The early history of the International Wolf Center
Highlights how the International Wolf Center came from an idea to reality.
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Highlights how the International Wolf Center came from an idea to reality.
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The International Wolf Center has assembled in this book stories from over 30 wolf biologists from throughout North America and Europe. These tales provide a glimpse into the amazing lives of individual wolves, revealing their unique personalities, highlighting their struggles and triumphs, and illustrating the unique influence the individual can have on the survival of its pack and the population to which it belongs.
The International Wolf Center wolves are famous for providing unique educational opportunities to visitors to Ely and to people around the globe. Less known, are the contributions these wolves make to scientific research. Recently the Center’s Exhibit Pack were subjects of behavioral and acoustic research.
Ethology is the study of behavior, and an ethogram is a list of behaviors, typically of a single species. For this ethogram we have selected a few representative behaviors that pups will exhibit during various growth phases, and therefore, this ethogram is not exhaustive. You will likely observe behaviors not detailed in this booklet (be sure to keep notes of your observations on the pages in the back). We hope you will get a chance to observe all the representative behaviors of each growth phase (check them off on your ethogram’s checklist) by visiting the wolves here in Ely at the International Wolf Center or by “visiting” them online via the wolf cams.
We studied the spontaneous vocal behaviour of captive wolves at the International Wolf Center (IWC) in Minnesota (spring 2019 and winter 2020), and the Centro del Lobo Ibérico Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente (CLIFRF) in Spain (winter 2020). We used AudioMoth recording devices to record wolf howling 24 hr/day. We identified 412 solo howl series and 403 chorus howls and found differences between wolves at the two centres. Vocal rates for North American wolves at the IWC (7.8 chorus howls/day in spring and 4.8 chorus howls/day in winter) were higher than rates obtained for Iberian wolves from CLIFRF (3.8 chorus howls/day in winter). Howling rates obtained in our study were similar to those obtained for captive Mexican wolves and greater than those reported for wild wolves. Hourly distribution of howling was also different between centres. The greatest howling activity identified at IWC was at pre-sunrise, while at CLIFRF the peak occurred at sunset. Weather conditions had little influence on the vocal behaviour of the captive wolves we studied. We show the potential of passive recorders to study topics of animal acoustic communication, such as vocal rates and temporal patterns, that have not been deeply addressed due to technological constraints.
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A five-day odyssey, spanning 58 hours without decent sleep or meals, taught these researchers one thing-how not to find a wolf den.
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Gray wolf, timber wolf, red wolf, eastern wolf, brush wolf, arctic wolf, Mexican wolf, maned wolf, Ethiopian wolf, etc., etc. How many kinds of wolves are there? And what are the differences? This is a really good question, and the answer is getting more complicated all the time.
Japan’s wolves were extinct by 1905. Today Japan's mountain forests are being killed by overabundant sika deer and wild boars. Since the early 1990s, the Japan Wolf Association has proposed wolf reintroduction to Japan to restore rural ecology and to return a culturally important animal. In this article I discuss whether the return of wolves could help save Japan's mountain forests.
It was just after 3 a.m. as we very quietly exited the van, making sure our water-resistant clothes didn’t make too much noise. A wolf researcher howled into the cold and murky mist. We waited in darkness, hoping for an answer. A single wolf howl from about 300 meters in front of us broke the silence. We peered into the agricultural and forested expanse, straining to get a glimpse of the wolf in the faint star-light. Suddenly, from behind, another howl countered. The expedition’s leader explained that we were standing between two female wolves and their pups—both being tended to by the same male!
Wolf populations have proliferated in several areas and so have wolf books. The latest book is a good one. This compendium, The World of Wolves, covers a variety of fast-moving and controversial areas such as canid genetics, effects of wolves on ecosystems, climate change, hunting of wolves by snowmobile and non-lethal methods of minimizing livestock depredation. A great deal of new and interesting information resides in this book, far more than this review can cover. Several of the article authors are well experienced in their specialties: Luigi Boitani, Robert Wayne, Doug Smith, Rolf Peterson, Paul Paquet, Dean Cluff, and Olof Liberg along with numerous associates. The material reflects that. Review info: The world of wolves: New perspectives on ecology. Edited by M. Musiani, L. Boitani, and P. C. Paquet, 2011. ISBN: 9781552382691, 398 pp.