Chapter IV: Part 4

In describing _lycaon_ as basically a gray wolf, Goldman made no mention of the occurrence of black or white color phases in that subspecies. However, in discussing _nubilus_, Goldman (1944, p. 442) wrote the following: "Many color variations are presented. Individuals may be nearly white at any season, except for a sprinkling of black hairs over the back, a small, narrow, but conspicuous, black patch over the tail gland, and a more or less distinctly black tip. Black individuals may occur in the same litter with those normally colored." Goldman also referred to _nubilus_ as "now probably extinct."

In the eastern part of the range of _lycaon_, color phases other than gray appear to be rare as Rutter and Pimlott (1969, p. 188) attest: "The uniformity of the color of timber wolves in many areas is evidenced by the work in Algonquin Park, in Ontario. There, over the past eight years, dozens of packs have been observed from the air. However, we have never been able to discriminate between any of them on the basis of the color variation of individual animals."

Thus it seems significant to report on incidences of black and white color phases in wolves that we have observed in northeastern Minnesota during some 480 hours of flying associated with wolf research (Mech _et al._, p. 1). The observations took place in the Superior National Forest, in northern Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties during the winters of 1966-67, 1967-68, and 1968-69. A total of 309 sightings were made of wolves that could be classified by color; of these, 11 (3.6 percent) were jet black (fig. 1) and two (0.6 percent) were creamish white, with the cream color the most intense on the back. No doubt some of the grays, and perhaps the blacks and whites, were repeated observations, but the figures should provide a reasonable approximation of the incidence of these color phases in this area. All black or white animals except one were observed with gray wolves (table 1 and fig. 2).

A number of black wolves, and a few white wolves, have been seen by other observers, all in the three counties listed earlier. To gain some idea of the past incidence of these color phases in the same general area, we asked Conservation Officers Robert Hodge, Robert Jacobsen, and Frank Baltich of the Ely, Minnesota, area about the numbers of each phase that they took before 1960. They reported killing an approximate total of 580 wolves, of which four were black and three were white or creamish white.

_Table 1.--Observations of wolves of black and white color phases_

+--------------+-------------------------+--------------------------+ | Date | Location | Color combinations | | | | within each pack | +--------------+-------------------------+--------------------------+ |Feb. 24, 1967 T64N-R8W-S1 Vera Lake 3 grays; 1 black; 1 white| |Mar. 4, 1967 T63N-R9W-S27 Lake Two 3 grays; 2 blacks | |Dec. 18, 1968 T63N-R8W-S35 Lake Insula 2 grays; 2 blacks[37] | |Jan. 17, 1969 T65N-R8W-S27 Carp Lake 1 gray; 1 white | |Feb. 1, 1969 T63N-R8W-S13 Lake Insula 4 blacks; 2 grays[38] | |Feb. 5, 1969 T63N-R8W-S8 Benezie Lake 1 black | |Feb. 6, 1969 T63N-R10W-S33 Clear Lake 3 grays; 1 black | +--------------+-------------------------+--------------------------+ FOOTNOTES:

[37] These animals were near the shore of the lake, so others may have been inland where they could not be seen.

[38] This group might well have been the same as that seen on Dec. 18, 1968.

Because black and white color phases have rarely if ever been reported for _lycaon_, yet were well known for _nubilus_, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the race of wolves now occupying northeastern Minnesota does show strong _nubilus_ influence. Goldman examined the skulls only of 10 Minnesota specimens assignable to _lycaon_ and only one referable to _nubilus_. Because wolves in the known range of _nubilus_ are thought to be extinct, and because the animals in northeastern Minnesota are legally unprotected and subject to a control program, it seems highly desirable that the question of their taxonomy be studied intensively while specimens are still available.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported by Macalester College, the New York Zoological Society, the Minnesota Department of Conservation, the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, and the USDA Forest Service. Mr. Wallace C. Dayton and Miss Elizabeth Dayton, and the Quetico-Superior Foundation, all of Minneapolis, financed Mech during the preparation of this paper. We would also like to thank Dr. J. L. Paradiso, Dr. H. L. Gunderson, and Mr. M. H. Stenlund for reviewing this manuscript.

LITERATURE CITED

Goldman, E. A. 1944. The wolves of North America, Part II. Classification of Wolves. p. 389-636. Washington, D.C.: The Amer. Wildl. Inst.

Pimlott, D. H., Shannon, J. A., and Kolenosky, G. B. 1969. The ecology of the timber wolf in Algonquin Provincial Park. Ont. Dep. Lands and Forests Res. Pap. (Wildl.) 87, 94 p.

SOME RECENT RESEARCH PAPERS OF THE NORTH CENTRAL FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION

Tree Improvement Opportunities in the North-Central States Related to Economic Trends, A Problem Analysis, by David H. Dawson and John A. Pitcher. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-40, 30 p., illus. 1970.

Relation Between the National Fire Danger Spread Component and Fire Activity in the Lake States, by Donald A. Haines, William A. Main, and Von J. Johnson. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-41, 8 p., illus. 1970.

Thinning and Fertilizing Red Pine to Increase Growth and Cone Production, by John H. Cooley. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-42, 8 p., illus. 1970.

The Impact of Estimation Errors on Evaluations of Timber Production Opportunities, by Dennis L. Schweitzer. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-43, 18 p., illus. 1970.

User Evaluation of Campgrounds on Two Michigan National Forests, by Robert C. Lucas. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-44, 15 p., illus. 1970.

System Identification Principles in Studies of Forest Dynamics, by Rolfe A. Leary. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-45, 38 p., illus. 1970.

Skiing in the Great Lakes State: the Industry and the Skier, by William A. Leuschner. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-46, 42 p., illus. 1970.

Proceedings of the Ninth Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Conference, August 22-23, 1969. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-47, 34 p. 1970.

A Water Curtain for Controlling Experimental Forest Fires, by Von J. Johnson. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-48, 7 p., illus. 1970.

Wildness Ecology: A Method of Sampling and Summarizing Data for Plant Community Classification, by Lewis F. Ohmann and Robert R. Ream. USDA Forest Serv. Res. Pap. NC-49, 14 p., illus. 1970.

ABOUT THE FOREST SERVICE....

As our Nation grows, people expect and need more from their forests--more wood; more water, fish, and wildlife; more recreation and natural beauty; more special forest products and forage. The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture helps to fulfill these expectations and needs through three major activities:

. Conducting forest and range research at over 75 locations
ranging from Puerto Rico to Alaska to Hawaii.

. Participating with all State forestry agencies in
cooperative programs to protect, improve, and wisely
use our Country's 395 million acres of State, local,
and private forest lands.

. Managing and protecting the 187-million acre National
Forest System.

The Forest Service does this by encouraging use of the new knowledge that research scientists develop; by setting an example in managing, under sustained yield, the National Forests and Grasslands for multiple use purposes; and by cooperating with all States and with private citizens in their efforts to achieve better management, protection, and use of forest resources.

Traditionally, Forest Service people have been active members of the communities and towns in which they live and work. They strive to secure for all, continuous benefits from the Country's forest resources.

For more than 60 years, the Forest Service has been serving the Nation as a leading natural resource conservation agency.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

This is a compilation of four separate reports, each having their own table and figure numbers. I have retained the original table and figure numbers due to all the references made to them within the text. However I did reindex the footnotes for the complete compilation. I made minor punctuation corrections, modified the table formats, moved some illustrations, and made the following typo corrections:

Table of Contents: Changed "Occurence" to "Occurrence".
Originally: The Possible Occurence of the Great Plains Wolf in
Northeastern Minnesota

Page 5: Added missing parenthesis after "individuals".
Originally: the same color (with the exception of a few black
or white individuals (see Mech and Frenzel, page 60)

Page 27, Deleted repeated word "the".
Originally: When still on the the ice about 15 feet from shore,

Page 34, Literature Cited: Changed "Vegetatation" to "Vegetation".
Originally: Ohmann, L. F., and Ream, R. R. 1969 Vegetatation studies
in the BWCA

Page 37: Changed "repreductive" to "reproductive".
Originally: lungs, liver, kidneys, repreductive tracts

Page 40: Changed "wildnerness" to "wilderness".
Originally: while in the wildnerness more males were taken

Page 41: Changed "decidous" to "deciduous".
Originally: The deciduous first incisors of fawns and the decidous

Page 42: Changed "end" to "and".
Originally: from wolf-killed deer end examined grossly in the field

Page 42, Figure 9: Changed "discoverd" to "discovered".
Originally: A permanent first premolar (arrow) was discoverd in M-8.

Page 47: Changed "wildnerness" to "wilderness".
Originally: not surprising that in the wildnerness area

Page 57, Footnote 36: Deleted duplicate "to".
Originally: Personal correspondence to to L. D. Mech, Oct. 10, 1969.

Page 58: Changed "diffference" to "difference".
Originally: Nevertheless, with extremely deep snow, the diffference

Page 59, Literature Cited: Changed "roll" to "role".
Originally: Nasimovich, A. A. 1955. The roll of the regime of snow

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