Pack movements and territories

A wolf pack may be territorial or migratory (Chapman, 1978). Mech (1973 cited in Mladenoff, 1995) in part defines wolf packs as subpopulation units that occupy consistent territories. The range of a traveling wolf pack depends on the individual wolves, the season, the nature of the country, and the availability of prey, among multiple other factors. In the spring, a lone male and a lone female find each other, mate, and produce pups in a den (Rothman and Mech, 1979 cited in Mech et al., 1998). Pack movements are centered around the den, but the adults radiate out to hunt and bring back food to the pups. Usually after a couple of months the pups leave the den and live above ground at rendezvous sites (Schullery, 1996). Starting in the fall the pups are grown enough to travel with the adults and the pack moves through its territory.

The pack's movement is outlined as two seasonal phases, den-based summer movement and nomadic winter movement (Mech et al., 1998). Therefore it is essential that there exist great areas of wild, mountain land for packs to travel and establish their own territories. Mech (1998) claims "wolves and long travel are almost synonymous." Wolf pack territories in Minnesota range from 25 square miles to 150 square miles, and in Alaska and Canada territories may be 200 to 1,000 square miles. The natural tendencies of wolves traveling through grand spaces is very important as packs are reintroduced to areas with infiltrating human impacts and increasing land fragmentation.

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