wolf on the harbor
22-24 Feb
Winter Study
notes from the field
 
 
22 Feb -  I spent much of the day picking up another kill that Middle Pack had made earlier this month.  
     With good eyes, a bright sun, and some fortune, Don and Rolf found tracks made by Paduka Pack (see map).  At the end of the day, Don and Rolf even caught up to the wolves, themselves.  Their territory now appears more extensive than we had first thought.
     Middle Pack and Chippewa Harbor Pack remained at their respective kill sites.
     East Pack traveled along the territorial boundary between East Pack and Chippewa Harbor Pack, from Bangsund to the southwest end of Moskey Basin.  Here, EP spent much time investigating tracks and scent posts made by CHP.  At this time, EP and CHP are separated by just about 2 miles.      
 
23 Feb - Middle Pack left their kill site and traveled south through Senter Point to Lake Halloran and then to the South Shore where they continued southwest.  
     For a day and a half now, East Pack and Chippewa Harbor Pack held their positions – CHP at a kill site deep within their where they seemed to feel safe, and EP at the edge of CHP territory.  East Pack appears to be thinking about territorial boundaries more than food or mating.
    We saw a lone wolf just north of Mason Lake in the morning.  Later in the day, we saw a lone wolf traveling southwest to Malone Bay.  Digital photographs suggest these to be the same wolf.  
    We found Paduka Pack bedded just southwest of Hatchet Lake.  They were bedded next to what appears to be a kill site.  
    Between making these observations, Rolf picked up a kill on the south side of Moskey Basin, and I pick up another near McCargo Cove.
 
24 Feb - We took off from Washington Harbor into a warm, hazy sky.  We found Middle Pack right away bedded on the south shore near Long Point, then Paduka Pack bedded at their kill site.
   For the third consecutive day, East Pack continued to maintain their threatening position on Moskey Basin.  During the night, Chippewa Harbor Pack slipped out the back door - so to speak (see map).  By mid-morning they were just returning to the kill site they’d been at for the past several days.  
    To the south, Lake Superior was blanketed with a soupy fog.  We watched a lone wolf travel down several miles of Siskiwit Lake’s north shore.  After a while we landed to take a short break - stretch our legs, take a pee, and have a granola bar.  After becoming airborne again, the fog was beginning to creep closer to the island.  We headed home.  
 
   Fog arrived just as we were to land in Washington Harbor.  Just one unlikely problem.  A lone wolf was bedded right in the middle of the harbor - 200 yards from the main dock of Windigo, right where we’d like to land.  Under different circumstances,  we would have landed on some other lake and returned later - after all, the place is more their home than ours.  Now, this was not an option, with the thickening fog.  So we just circled the harbor, thinking about what to do.  It is easily possible to chase the wolf away with the plane, but it would be gravely detrimental to our effort to do anything that would make the wolves afraid of the plane.  So we circled so more.
    Before long, Rolf and Larry (Park Service Ranger) can to our assistance (see image).  With some effort, they were able to get the wolf to run off into the forest, and we safely landed.
 
 
East Pack spent several days making their presence known on Moskey Basin, the boundary between East Pack and Chippewa Harbor Pack.
- Middle Pack traveled south and southwest, leaving their kill site. - Paduka Pack’s tracks went in a counter-clockwise direction, ending at their new kill site. - East pack patrolled Moskey Basin, and even made a kill in what had been CHP territory. - Chippewa Harbor Pack traveled on the night of the 23rd in a counter-clockwise direction - perhaps just to relieve some of the pressure of East Pack’s intense presence.
Most Recent Travel Routes of Isle Royale Wolves
.
.