These Animals are Very Normal

September 24, 2023 8:06 PM

How to Count a Wolf describes the process of tracking wolves across many seasons in Washington. It's one of my all-time favorite videos on conservation.

(Disclosure: While I don't have any involvement in this project, I know a couple of people who do... Watching it the first time, when I saw the device in a ziplock bag stapled to a tree I knew exactly which lab WDFW was working with.)

posted by kaibutsu (5 comments total)

On a related topic, I remember reading about another UW study of a previously captured and subsequently radio-collared coyote -- a species that has been sighted over the tears in every neighborhood in Seattle including the Central Business District. The researchers had tracked the coyote all over Seattle. One time they had gotten to within 70 feet of the coyote where they had just parked their truck on a two lane highway a mile or two north of the city limits. Yet this coyote managed to cross the road against oncoming traffic in front of their truck and scamper off without a single person present ever laying eyes on it nor any camera recording it. That story has always stuck in my mind over the years ever since I first read it.
posted by y2karl at 9:38 PM on September 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

I’m glad they are working out less invasive ways to track the wolves. That whole tagging and collaring process looks unpleasant.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:49 AM on September 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

yeah, I started watching the vid but clicked out because I don't like watching people aiming guns at beautiful wild animals even though I know they are doing it for good reasons. I hope the woofs thrive!
posted by supermedusa at 8:28 AM on September 25, 2023

New wolf pack just revealed in Sequoia NP. party of five 200 miles from nearest relative packs.
posted by hortense at 9:04 AM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

There's a single wolf on my land. He isn't there all the time, but he keeps a stash of food that my dog steals from. Nearly all my neighbours have seen him, and some have taken videos that I have seen, but because I have a huge dog, and I live in an old-fashioned house with small windows, I haven't seen him yet.
I really hope he finds a family, it must be sad to be a lone wolf. But it seems the female aren't wandering as far from home.
posted by mumimor at 3:34 PM on September 26, 2023