Ian Smith

Wolf Predation and Research Technician with @VoyaWolfProject / Macalester 2022

[Ian Smith @SmittyInNature]

Super excited to announce my 1st published paper as a co-author coming out of my capstone @macalester!!!🥳

Working with #CabLab @StotraChakraba2, BumpLab @UMNFWCB, & @WRTIKenya, we explored predator dynamics at mega-carcasses🐘🦁🐆🐊

Huge🙏to all collaborators and supporters!

[Stotra Chakrabarti, PhD @StotraChakraba2]

🔔New paper alert🔔 This one is special as its the 1st one from #CabLab featuring @Macalester graduate @SmittyInNature in collaboration with BumpLab @UMNFWCB & @WRTIKenya

We examined carnivore interactions at mega-carcasses in Tsavo 📷🐘💀🦁
https://t.co/xTq2YsYemu a 🧵⬇️

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

STICKER ALERT! Anyone who donates to our fundraising effort by the end of the day, gets this exclusive VWP winter 2025 sticker as a token of our thanks!

The sticker is inspired by trail camera footage of the Vermilion River Pack last winter. The breeding female is the wolf in the front followed by 4 of her pups.

But we cannot take credit for the design! That goes to the talented Kim Boustead who has designed all of our stickers so far and she always does an amazing job!

Donate here: https://t.co/wVYjIr7i1d

We only need 787 folks to make a donation to unlock an $11K in bonus funding!

Note: the stickers likely will not be to folks until late December or early January because of the time it takes to get envelopes stuffed and because mailing around the holidays is always unpredictable. So please be patient but we will make sure everyone who donates get the sticker!

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

We know social media loves a good mysterious canine story…so check out this animal we got on camera last winter.

So, what do you think this animal is? We whole-heartedly welcome outlandish speculation, conspiracy theories, and technically possible though highly-improbable explanations.

To us, the animal looks "coyote-esque" but has some dog-like aspects to its appearance (especially its ears), and possibly some wolf-like characteristics (e.g., robust snout, a bit bigger body than coyotes in our area…but these are attributes from some dogs as well).

Perhaps it is the elusive "woyote dog”–a rare hybrid of all 3 canids!?!?

That’s a joke, of course.

In many respects, the animal looks more like eastern coyotes that live in eastern North America but still the ears just look real funny to us.

Either way, we only got one observation of this animal so it was likely just moving through the area.

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

We have some great news! For the first time in about two decades (per the rancher’s recollection), the large cattle ranch in our study area did not have any cattle killed—or suspected to have been killed—by wolves this year.

[U of M Research @UMNresearch]

With support from the @IASatUofM, animal ecologist Joseph Bump uses graphic design and print-making to communicate and improve our understanding of wolves. @UMNFWCB https://t.co/pKJMY0T88b

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Nice footage of the Mithrandir Pack from this past summer and fall (along with some other neat wildlife). The pack gets its name from the white color of Wolf V083, the breeding male, who was once gray in his younger years—just like Mithrandir himself (i.e., Gandalf).

The Mithrandir Pack consisted of a pair: Wolf V083, his mate, a 2.5 year old female, who quite striking herself. The pack was a pair last winter and did not produce any pups this spring. However, the pack picked up a 3rd member in late fall (after this footage).

We are not entirely sure who the 3rd member is but suspect it is a subordinate from the neighboring Cranberry Bay or Nashata Packs (there is a long history between these 3 packs).

Anyway, we were super pleased with how this camera turned out. We set this camera on a remote wildlife trail we found when bushwhacking and were not sure if we would get much.

Many times the cameras we put on random wildlife trails are duds (and obviously, we don’t share footage from cams that are duds) but eventually you find a trail that is an absolute gem!

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Wolf Y1T is the breeding male of the Blood Moon Pack and is one of the most distinctive-looking wolves in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem. He has really unique facial coloration including dark lines under his eyes that gives him this wild and striking appearance.

[International Wolf Center @IntlWolfCenter]

Deep snow can make it harder for animals to find food, but it can be easier for wolves.

Deer, moose, and other ungulates have pointed hooves, which makes it harder to move through the snow. However, wolves have webbed feet which allow them to walk easily on top of the deep snow.

[Ian Smith @SmittyInNature]

Some of my favorite footage I got to go through this season!

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Some neat footage from this summer of Half-Moon pups trying to get adult pack members to regurgitate food for them. Pups commonly mob the adults in hope of getting a meal once adults return to the pups at dens or rendezvous sites. The pups were not successful in this instance!

The Half-Moon Pack had 7 pups this spring but appeared to be down to 3 pups as of August. Not sure how many are still alive but should figure it out soon as we continue to check/deploy cameras this winter.

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

This is an *amazingly rare* and fascinating video of a wolf bounding into beaver pond and catching a beaver swimming underwater—something that has never been documented before! Further, to our knowledge, this is only the 3rd video ever of a wolf catching a beaver.

And this might be the most informative of the 3 videos that have been recorded because the hunter recording the video was able to see what the beaver was doing long before the wolves showed up.

This video was captured by Jon Galler near Hill City, Minnesota when he was deer hunting this past fall. Had a great chat with Jon about his observation and he provided some great information about the scene prior to kill.

Before the wolf and its pack mates started crossing the beaver dam, Jon had watched this beaver that the wolf killed for about 25 minutes. As the wolves were crossing the dam, the beaver was on a rock in a shallow part of the pond grooming itself and appeared unaware of the wolves

Similarly, the lead wolf did not seem to notice the beaver initially and went to scent-mark some grass on the beaver dam. After scent-marking, the wolf scraped the ground and this seemed to cause the beaver to retreat into the water off of the rock.

The wolf heard the beaver slip into the water and immediately changed its behavior. You can see this clearly in the video. The wolf then bounded into the pond and caught the beaver, who was entirely below the water.

The beaver can be heard crying/vocalizing as the wolf pulled it out of the water and Jon said he could hear bones cracking as well, likely from the bite force of the wolf. The wolf brought the beaver onshore but then appeared to see or scent Jon and dropped the beaver and ran.

However, two trailing pups checked out the beaver within a short period and carried it into the woods. It is hard to tell but it looked like the beaver still had a bit of life in it when the pups grabbed it.

This observation is amazingly cool for many reasons but probably the most amazing is that it shows wolves will not only go into the water to catch beavers but that can also catch beavers swimming underwater—something that had never been documented before!

It had been largely assumed that beavers were not vulnerable to predation in bodies of water like ponds because they are adept swimmers and could easily evade predators. Obviously, that is not always the case. And certainly, no one has speculated that wolves would catch a beaver swimming underwater.

Now, the reason the wolf was likely successful in this hunt is that the beaver it killed was a kit beaver (i.e., a young of the year beaver that was like 6-7 months old). In other words, this was a very small beaver that didn’t put up much of a fight when caught.

We suspect the interaction would have been dramatically different if the wolf had attacked a 50-60 lb adult beaver. Maybe someday someone will get footage of something like that.

Anyway, huge thanks to Jon for sharing this video and his observations with us. Absolutely amazing stuff!

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Beaver dams are nature’s bridges and many animals such as wolves, bears, deer, and the like use them to cross wetlands. This footage is from a few years ago on a large old beaver dam.

A few years back, we used high-resolution aerial imagery to count/digitize all the beaver dams visible on aerial imagery in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem (our study area). In total, we identified 9,028 beaver dams in the GVE, which is roughly ~2,000 square kilometers in size.

The average dam was 73 meters/239 feet long meaning that there are 659 kilometers/409 miles of beaver dams in the GVE. Pretty incredible how beavers have altered the landscape!

[Harshini Jhala (she/her) @HarshiniJhala]

📢 Publication‼️
Restoring wild water 🐃 to India's Kanha National Park may revive grasslands & save the species. Dedicated work could see flourishing population of these #ecosystemengineers, aiding #habitatrecovery & conservation
#MegafaunaRevival 🌏
https://t.co/hMHss4Zm9K

[International Wolf Center @IntlWolfCenter]

Colorado releases first 5 wolves in reintroduction plan approved by voters to chagrin of ranchers
https://t.co/cXiJQyV4rI

[Dr. Isabelle Laumer @IsabelleLaumer]

We are hiring!

Research assistant (small stipend provided) for collecting behavioral data on sanctuary-housed orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra.

Retweets appreciated 🙂!

[NYT Science @NYTScience]

This is what happens when an apex predator collides with an ecosystem engineer. https://t.co/2GHW7WnZYP

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

We just published a new study that found that every major way humans have altered the landscape—logging, road and trail creation, and infrastructure development—have substantially altered the relationship between wolves and deer.

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Some neat footage of Northwoods wildlife including a bobcat and her kittens (something we rarely get on camera) and several moose…including one large bull in the fall and a young bull in summer who was very interested in the camera.

From our experience, moose are much more considerate and respectful of cameras. They often just give a gentle little nose-boop, a few sniffs, and move on. This stands is in stark contrast to bears…

Ultimately, we removed this camera from this spot because the area was kind of swampy and we did not get any wolves traveling on this trail all summer. And as much as like enjoy seeing other wildlife, we want our cameras in spots wolves travel frequently.

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Great look at what wolf pups can look like at this time of year. This pup is only 6.5 months old but is already starting to look very adult-like, and most would probably just consider this to be an adult if they saw it in the woods—in part, because this pup is quite large and close to, if not the same size of some adult wolves.

However, this wolf still has some clear-pup like features. We find it is easiest to distinguish pups from adults in the fall based on facial features/characteristics. Pups often seem to have stubby-looking snouts and blockier faces than adults because their skulls are still developing at this point.

Size can be a good indicator of distinguishing pups vs. adults at times but isn’t perfect as some pups are the size of adults at this time of year. So we think examining the facial structure is a easier way to tell pups from adults.

Oh, and the pup spent a whole ten minutes in front of our camera trying to get the prize under the rock. Poor fella didn’t realize there was no prize…just a bit of skunky scent on the rock to get him and other wolves to spend a bit of time in front of the camera.

Also, forgot to mention: this video was taken on October 31 of last year and this is a Windsong Pack pup!

[Jeff Wirth @stayfknwild]

Grizzly bear #793 shows up for the first time since June 2022 with her 2 new cubs of the year! #grizzlybear #grandtetonnationalpark

[Mexican Wolves @MexicanWolves]

Colorado to receive 10 wolves from Oregon for reintroduction: https://t.co/ijkEXFqwbS

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Our first look at the pups of the Bug Creek Pack in early August. The pups had only been walking this earth for 4 months at this point and were already exhibiting poor "trail camera etiquette”—a direct result of bad parenting.

Anyway, there are 4 different pups in this footage, though only 3 are ever in the frame at the same time. One of the pups clearly has some sort of sore/hotspot/wound on its rump, and is limping as a result. Will be interesting to see if that pup has recovered and is still alive.

We are not sure how many pups the pack had in spring but we did get an observation of 5 pups following an adult in mid-September so the pack had at least 5. And at least 5 pups survived through mid-September, which is far better than most packs.

But the pups still have a few perilous months to get through until winter arrives and conditions become more favorable for wolves.