Personnel with Parks Canada are continuing a multi-year study on wolf predatory habits on plains bison in the Prince Albert National Park.
Ecologist Seth Cherry says last winter was the first for the pilot project and a number of satellite collars were placed on wolves to study movement and kill sites.
Cherry says, at one time, the bison population was around 500 but has dropped to about 250 and there is concern for the continued survival of the species.
“Wolves seem to have learned to hunt bison in the area and this is probably something that took a little while for them to catch on to after bison were re-introduced because bison had been absent from the landscape for several decades, but it seems now that some wolves have learned to hunt bison again,” he says.
Cherry says the satellite collars placed on several wolves provide GPS coordinates which make it possible to follow their movements on a daily basis.
“Look for areas where wolves would cluster in one area, in one spot over time and we would identify that as a potential kill site, so anywhere wolves are hanging out for an extended period of time it is possible they have a kill there so we would go visit those locations.”
He says the first rounds of data were gathered in January, February and March and the next phase of the study begins in October.