Details of Extensive Movements by Minnesota Wolves (Canis lupus)

Study Area

One wolf in our study left from the east-central Superior National Forest (48°N, 92°W) in northeastern Minnesota, where the terrain is flat with low ridges and the vegetation consists primarily of cut-over transitional deciduous and boreal forest (Mech, 1987). The area has long been saturated with wolf pack territories (Mech, 1973, 1986). Three other wolves made long extraterritorial movements from a wolf population at Camp Ripley, a 21,400 ha National Guard Training Site in Little Falls, Minnesota (46°N, 95°W) at the southern edge of wolf range. The terrain is generally flat and the major cover is northern hardwood forest (primarily Quercus, Populus and Betula spp.) interspersed with large open areas (grasslands, wetlands and military firing ranges). Camp Ripley is located at the prairie-forest transition zone of central Minnesota. It is surrounded on the east and south by agricultural lands, and on the north and west by forest interspersed with agricultural development.

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