2020 Wolf Management Proceeding

In the context of debates over the protection, management, and public hunting and trapping of wolves (ma’iinganag) in Minnesota and Wisconsin, this draft book chapter examines a prominent cultural discourse employed by representatives of Ojibwe communities and governments: that of the wolf as a relative whose fate the Ojibwe share. The chapter shows how contemporary communication practices—and concepts of relevant communication forms—are rooted in historically situated ways of conceiving relationships among humans, other persons, and the earth.

This notice advises that the WRRB's Traditional Knowledge Technical Session is scheduled for October 13, 2020, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MDT, hosted online through Zoom. Invitations to the Zoom meeting will be sent to participants prior to the technical session.

This Report provides a summary of the gross necropsy findings from 36 wolf carcasses derived from the 2020 Wolf (Dìga) Management Pilot Program implemented on the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou winter ranges.

The Mobile Conservation Zone (MCZ) was implemented as a strategy to ensure the conservation of the Bathurst caribou herd. The MCZ is a dynamic wildlife management unit that represents a ‘no harvest zone’ around the herd’s current location. The MCZ boundary is updated approximately every four days to account for both daily and seasonal shifts in landscape use by the caribou. The objective of this project was to develop an ArcMap Add-In that utilizes telemetry data to generate MCZ boundaries for the Bathurst herd for a user-specified time period (e.g., every four days).

Wolves (Canis lupus) and arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) are the only canid species found throughout the mainland tundra and arctic islands of North America. Contrasting evolutionary histories, and the contemporary ecology of each species, have combined to produce their divergent population genetic characteristics. 

Key words: Alopex lagopus, arctic fox, Canis lupus, dispersal, genetic structure, grey wolf, microsatellite, prey specialization.

This study characterizes population genetic structure among grey wolves (Canis lupus) in northwestern Canada, and discusses potential physical and biological determinants of this structure. 

Key words: Banks Island, gene flow, grey wolf, microsatellites, prey specialization, topographic barriers.

The article details how Type 1, 2, and 3 response functions were fit to the data using linear and nonlinear regression as appropriate and found that the evidence supported wolf population regulation by density-dependence as much as limitation by prey availability.

Key words: numerical response, prey limitation regulation, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, wolves.

In June 2011, an estimate of the abundance of breeding female barren-ground caribou was determined, based on aerial surveys of three calving areas in Nunavut.

In June 2018, an estimated abundance of the Beverly barren-ground caribou herd was determined, based on the estimated numbers of breeding and non-breeding female barren-ground caribou within the herd’s annual concentrated calving area. Additionally, the 2011 abundance estimate was reassessed to include the Adelaide Peninsula based on updated information gathered from collared Beverly caribou movements between 2011 and 2018.

The article presents the “adehabitat” package for the R software, which offers basic GIS (Geographic Information System) functions, methods to analyze radio-tracking data and habitat selection by wildlife, and interfaces with other R packages.

Keywords: R software, Adehabitat, Habitat selection, Space use, Wildlife, Home range, Package.