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What’s InsideAlaska’s Wolves: Something to Howl About ........................p. 2Wolf Watching Rules ............................................................p. 3 The “First Family” of American Wolves ...............................p. 4 The Big, Bad Wolf: Fact vs. Fiction.......................................p. 4Fast Facts About Wolves ........................................................p. 4

All About Wolves in Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali Tracker is a collaboration of the National Park Service andDefenders of Wildlife, a national nonprofit conservation grouplong involved in wolf conservation and recovery. Its purpose is toeducate visitors about the wolves of Denali National Park andPreserve and to encourage responsible and rewarding wolf viewingin the park. For more information on Defenders of Wildlife, visitwww.defenders.org.

Denali Tracker is funded by the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation andcompiled by Joel Bennett and Karen Deatherage.

WELCOME TO DENALI WOLF TRACKER

ith about 100 wolvescovering terrain in 6-million-acre Denali

National Park and Preserve, youjust might see one — maybe evena whole pack.

Odds are best along the first 50miles of road past the park’sentrance, a section that traversesthe territories of two packs, theMount Margaret and the East Fork(also known as the Toklat).

To spot members of the MountMargaret wolf pack, keep your eyespeeled along the first 14 miles ofthe park road. Be on the lookoutfor members of the East Fork packbetween the Teklanika campground

and the Toklat River. Althoughthese packs are used to the presenceof humans, park visitors can createproblems for them and otherwolves through actions that inter-fere with a wolf’s natural wildbehavior. Feeding wolves or allow-ing them to approach closely canreduce their natural wariness ofpeople, which can lead to fearlessbehavior.

In recent years, wolves havebeen seen in and around Denali’sTeklanika and Igloo campgrounds.This prompted park officials toclose Igloo, a small walk-in camp-ground, and to prohibit tentcamping at Teklanika in 2002.

Keeping Up With the Pack in Denali

Glimpsing an Elusive PredatorBy Joel Bennett

am always astonished athow wolves seem to appearout of nowhere in the wilds

of Alaska. From an empty hor-izon or the edge of an endlesswinding river course, all of asudden they are there, instantlyenergizing the landscape.

One day near Primrose Ridgein Denali, I was filming a grizzlybear mother and her cub feedingon berries in heavy brush. Thecub began acting nervously. Themother bear charged. In a blurof activity, an adult wolf burstfrom the brush followed by themassive grizzly in close pursuit.In a split second it was over. Thetwo bears were together again,and the wolf had disappeared.

Another time, farther north,a band of caribou with newborncalves fanned out into a clear-ing in front of the camera. Inoticed one skittish cow in the

lead moving forward, cautiouslystopping and starting and look-ing from side to side. SomehowI had failed to see a lone wolfthat had been stalking the ani-mals from a sparse line of wil-low shrubs paralleling theirroute. The wolf raced into theopen and within secondscareened into the frightenedherd, seizing a fleeing calf. It alltook less than a minute.

As you pass through Denali,remember that casually lookingaround for wolves is notenough. Concentrate intensely.Look hard out at the same pieceof land for a time. Then lookagain. There’s a wolf out theresomewhere. Sooner or later youwill see it.

Joel Bennett is Defenders’ Alaskan represen-

tative and an accomplished wildlife film-

maker and photographer.

FOR WOLF WATCHING RULES, SEE PAGE 3.

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Denali Wolf Tracker

laska—it’s a land wherethe caribou populationoutnumbers the people

and where vast stretches of wilder-ness remain pristine. It’s also theonly state in the union wherewolves still thrive and don’t needprotection under the EndangeredSpecies Act.

Estimated at some 7,500 to10,000 animals and covering morethan 85 percent of the state,Alaska’s wolf population is distrib-uted among several hundredpacks. Wolf numbers vary geo-graphically, generally in accor-

dance with the abundance of theirungulate prey. While wolves stillface many human pressures, theyhave a reputation for adaptabilityand survival—if ample food andsuitable wild habitat are available.

PACKING IT IN

In Denali National Park, thewolf population fluctuates fromyear to year but averages about100 wolves in 12 to 23 packs, orfamily groups. Packs, which areusually named for a river, moun-

tain or some other prominent geo-graphic feature within their territo-ry, vary in size from two to nearly30 members in Denali.

Each pack defends a territorythat can cover from 200 to 800square miles. Wolf packs are foundthroughout the park, but mostoccupy the northern two-thirdswhere broad glacial river valleysprovide plenty of food for mooseand other prey. Some packs, suchas the ones found on the HerronRiver or in the northern KantishnaHills, are rarely encountered byvisitors. Others, such as the MountMargaret and East Fork packs nearthe park’s eastern end, are seen fre-quently. Some Denali wolves alsotravel outside park borders.

Wolf packs are well-organizedfamilies. Typically there is onlyone breeding pair called the alphamale and female. Their pups areborn in spring and are cared for byall family members until theybecome independent in the fall.

Packs are forever changing.Juvenile wolves typically leave thegroup to form new packs or to joinother packs, and roughly 30 per-cent of wolves under the age ofthree disperse into territories out-side the park each year. Entirepacks may die out, but their territo-ries are reoccupied by new packsformed by dispersers or neighbor-ing packs.

Wolves communicate closely,using body language, scent mark-ing and howling. In packs, theywork as a team to hunt and defendtheir territories against threatsfrom other wolves.

IN PURSUIT OF PREY

Almost any animal is fair game,but moose, caribou and Dall sheepare the mainstays of the wolf’s dietin interior Alaska. Of the smallermammals available, beavers, hares,marmots and ground squirrels areoften eaten by wolves. Wolves fol-low the daily and seasonal move-ments of the large prey animals,sometimes traveling more than 100miles a day.

Moose are by far the largestprey animals pursued by wolves inDenali. At present, they are moder-ately plentiful, numbering morethan 2,000.

Weighing in at 1,000 pounds ormore, an adult moose is difficultto kill and can require several daysof pursuit, but it will feed an aver-age size wolf pack for many days.To have such a feast, wolves riskinjury and use all the resources ofthe pack to make the kill.

With an average weight of 275pounds, caribou are the secondmost preferred prey species forDenali’s wolves. The Denali cari-bou herd, which has fluctuatedfrom 1,000 to more than 3,000animals during the past 25 years,currently numbers about 1,750. Insummer, caribou are scatteredthroughout the alpine tundra inthe Alaska Range and its foothills.In the winter, they are found inthe lower elevation tussock tundraand spruce woodlands across thenorthern reaches of the park. Theherd moves through the centraland western sectors of the parkseasonally, feeding on lichens and

other vegetation. Wolves pursuenewborns on the caribou calvinggrounds and look for older bullsworn down by fights during thefall mating season. In the winter, ifmore caribou than needed arekilled, wolves return repeatedly tofeed on the frozen carcasses.

The wolf’s third mainstay, Dallsheep, are mountain animals thatare especially vulnerable if caughtoff their terrain. They are smallerthan caribou and moose — usuallyless than 140 pounds — but withabout 2,000 sheep in the park,they are a regular food source forthe packs that cover their range.

As wolves and their prey inter-act, other carnivores come intoplay. The wolf’s foremost adver-sary is the grizzly bear, whichcompetes for food as both ahunter and scavenger. Conflictsover moose are most frequent, butbears are wide-ranging andencounter wolves near dens andaround other kills. The carcassesof animals killed by wolves alsoprovide meat for scavengers suchas foxes, coyotes, wolverines,martens and ravens.

Alaska’s Wolves: Something to Howl About

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Wolves are an essential component of healthy ecosystems.Without wolves and other top predators and the complex predator-prey relationships that have evolved over thousands of years, biodi-versity would be lost.

Although wolves do take healthy prey, they tend to kill the mostvulnerable animals — the young, the old, the injured or the sick.

The removal of these weaker individuals may decrease the competi-tion for food among the healthier prey animals that remain. Thesame principle applies to wolves: Wolves that are sick, injured, weakor slow to master hunting skills either die or disperse. Over manygenerations, this helps prey and predator alike become better adapt-ed for survival.

THE BENEFITS OF WOLVES

Denali Wolf Tracker

• Please don’t feed the wolves! Don’tuse food or other enticements toencourage wolves to stay near a camp-ground or viewing area for photos orother reasons. Feeding wild animalsmakes them dependent on humansand can lead to fearless behavior. It isalso against the law and punishable bya $150 fine.

• When traveling the park road on the busor in your vehicle, stay inside and keepquiet. Don’t hang out of the windows orthrow food or objects out of them

• If you are traveling on foot or by bike,don’t approach any wolf or allow it toapproach you within a quarter mile.Getting too close to wolves can lessentheir natural wariness of humans andreinforce fearless behavior.

• If a wolf approaches you, don’t turn

your back on it or run away. Back awayslowly. Wave your arms, stomp yourfeet and yell, bang pots and pans ormake other loud noises.

• If you are camping, maintain a cleancampsite and don’t allow wolves toapproach. Don’t leave food, trash orpersonal belongings unattended.Wolves are naturally curious andattracted to human odors and objects;don’t entice them and get them usedto the presence of humans.

• Don’t leave pets unattended. Walkdogs only on the park road or withincampgrounds or parking areas and dis-pose of their waste properly.

• Report any encounters with wolves tothe nearest park ranger, or go to oneof the two park visitor centers and fillout a “wolf encounter form.”

WOLF WATCHING RULES

Close Encounters of the Wolf Kind Keep Denali’s legendary wolf packs wild!

Follow these rules.

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Denali Wolf Tracker

Fast Facts About Wolves

Appearance: Denali’s wolves belong to the species known asgray wolves (Canis lupus), although they can be gray, tan, brown,black or white. Their eyes are yellow or greenish-brown. Adultwolves stand 26 to 32 inches at the shoulder. The average weight is87 pounds for an adult female, 100 pounds for an adult male.

Food: Wolves are carnivores. They eat mainly meat. Their preyconsists of caribou, moose, Dall sheep and sometimes beaver, snow-shoe hare and ground squirrels.

Social Structure: Wolves are social creatures. In Denali, packsor family groups have ranged from two to 29 wolves, but usuallyare made up of five to eight animals. A typical pack includes abreeding pair of adults, three or four pups born in mid-May andpossibly a couple of older offspring. Adult pack members worktogether to hunt and care for the young.

Communication: Wolves communicate through facial expres-sions and body postures, scent markings and a wide range of vocal-izations including barks, whimpers, growls and howls.

Lifespan and Mortality: Wolves in Denali may live as longas 12 years, but less than half make it to their third birthdays. Mostwolf deaths in the park result from confrontations with neighbor-ing packs. Wolves also die from starvation, disease, accidents, injuryand old age. Subsistence hunting and trapping are allowed in someareas of Denali National Park and Preserve. General trapping andsport hunting are allowed on the state lands bordering Denali withthe exception of a 125-square-mile buffer zone outside the easternend of the park that helps protect the East Fork and Mount Margaretpacks when they leave the park to hunt.

f you take the bus into DenaliNational Park, the driver willlikely point out a small cabin

overlooking the braided waters ofthe East Fork River. This is thecabin used by biologist AdolphMurie, who was commissioned bythe National Park Service in thelate 1930s to study the impact ofwolves on the park’s Dall sheep.

Armed with pencil, notebookand compass, Murie closelyobserved wolves in the East Forkarea of the park and produced TheWolves of Mount McKinley, the firstpublished study of wolves in thewild. In this landmark work,

Murie noted that wolf packs arebasically families and that forevery successful attempt at takingprey, wolves make many unsuc-cessful ones. He concluded thatthe East Fork wolves usuallypreyed on the most vulnerableDall sheep: lambs and old ordebilitated adults.

Remarkably, Murie presentedhis findings in a way thatappealed to scientists and laymenalike. According to Alaska histori-an Timothy Rawson, with thepublication of Murie's study in1944, Denali’s East Fork wolvesand their offspring “became the‘First Family’ of American wolves,delighting many thousands ofreaders and visitors.”

Research on Denali’s wolvescontinues. Throughout the park.aircraft, radio telemetry, moleculargenetics and biochemistry arebeing used to gather data to fur-ther our understanding of theecology of gray wolves and theirprey in the Denali ecosystem.

Look for Murie’s classic studyand other books about Denali’swolves, such as The Wolves ofDenali by L. David Mech and“Changing Tracks” by TimothyRawson, at the Denali visitor cen-ter bookstore.

The “First Family” ofAmerican Wolves

emember the fairy tale of Little RedRiding Hood and how the wolf ateher grandmother? Here’s the true

story: There’s no such thing as the big badwolf. Wolves are not naturally aggressive ordangerous to people. In fact, in NorthAmerica there have been only 18 reportedwolf attacks since 1969 and no documentedfatalities. Domestic dogs, on the other hand,are responsible for more than 4.7 millionbites and a dozen fatalities a year.

Wolves are wild animals and behavequite differently than their domesticated rel-atives. For example, unlike Spot and Rover,wolves usually do not show aggression bygrowling, barking or raising their hackles .

Wolves are naturally curious but waryanimals and typically stay away from areasof human activity. In recent years, however,several wolves in Denali have displayedincreasingly bold and sometimes fearlessbehavior. “Fearless” describes wolves that

have become comfortable enough withhuman presence and activity in the park toapproach or follow people, take shoes andbackpacks and sniff around tents.

Fearless behavior develops when wolvesfrequently encounter people and are encour-aged to approach or rewarded with food.This behavior can lead to serious problems,so please follow the “Wolf Watching Rules”listed on page 3 and help keep Denali’swolves wild.

The Big, Bad Wolf: Fact vs. Fiction

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To find out more about wolves, check out the following Web sites:

www.nps.gov/dena | www.defenders.org

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