Annual report on vital signs monitoring of wolf (Canis lupus) distribution and abundance in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Central Alaska Network: 2010 report
Burch J. 2011. Annual report on vital signs monitoring of wolf (Canis lupus) distribution and abundance in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Central Alaska Network: 2010 report. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/CAKN/NRTR—2011/468. National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. Fort Collins, Colorado
2010 Annual report on vital signs monitoring of wolf (Canis lupus) distribution and abundance in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Central Alaska Network: 2010 report. This report covers biological year from May1, 2009 to April 30, 2010. Wolf captures were conducted in December 2009 and February 2010. In winter 09-10, nine more wolves in 7 packs were captured and collared. Two packs were found by snowtracking. At least 2 areas where packs once lived remain without collared wolves and we hope to find and capture wolves from these packs in winter 10-11. A new measure was developed this year to help make management decisions quickly: the drop in counts of wolves from fall (September/October) to Spring (march and April). This year the counts dropped from 52 to 31 wolves, a decline of 41% which is outside the range of 14 previous years of data. The Fall 2009 wolf density (3.52 wolves/1000 km2) was below the average of 4.18 for fall wolf density measured in Yuch since 1993, this was followed by a spring 2010 density of 2.10 wolves/1000 km2 which is also below the overall average of 2.75. Fall 2009 mean pack size was 5.8 wolves/ pack. Fall 2009 average litter size was 2.8 pups/ pack. Only 1wolf was trapped or snared within YUCH in winter 2009-10.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Burch, John
- Date of Issue
- 2011-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science
- Units
- NRSS
- Keywords
- Canis lupus, density estimation., Population Dynamics, Radiotelemetry, Wolves, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve