Population
Eastern wolves went from being abundant to being a threatened species |
Eastern wolves would be considered part of the clumped distribution because they are social animals but only with there own pack members. Wolves will usually mark out a territory that they consider their's and will not tolerate any trespassing wolves to stay without a fight. Eastern wolf territories can range from 500 to 700 km2 with about 5-10 wolves per pack within a specific territory. La Mauricie National park's is 536 hm2 which can not hold two wolf packs, so the wolves usually have territories that just include sections of the park and the rest being outside of the park(5). Eastern wolf packs have a good amount of genetic diversity between packs, with the range in size and colour. Also the hierarchy of the packs creates diversity within each pack as the dominant wolves tend to hold more power than the less dominant wolves. The pack do often have only one mating pair and that create’s less diversity within a single pack of wolves because only the dominant pair will breed. This ensures the pup’s will be strong but also limits the differences in the pack(7).
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Algonquin Provincial park is the largest area in north america that protects the eastern wolf. Many concerns have been made about the likelihood of population decline of eastern wolves in the park. Eastern wolves used to be hunted in the park and now they are protected from all harm within the park boundaries. Even though the wolves are safe within the boundaries they tend to travel outside resulting in high mortality rates because of hunting and trapping. The province used to offer bounties on wolves until 1972. The highest population densities of eastern wolves have been found in south-western Quebec and south-eastern Ontario. Much research was collected in the early 2000s to figure out exactly who the eastern wolf was to be classified. There has been much enhancements to keeping the eastern wolf population at a good level and what has to be done to keep the wolf population a good level(4).
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Algonquin park has been keeping track of their wolf population for many years now. They have been keeping track of where the wolves go and what causes them to die, keeping tabs on these wolves frequently. The adult wolves are fitted for a radio-collar while the younger pups will have a radio implant fitted. Since 2002 over 200 wolves have been tagged and over 80 of those are being tracked in Algonquin park. The wolves do not have to be handled again have they have been tagged and by locating the wolves there territory size, pack movement, den sites, and other aspects of the wolf ecology can be monitored. There has been a few updates to help keep track of the wolves, one has been GPS collars that more information can be uploaded straight from the collars to the planes above the collared wolf. These upgraded collar can pick up on more information than the earlier version, tracking more than just the movement of the wolf but also temperature, sound, and more. It has been very beneficial in collaring wolves to be able to find out more about them(9).
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