Wolves are Important - Kelly Zukowski

A particular animal that I am very interested in is the wolf. Thus, I was very intrigued to find about a project named the Voyageurs Wolf Project which is a collaboration between Ron Moen from the University of Minnesota and the Voyageurs National Park Association. The members of the project placed trackers on seven different wolf packs that live in the Minnesota area so that they can understand current wolf pack boundaries and how wolves may be interacting with moose and other species. These trackers (which are accurate to about 10 meters [30 feet] of the wolf's approximate location) takes the wolf's location every 3 or 4 hours every day for about 15 months. What is intriguing is that while humans have to map out what is a country’s boundary or state’s boundary, wolves can just smell out their territory.

However, what annoys me with the data map is that one of the wolves depicted by the white line went into another wolf's territory. All I have to say is, why? Did the wolf choose to explore further around his domain? Did the roaming wolf believe the red wolf pack was better than the white wolf pack? Did the wolf decide that he/she wanted to be a bunny? Probably none of these questions may explain the reason why the wolf choose to go further away from his domain. What sounds more likely is that the wolf was chasing food and the wolf had followed it to the red pack’s territory.

Another thing I would like to acknowledge is that around 60% of the deaths between wolves and opposing packs is about boundary issues. On average, a wolf pack’s territory is about 35 km2 and wolves per day only visit 50% of their region. It also has been observed that the area where wolves sleep, give birth and play is around the middle of their territory and wolves spend about 50% of their time in the heart of their region.

Wolves having territorial behavior is only one of many intriguing things about them. Overall, I see wolves as very charming and gorgeous creatures, and that is why they are valuable/important to me. If I ever get the possibility to adopt a wolf, I will do so without thinking twice.