How Do Researchers Use Telemetry to Track Wolves?
First, the researcher live-traps a wolf. One method uses a foot-hold trap that has been modified to minimize injury to the wolf. The wolf is drugged so that it can be measured, given blood tests, fitted with a radio collar and released. The researcher can home-in on the collared wolf from about 30 miles away by airplane. Once the wolf is located, biologists record where the wolf is, what it is doing, and how large its pack is. What Have We Learned? • Radio-tracking of wolves has produced information such as these important wolf facts: • Wolf packs each live in separate territories. In Minnesota, territory sizes range from 30 to 150 square miles. • Wolves in Minnesota usually disperse from the packs in which they are born at one to two years of age. • Dispersing wolves may travel straight-line distances of more than 500 miles. • Minnesota wolves have dispersed into Wisconsin and Michigan and helped repopulate those states. • Dispersing wolves seek areas without wolves, find mates, and i
