Available online at:

http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~rgarrott/wolfungulate/reports.htm

--
Excerpts from the Summary:

“The lower Madison valley wolf-ungulate research project is designed to investigate demographic and behavioral interactions between wolves and ungulates, and the project completed its third year of data collection in the 2002-03 winter. Data collection focuses on ungulate populations, wolf populations and predation, hunter harvest, ungulate behavior, and environmental conditions.”

“… approximately 2300-2600 elk wintered in the study area in each of the last three winters... less than 50 and approximately 150, respectively, numbers of pronghorn and mule deer in the study area during mid-winter… The Taylor Peak II wolf pack, consisting of four animals, used the study area in 2002-03...”

“Fifty-four definite and probable wolf kills were located in 2002-03… wolf predation focused on elk, particularly elk calves. Kill rates per wolf are high in this study area compared to other areas, and vary throughout the winter. Even with such high wolf kill rates (average 11.2 elk kills/wolf/100 days in 2001-02 and 13.75 elk kills/wolf/100 days in 2002-03, the two years during which wolf tracking protocol was fully developed and implemented), the modest number of wolves occupying the study area has resulted in predation losses that represent less than 7% of the elk calves and less than 5% of the elk cows present in the study area during each of the last two winters… Hunters harvested 135 elk in the study area over the 2002-03 winter…”

“Thus far, elk distribution appears to be more dynamic in areas used frequently by wolves, perhaps altering elk grazing patterns.”

--
“… wolves have taken a larger percentage of elk calves than hunters have taken of elk cows. Removing calves has a smaller demographic impact on elk populations than removing cows, but both wolf and hunter offtake combined have not resulted in a large enough elk removal to cause a detectable decline in the size of the population. Two winters, however, is not enough time to document the range of potential impacts of wolves and hunters on the wintering elk population.” (22)

“… In terms of elk group size, it appears that wolf effects are minimal compared to the effect of other variables, particularly habitat... In 2001-02, elk groups in the open flats were on average 60% larger than groups occurring in sagebrush flats, where elk group sizes were the next largest, and 99% larger than groups occurring in forested areas, which had the smallest elk groups. With such a large effect of habitat type on elk group sizes, it was difficult to detect an effect of wolves without considering habitats, even if wolves did affect elk group sizes. The data did contain evidence that wolves affected elk group sizes within each habitat type, though the effect was small compared to the overall effect of habitat.” (24)

“Overall, the 2001-02 data showed that elk distribution was more dynamic in areas used by wolves and less variable in areas not used by wolves… wolves did not push elk completely out of the area… wolves focused their movements in areas with high densities of elk throughout the winter.” (25)

“The patterns uncovered in the data did not indicate potential problems for state managers in terms of large-scale elk movements out of grassland-dominated areas, such as many [Wildlife Management Areas] in southwest Montana. Further, an analysis of hunter success in the January late season in the lower Madison study area showed similar success for hunters before and after wolf colonization of the study area.” (25-26)