Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Can They Track Deer Too

From Pine River World News and WLUC
"WLUC-TV6, 16 Mar
[Excerpt:] - RHINELANDER, Wis. - Tracking more than a dozen wolves over a 300 mile radius in northern Wisconsin is no easy task for the DNR. So they take it to the air. " Pine River World News

"There's quite an army of people that go around on the ground and look for tracks,” said Wisconsin DNR Pilot Dan Cardinal. “But they don't have the luxury of being able to see the individuals or they don't have any idea where the animals that made those tracks are."

Using GPS collars placed on the wolves to track positions, DNR pilots locate and identify the animals.

Cardinal's partner Mike Weinfurter took me up in the air on one of the wolf flights conducted out of the Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport.
Even flying hundreds of feet above the trees Weinfurter can tell you a lot about the animal.

"From the air what we can see is the number of wolves, their overall condition: small, medium, large sized wolves,” Weinfurter said. “Do they appear healthy? Do they appear on the thin side?"

Arial surveying is the primary source of wolf tracking in Wisconsin.

Wonder if the pack of 30 will go this far south? Maybe they can count deer as long as they're up there.


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