CHAPTER 2: AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT 



Food Habits. The gray wolf is an opportunistic carnivore and is keenly adapted to hunt large prey 

 species such as deer, elk, and moose. Wolves may prey on smaller species, scavenge carrion or even eat 

 vegetation. In Montana, white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose make up the majority of wolf diets. 

 Ungulate species compose different proportions of wolf diets, depending on the relative abundance and 

 distribution of available prey within the territory. In northwestern Montana, white-tailed deer comprised 

 83% of wolf kills, whereas elk and moose comprised 14% and 3%, respectively (Kunkel et al. 1999). 

 However, 87% of wolf kills in YNP during 1999 were elk (Smith et al. 2000). 



Wolves also scavenge opportunistically on vehicle- or train-killed ungulates, winterkill, and on kills made 

 by other carnivores, particularly mountain lions. Wolves may also kill and feed upon domestic livestock 

 such as cattle, sheep, llamas, horses, or goats. They may also kill domestic dogs but usually do not feed 

 on the carcass. 



Movements and Territories. A pack establishes an annual home range or territory and defends it from 

 trespassing wolves. From late April until September, pack activity is centered at or near the den or 

 rendezvous sites, as adults hunt and bring food back to the pups. One or more rendezvous sites are used 

 after pups emerge from the den. These sites are in meadows or forest openings near the den, but 

 sometimes are several miles away. Adults will carry small pups to a rendezvous site. Pups travel and 

 hunt with the pack by September. The pack hunts throughout its territory until the following spring. 



Pack territory boundaries and sizes may vary from year to year. Similarly, a wolf pack may travel in its 

 territory differently from one year to the next because of changes in prey availability or distribution, 

 conflict with neighboring packs, or the establishment of a new neighboring pack. Because the attributes 

 of each pack's territory are so unique (elevations, land use, land ownership patterns, prey species present 

 and relative abundance, etc.), it is difficult to generalize about wolf territories and movements. 



After recolonizing the GNP area in the 1980s, individual wolves dispersed and established new packs and 

 territories elsewhere in western Montana. Wolves demonstrated a greater tolerance of human presence 

 and disturbance than previously thought characteristic of the species. It was previously believed that 

 higher elevation public lands would comprise the primary occupied habitats (Fritts et al.l994). While 

 some packs have established territories in backcountry areas, most preferred lower elevations and gentle 

 terrain where prey is more abundant, particularly in winter (Boyd-Heger 1997). In some settings, 

 geography dictates that wolf packs use or travel through private lands and co-exist in close proximity with 

 people and livestock. Since the first pack established a territory outside the GNP area in the early 1990s, 

 packs in northwestern Montana negotiated a wide spectrum of property ownerships and land uses. These 

 colonizers also settled across an array of rural development. 



With the exception of GNP packs, wolves in northwestern Montana move through a complex matrix of 

 public, private, and corporate-owned lands. (The same is true of newly established packs in other areas of 

 Montana.) Land uses range from dispersed outdoor recreation, timber production, or livestock grazing to 

 home sites within the rural-wildland interface, hobby farming/livestock, or full-scale resort developments 

 with golf courses. Landowner acceptance of wolf presence, and the use of private lands, is highly 

 variable in space and time. Given the mobility of the species and the extent to which these lands are 

 intermingled, it would not be unusual for a wolf to traverse each of these ownerships in a single day. 

 Private land may offer habitat features or concentrations of wintering ungulates that are especially 

 attractive to wolves so the pack may utilize those lands disproportionately more than other parts of their 

 territory. Certain land uses may increase the risk of wolf conflict with humans or livestock. 

 The eariiest colonizing wolves had large territories. Ream et al. (1991 ) reported an average of 460 square 

 miles (mi"). In recent years, average tenitoiy size decreased, probably as new territories filled in suitable, 

 unoccupied habitat. In the Northwestern Montana Recovery Area during 1999, the average territory size 



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