camp ripley and arden hills minnesota army national guard training ...

Wolf Monitoring Background
Section 4(g) of the Endangered Species Act requires the federal government (through the US
Fish and Wildlife Service) to monitor, for a minimum of five years, any species that is delisted due to
its recovery. The federal Endangered Species Act and the Minnesota Wolf Management Plan
encourage area-specific telemetry monitoring of wolves be continued. A great amount of information
has been gathered concerning Camp Ripley‟s wolf packs; however, questions remain concerning
survival rates, causes of mortality, and dispersal. Monitoring radio-collared wolves will provide
additional information concerning Camp Ripley‟s wolf packs.
Besides serving as a National Guard training facility, Camp Ripley is also a Minnesota
Statutory Game Refuge. Wolves were first documented on Camp Ripley in 1993. Camp Ripley
provides good quality habitat for wolves on the southern edge of the Minnesota gray wolf range. In
the past fifteen years, thirty-five wolves have been captured and radio-collared on Camp Ripley to
determine pack size, movements, causes of mortality, and possible effects of military training (Table
11). In addition, Camp Ripley is cooperating with the MNDNR Forest Wildlife Populations and
Research Group in developing a new winter track survey as part of the state wolf monitoring
program. Camp Ripley is the center of one of three sites selected for this research. Beginning in
September 2009, researchers radio-collared wolves on Camp and in the surrounding area to allow
locating known packs during winter track surveys.
Since 2001, Camp Ripley has supported two wolf packs. Research has demonstrated that
military training activities on Camp do not negatively affect wolves and the presence of wolves on
Camp has not resulted in any loss of training capabilities. In fact, this year more evidence was
obtained that wolves that move off Camp are moving into a more hostile environment where they die
from illegal and accidental killing by humans.
Wolf Movements and Status
At the beginning of 2009 three radio-collared wolves were on Camp Ripley, two in the north
pack and one in the south. Wolf #31 was first captured via helicopter in March 2008. A large (93 lb)
male, he was collared with a conventional Advanced Telemetry Systems VHF radio collar. In
October 2009, padded leg hold traps were set to capture additional wolves in each pack. The only
south pack wolf captured was #31; the current alpha male, he weighed 75 pounds and is now
estimated to be 6-7 years old. This was the only collared wolf in the south pack this year (Figure 40).
The only other wolf caught during fall trapping was a wolf pup (#35). Captured on October 6,
2009 he weighed 55 pounds. Because he was not fully grown he was collared with a padded VHF
collar (Figure 41). The padding on the collar will wear off allowing more room as he grows. A twoyear-old
female Wolf (#29) was also first captured in 2006. Due to military training we could not
locate her den sites. She was often found traveling with the alpha male and may have been the
breeding female in the north pack. Shortly after wolf #35 was collared, wolf #29‟s collar was
retrieved on November 5, 2009; it had been chewed off, probably by her pups (Figure 41). Because
additional wolves were not captured, a helicopter capture is planned for February 2010.
Page 59
2009 Conservation Program Report