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Full-Text Articles in Behavior and Ethology
The Challenge And Opportunity Of Recovering Wolf Populations, L. David Mech
The Challenge And Opportunity Of Recovering Wolf Populations, L. David Mech
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
The gray wolf once inhabited a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the northern hemisphere north of 20°N latitude. Because the animal preyed on livestock and competed with humans for wild prey, it was extirpated from much of its range outside of wilderness areas. Environmental awareness in the late 1960s brought for the wolf legal protection, increased research, and favorable media coverage. The species has increased in both Europe and North America, is beginning to reoccupy semiwilderness and agricultural land, and is causing increased damage to livestock. Because of the wolfs high reproductive rate and long dispersal tendencies, the …
A Ten-Year History Of The Demography And Productivity Of An Arctic Wolf Pack, L. David Mech
A Ten-Year History Of The Demography And Productivity Of An Arctic Wolf Pack, L. David Mech
USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
A pack of two to eight adult wolves (Canis lupus arctos) and their pups was observed during ten summers (1986–95) on Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. The author habituated the wolf pack to his presence in the first summer and reinforced the habituation each summer thereafter. The first alpha female produced four to six pups each year between 1986 and 1989. However, her daughter, who succeeded her as the alpha female, produced only one to three pups each year between 1990 and 1992 and in 1994, and apparently did not whelp in 1993 or in 1995. The tenure …