habitat, clean water and park needs. But we wholobbied the legislature persevered for nine years and watched the effortgo through an array of twists andturns in its political journey. Finally,in February 2008, legislation waspassed for a constitutional amend-ment for citizens to decide whetherto dedicate a small portion of thestate sales tax for habitat, cleanwater, parks and the arts. Thededication would be for 25years. The amendment willappear on the ballot inNovember 2008.

If the public passesthe amendment, an an-nual $90 million will beallocated to preservingand restoring wildlifehabitat with the advice ofwildlife experts who willestablish priorities for pro-tection. That amount willbe matched equally withfunds to clean up waters,establish buffers, restorewetlands and protect drink-ing water. Another $45million will buy parks andtrails each year.

Citizens are being givenan opportunity to make amajor investment in nat-ural resources and to putpermanent solutions inplace. Other states are anx-iously watching. Minnesotacould be not just a modelfor protecting wilderness

but also a place for our offspring toexperience dramatic memories of a moose in rut, or an osprey skim-ming the water or, oh yes, a chorus ofwolf howls. ■

Nancy Gibson is a co-founder of theInternational Wolf Center and is currentlyon the board. She hosted the EmmyAward–winning show Newton’s Apple for 13 years and has won numerousawards for her work in conservation.

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In Perspectiveb y N a n c y G i b s o n

The future of our treasurednatural resources is at risk. Nonews there. Those of us in the

wildlife field see the flaws of poorlyplanned development, questionablefarming practices, slashed wildlifebudgets and the unmentionablesurging population.

Are we on a collision course?Perhaps, but I am not ready to godown that path just yet. I am one ofthe few who welcome the gas pricehike. It has made people think aboutwhere they place their homes andshopping malls and about modes of transportation. Filling the gas tankhas forced new energy discussions,and finally, global climate change is in the forefront of our concerns.

These woes could give wildlifehabitat a temporary reprieve fromdestruction. However, it is the long-term solution that needs attention.While there is much to celebrate about wolves being removed from the endangered species list, their re-covery could be short-lived if weignore their basic need for wildlandsproviding sufficient wild prey andsecure denning areas. The public will fight for wolves themselves but tends to overlook the real need fortheir livelihood. Will we have wolvesin 50 to 100 years?

This frustration led to a solution inMinnesota, but it is not for the faint-hearted. In Minnesota we lose about100 acres of wild land per day tosome sort of development. And 40 percent of those tested blue-skywaters are polluted to the point thatthey do not pass federal standards.

Thus, hunting, fishing, environ-mental and land-based organizations,often at odds with each other, merged

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Documents

Features - International Wolf Center · Features THE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOLF CENTER VOLUME 18, NO. 4 WINTER 2008 On The Cover ... book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology…