Timber wolf (Canis lupus) field studies conducted by high school students, Sandhill Wildlife Area, WI

Richard P. Thiel, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Sandhill Wildlife Area, PO Box 156, Babcock, WI 54413, USA

Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center (OSC) is a DNR run wildlife educational facility that offers Wisconsin citizens opportunities to learn various outdoor skills such as hunting, trapping, low-impact camping, and bird watching. Additional activities focus on increasing public awareness of wildlife and their needs, and the manners in which wild animal populations are professionally managed.

In 1995 the OSC initiated its High School Independent Studies (HSIS) program. The program's objectives include: (1) providing students opportunities to experience how biologists utilize scientific methodology in studying wild animal populations, (2) exposing students to the long-term nature of most scientific work, and (3) providing comprehensive learning experiences for students interested in careers in science and/or wildlife.

In early autumn, high school science teachers from surrounding school districts are mailed packets that include the program's objectives, study proposals, minimum qualifications, and application information. Applicants are selected following interviews, and are put through a 1-day training program that briefs them on the purpose of the study, and provides pertinent information on species biology, orienteering, and personal safety and first aid techniques. Students are assigned professional readings to increase their knowledge base on wolf-prey dynamics. They are also briefed in taking field notes, and are taught to record their observations in a master ledger. Students work in 2-person teams and report to Sandhill according to an assigned schedule, one-day every other week in lieu of attending school. At the end of the field season, all students assigned to the project reassemble and quantify study results, integrating their findings with the works of other scientists, and arriving at conclusions. About half of these students are required by their teachers to write reports summarizing their findings.

Each year 2 to 4 projects are offered. One project, offered since 1995-96, is designed to assess the consumption rate on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) by timber wolves (Canis lupus). A lone male wolf escaped into Sandhill in May 1995 after being placed in a dog kennel to recuperate following a telemetry trapping related injury. Sandhill is a 31 km2 deer research facility surrounded by a 3 m tall, deer-proof fence. Annual human harvest data have been maintained by DNR since 1962, providing biologists with accurate data on the sex-age characteristics of the deer herd. This database proves useful in determining the consumption rate of this lone wolf.

Ninety-seven high school juniors and seniors have participated in the wolf deer consumption field study at Sandhill Wildlife Area, Wood County, WI since winter 1995-96 (24/year). In the 4 years of study, high school students spent 102 days afield; walking 961 km in search of wolf trails, and followed the wolf's trails in snow a total of 173 km. They encountered 14 kills (12.3 km of trail/kill). Kill rates varied between winters depending on winter severity. Utilization rates were inversely related to winter severity, with the wolf eating > 80 percent of kills in mild winters and approximately 50 percent from kills during the one severe winter (1996-97). The wolf (and coyotes [Canis latrans]) killed a disproportionately larger percentage of fawns and old-aged deer (>5.5 years) compared to hunters, who took disproportionately more prime-aged (1.5 - 5.5 years old) and old-aged deer. The wolf's consumption rate varied between years from a low of 2.8 Kg/day to a high of 4.4 Kg/day. Based on these figures, the students estimated that the wolf killed and consumed 23 deer on Sandhill in 1998-99. This represents a removal of nearly 0.75 deer/km2 from a population density estimated at 11.3 deer/km2.

The HSIS program has been highly successful in accomplishing its goals. Students participating in this project walk away with a much better perspective of the impacts of habitat and weather on survival of wildlife, the efforts made in studying and managing wildlife, and a heightened awareness of wolf and deer ecology.