We gave Don a great big hug, tossed his travel bag on the ice, re-installed research equipment, and refueled the plane.  Don and Rolf took off for our first glimpse of Isle Royale in well over a week.  It began snowing, and the flight was short, but it felt good to be flying after too long, and it felt good to be back in business.  All that we learned from that flight was that Middle Pack had been spending some time just a few miles North of our bunkhouse here in Windigo.

 

      I flew with Don in the morning, and Rolf flew with Don in the afternoon.  Here is a passage from Rolf’s notes from the day:

 

“In the morning, John had seen the Chippewa Harbor Pack with six wolves lounging near an old kill near Lake Richie.  By early afternoon they were on the move, heading west overland, walking easily on top of the crusted snow.  We checked on them one more time, about 5PM.  We circled the signals of two collared wolves repeatedly, trying to spot them in thick cedar cover.  Finally six wolves came running out of the lowland, crossed a ridge, and plunged into another thick swamp, running full tilt.  We guessed they were chasing a moose, but when we next found them a half-mile away, still running at top speed, we considered a wolf was the likely quarry.  They were running cross-island now, directly toward the north shore near Todd Harbor campground.  We circled the scene, and finally found the wolf who was being chased.  Gaining was a year-old collared male wolf, but finding no other wolves in his company, he gave up the chase and turned back to the main group, now gathered in a rally that seemed centered on the whitish alpha male.

 

 

Meanwhile, the wolf being chased did not slow down, but ran out onto the rough ice of Todd Harbor, then turned and ran rapidly SW along the shore for another mile before slowing down and frequently checking its back-trail.  We snapped off some photos on the open ice, hoping these might help us identify the wolf.  The chase had occurred in a part of the island that has been claimed by the Paduka Pack during the past two winters, but also an area where Chippewa Harbor Pack regularly makes forays. The chased wolf is shown above, with his tongue hanging low.  

 

Back at the bunkhouse at Windigo, we downloaded the photos and found that the wolf being chased was a large wolf, probably a male, getting gray around the head from aging.  This wolf was noticeably grayer than the Paduka male last year, but overall the two wolves shared many similar features.  However, gray wolves are very difficult to distinguish from other gray wolves, and we were left with a ‘maybe’ identification—the wolf running for its life could easily be the Paduka male, now alone, but there is no proof just yet.”

 

       Don fought the wind and we pinpointed the locations from where the wolves’ radio collars were emitting their signals.  Between wind and thick swamps, we never saw Middle Pack or Chippewa Harbor Pack; we only heard the beeps of their radio collars.  

       Despite bumps in the air and thick spruce on the ground, we saw (just west of Mount Franklin) a lone, male wolf challenge a cow for her otherwise defenseless calf.  We caught glimpses of the encounter just once for every six or seven of the circles we made.  Tomorrow we’ll see if he’s able to turn this encounter into a meal.  

      This wolf (who wears a radio collar) had been living with the pack to which he was born, Chippewa Harbor Pack.  But this winter we’ve never seen him with the pack.  He’s been trying to make it on his own, and in doing so he faces two great challenges: killing moose by himself and finding a mate.  And, mating season is fast approaching; it commences shortly after our Valentine’s Day.

     The lone wolf has been spending most of his time in territory that East Pack once held.  His continued presence in that territory reinforces our thinking that East Pack did not survive the summer.