Post by grrraaahhh on Jan 16, 2011 9:41:15 GMT -9
This thread examines Black, Brown, & Polar Bear mortality associated with wolf predation and attacks.
Article extract from, INTERACTIONS OF WOLVES AND BLACK BEARS IN NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA. J. Mamm., 62(2):434-436, 1981.
Wolves (Canis lupus) and black bears (Ursus americanus) were sympatric throughout much of their former ranges in North America and still co-inhabit large parts of Canada, Alaska, and Minnesota (Hall and Kelson, 1959; Mech, 1970). However, the only published records of interactions between them are a trapper's description of wolves killing a black bear of unknown age and sex (Young and Goldman, 1944) and a report by Joslin (1966) of a black bear killing an adult female wolf near a den of pups. In addition, C. C. Dickson (pers. comm.) found that wolves killed an immature black bear in northern Ontario on 18 May 1979. We now report on interactions between wolves and bears observed during concurrent telemetry studies of both species in northeastern Minnesota between 1969 and 1979 (Rogers, 1977; Mech, 1979). Territories of wolves and bears commonly overlapped in this area.
Of 206 occupied bear dens examined one to eight times each, only two showed signs of being visited by wolves. Additional sign possibly was covered by snow. Dens differed in characteristics from secure caves or burrows to nests constructed above ground. In one of the two visits, tracks indicated that a wolf pack gathered at the den of a radio-collared, 5-year-old female on 10 November 1970. Her den was a 2-m deep burrow under a stump and had a single entrance that seemed barely large enough for the 43-kg bear to enter. The bear was shot in the abdomen 5 months earlier and died of her injuries about 24 November. However, the bear was still vigorous at the time of the visit (as evidenced by her subsequent travels), and there was no sign of physical contact between the bear and the wolves.
In the remaining instance of wolves visiting a bear den, a wolf pack that included radio-collared members killed a radio-collared, 16-year-old female bear and her newborn cubs on 17 or 18 February 1977. The wolf pack was known to consist of nine members, although only six were seen from the air on 18 February when the pack was resting near the partially eaten carcass. The bear's weight at the time of the attack was about 72 kg. Her den site, a shallow depression under five logs 10 to 30 cm in diameter, afforded her no protection on either side. Only 35 cm of snow had accumulated by 18 February, and the unusually light snowfall did not cover the den as it would have in most winters.
PDF LINK: www.bearstudy.org/website/images/stories/Publications/Interactions_of_Wolves_and_Bears.pdf
To be continued....
Article extract from, INTERACTIONS OF WOLVES AND BLACK BEARS IN NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA. J. Mamm., 62(2):434-436, 1981.
Wolves (Canis lupus) and black bears (Ursus americanus) were sympatric throughout much of their former ranges in North America and still co-inhabit large parts of Canada, Alaska, and Minnesota (Hall and Kelson, 1959; Mech, 1970). However, the only published records of interactions between them are a trapper's description of wolves killing a black bear of unknown age and sex (Young and Goldman, 1944) and a report by Joslin (1966) of a black bear killing an adult female wolf near a den of pups. In addition, C. C. Dickson (pers. comm.) found that wolves killed an immature black bear in northern Ontario on 18 May 1979. We now report on interactions between wolves and bears observed during concurrent telemetry studies of both species in northeastern Minnesota between 1969 and 1979 (Rogers, 1977; Mech, 1979). Territories of wolves and bears commonly overlapped in this area.
Of 206 occupied bear dens examined one to eight times each, only two showed signs of being visited by wolves. Additional sign possibly was covered by snow. Dens differed in characteristics from secure caves or burrows to nests constructed above ground. In one of the two visits, tracks indicated that a wolf pack gathered at the den of a radio-collared, 5-year-old female on 10 November 1970. Her den was a 2-m deep burrow under a stump and had a single entrance that seemed barely large enough for the 43-kg bear to enter. The bear was shot in the abdomen 5 months earlier and died of her injuries about 24 November. However, the bear was still vigorous at the time of the visit (as evidenced by her subsequent travels), and there was no sign of physical contact between the bear and the wolves.
In the remaining instance of wolves visiting a bear den, a wolf pack that included radio-collared members killed a radio-collared, 16-year-old female bear and her newborn cubs on 17 or 18 February 1977. The wolf pack was known to consist of nine members, although only six were seen from the air on 18 February when the pack was resting near the partially eaten carcass. The bear's weight at the time of the attack was about 72 kg. Her den site, a shallow depression under five logs 10 to 30 cm in diameter, afforded her no protection on either side. Only 35 cm of snow had accumulated by 18 February, and the unusually light snowfall did not cover the den as it would have in most winters.
PDF LINK: www.bearstudy.org/website/images/stories/Publications/Interactions_of_Wolves_and_Bears.pdf
To be continued....
