Passive Tracking of Wild Wolves in Central Wisconsin
The gray wolf (Canis lupus nubilus) population in Wisconsin has largely been increasing since they first dispersed to the state in the early 1980s. The 2017-2018 winter count produced an estimated total population of 905-944 wolves (Wiedenhoeft et al., 2018).
As the wolf population increased, there was a proportional increase in the number of human-wolf conflicts. Tracking the location of the packs that are more frequently involved in conflicts, allows for the proactive and non-lethal management of human-wolf conflict, rather than reactive culling and illegal kills. Though radio-collaring and tracking individuals is effective, it is also costly and invasive. Passive acoustic monitoring of packs offers a non-invasive approach to tracking pack movements.
On March 18 at 6 p.m. eastern, join the Wolf Conservation Center for a free webinar with Dr Angela Dassow to learn how acoustic monitoring and tracking of packs works and also how acoustic monitoring can provide insight into pack dynamics.
About The Speaker:
Angela Dassow earned her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014 and is now a Biology Professor at Carthage College. Angela’s research focuses on exploring vocal communication systems of vertebrates by characterizing commonalities derived through evolution and searching call sequences for the potential of linguistic structure. As part of this line of research, she is also interested in developing non-invasive approaches to monitoring populations in the wild.