

The major advance in woodland caribou research involved the co-operation of 

 a graduate student and staff at the Ontario Agricultural College. A complete, de- 

 tailed cover-type map of the Patricia Districts north of latitude 54° is now being 

 produced to relate caribou distribution and movements to food and shelter. The 

 map will also be useful for other wildlife research and renewable resources surveys. 



The Algonquin Provincial Park project, a part of the predator research pro- 

 gramme, was completed in the autumn of 1964. Eighty-one wolves were trapped 

 from the south-west quarter of the Park to measure the effect on the population of 

 five years of protection. Comparison with the age structure of wolf populations else- 

 where in Ontario, where there is a continual drain from trapping and hunting, 

 showed that protection decreases the production or survival of young animals. 

 Essentially, the protected population snowed evidence that some mechanism or 

 mechanisms limit total numbers. Food was not considered to be an important factor 

 since there is an abundance of deer, beaver and other food supplies in the Park. 

 Tentative conclusions are that behavioral or physiological factors are responsible 

 for limiting population increases. 



Application of research results and the experience gained in trapping pro- 

 grammes now form a major part of the predator research and management pro- 

 gramme. Additional predator control officers were trained during the trapping pro- 

 gramme in Algonquin Provincial Park. The thorough investigations of complaints 

 of predation and the intensive control techniques used by predator control officers 

 are now eliminating most of the problems of predation on livestock throughout the 

 province. 



FISHERIES RESEARCH I 



The fisheries research programme has been developed to obtajn the new facts 

 and to develop the new techniques necessary to the complex job of management 

 of both sport and commercial fisheries in Ontario. Constant attention is given to 

 the task of selecting, from the many problems suggested, those which, when solved, 

 will provide the greatest advantage to management throughout the Province, rather 

 than locally. Selection of research projects is possible only through a close work- 

 ing relationship between management and research staff. 



During 1964, a new research programme was launched with the object of 

 developing a practical classification system for Ontario's lakes, based on their 

 potential for fish production. Such a system, it is expected, will provide a yard- 

 stick against which biologists may measure the current production level of any 

 lake to determine whether it is less than that which is to be expected over a long 

 period of time. This research programme should be of value to both commercial 

 and sport fish research and to management. 



Progress of research in all established units was considered satisfactory, in 

 view of present staff and facilities. Planned additions to staff and facilities are 

 necessary so that highly trained research personnel may be used most efficiently. 

 Competition from other research agencies and universities is becoming an increas- 

 ingly serious problem in maintaining and further developing the programme. 



Great Lakes Fisheries 



LAKE ONTARIO 



The whitefish fishery in Lake Ontario continued its sharp downward trend in 

 1964. Very few young fish were taken, either by commercial fishermen or by 

 experimental fishing gear. On the basis of age determinations from samples avail- 



234 



