Sunday, December 9, 2018

Wolfpack Territories

In Voyageurs National Park, biologists regularly attach GPS collars to at least one wolf in each pack to study where they go and what they eat. This image combines the tracks of several different wolves to show how seriously they take territory boundaries.

Incidentally the article from which that image comes says the wolves in the park have been eating a lot of beavers and blueberries.
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3 comments:

  1. G. VerlorenDecember 9, 2018 at 3:23 PM

    I don't think it's so much that they take "boundaries" seriously, so much as it is they respond with trepidation to the droppings and scent markings of strange wolves, and turn back when they encounter them, typically after leaving markings of their own.

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  2. JohnDecember 11, 2018 at 9:30 AM

    It is an interesting question how they understand space. Farley Mowat portrays wolves leaving their scent markings along boundary lines as if they understood the concepts of boundary and territory, but then he sort of thought he was a wolf so maybe he wasn't the most scientific observer.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 13, 2018 at 4:24 PM

    It seems obvious to me that this map illustrates an awareness of boundaries, not least because of the regularity of the shapes of the territories. What wolves are smarter than mice, which, it is my understanding move around based on following the urine smell dotted out by the mouse that has gone in front of them..... Katya

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