42 



FISH AND WILDLIFE TECHNICAL REPORT 30 



Fig. 39. Movements of an adult male wolf in 

 northwestern Alaska April 1987-February 

 1988. Data courtesy of W. Ballard, Alaska 

 Department of Fish and Game. 



Kobuk Valley 

 National Park 



o Kilometers so Selqwik National Wildlife Refuge 



I 



bottom of the canister. In our studies of captive wolves, the 

 canister rested against the wolf's chest, and the mercury 

 switch was activated by even slight body movements, 

 including breathing motions as the wolf rested. We attrib- 

 ute the seeming inability to detect activity patterns in the 

 wolf to improper orientation of the mercury switch, and 

 we recommend that future researchers orient the anterior 

 end of the switch +2 1-6 relative to the bottom of the 

 canister. Switches elevated at the anterior end should be 

 less sensitive to slight body motions such as breathing but 

 still be activated by body movements during activity. Cal- 

 ibration studies to determine the best switch orientation 

 for wolves need to be conducted using captive wolves. 

 Six wolves are currently being tracked using the Argos 

 DCLS (Ballard et al. 1990). Preliminary analyses suggest 

 that home ranges estimated from satellite-determined lo- 

 cations are 75% larger than those from relocations ob- 

 tained by conventional methods (fixed-wing aircraft; Bal- 



lard and Fancy 1989). Larger estimates of home range 

 seem to be the result of greater numbers of relocations, 

 detection of unusual movements, and more consistent 

 coverage than that provided by conventional methods; this 

 can be only partly explained by errors associated with 

 locations determined by satellite. Consistent and frequent 

 relocation of wolves using satellites provides data sets for 

 evaluating wolf movements and home range that are supe- 

 rior to those provided by conventional methods, partic- 

 ularly in remote areas. 



Walrus: Bristol Bay, Alaska 



The status of the Pacific walrus population has been 

 assessed with aerial surveys (Estes and Gilbert 1978), but 

 most surveys include biases that can be difficult to quan- 

 tify. In particular, walruses cannot be observed while div- 

 ing but can be observed relatively easily when hauled out 



