Always Cry Wolf: Naturalist speaks to the human fascination with wolves

by Jeff Green

---

The Tamworth library was packed to the rafters by 7:10  last Monday night, August 28, for the AGM of the Friends of the Salmon River .

To say that the organisers of the event were surprised by the crowd would be an understatement. Grey Merriam and John DuChene, from the headwaters of the Salmon River at Kennebec Lake, stood at the entrance to the library, trying to figure out how to entertain a crowd of about 125 people, knowing that many of them hadn’t just come out for the election of officers to the Friends of the Salmon. They wanted to hear from the guest speaker, Michael Runz, talk about his experiences with wolves.

And Runz was nowhere to be found.

He finally arrived just as Merriam was explaining the election process to the crowd, who were beginning to wilt in the hot building. The Tamworth Legion was offered up as an alternate site, and within minutes the library was emptied out as the crowd, by now reaching 150 people, scurried over to the air-conditioned Legion hall.

When Michael Runz began his talk and slide show, he said that wolves hold a special place in the psyche of humans, and the crowd that had come out to hear him speak was ample demonstration of that.

It could be the fact that wolves are rarely seen, but often heard; that they are heard at night; or that they kill big animals, Runz speculated, “but something about wolves, frightens us, reminds us of our own mortality.”

Runz, who lives at Cranberry Lake near Seeley’s Bay, has been studying plants, moose, beavers, and wolves and wolf habitat for many years, and has written six books on a variety of topics.

He has spent a lot of time in Algonquin Park , where there have been three large studies done on the wolf population.

“The Algonquin wolves have been studied more than any other wolf population I know of,” Runz said, “and the results have been more than interesting.”

 Until recently, Algonquin wolves were considered to be a small grey wolf. In 1995 DNA analysis showed that they are actually a distinct species known as the Eastern Red Wolf. While this species used to be prevalent in the eastern and south eastern United States , the only other population is now found in a small area in Southern Texas .

 “These wolves are smaller than a lot of dogs,” Runz said, with the males averaging 61 pounds and the females 54 pounds.”

Studies 30 years ago found that the wolves’ diet consisted of 80% white tailed deer, 10% moose and 10% beaver, but more recent studies have shown a dramatic change, with wolves’ diet now being made up of 33% deer, 33% beaver, and 33% moose. This is attributed by Runz to the available food supply in the park and vicinity.

Algonquin wolves live in packs of about seven animals, in which only the dominant pair mate, producing a single litter of 4-6 pups each year.

Winters are hard on wolves, and in an average winter close to half of the pack will perish, so the survival of the pups is crucial to the survival of the pack.

Red wolves are physically similar to coyotes, which are common in regions south of the park, and Runz said it is very difficult to tell them apart through sightings.

The call of a wolf and the call of a coyote are not at all similar, however, and after his talk Runz himself demonstrated the difference. Coyotes’ calls are high-pitched and variable, whereas a wolf call is lower and steadier, with a drop off at the end.

“Coyotes are a prairie animal, accustomed to open spaces, so their call is high since it will travel in the open air, whereas wolves are forest animals and have a lower call that can travel and be heard better in wooded areas,” Runz explained.

Each wolf has a distinctive voice, and Runz is able to determine if wolves are about by calling to them, since wolves will respond to a stranger’s call.

Coyotes and wolves have been known to inter-breed, but Runz said the populations are distinct and that as far as he knows inter-breeding is not happening currently.

“It’s great to know that there are wolves living around us,” Runz, concluded. “It tells us that there are wild spaces left that haven’t been destroyed.”