Canis Lupus (Gray Wolf) Pup Survival in Yellowstone National Park

The aim of this study was to describe gray wolf (Canis lupus) pup survival rates throughout the summer months in Yellowstone National Park. Understanding pup survival has implications for trends in pack and population age structure, cooperative breeding ecology and other breeding tendencies, social hierarchies, and population fitness, among other elements of species-specific population ecology. A general understanding of trends in pup survival is also relevant to state and federal land that allow gray wolf harvest. Understanding such trends and survival ecology gives managers and biologists the opportunity to evaluate gray wolf populations at a more comprehensive level and implement more effective management decisions. This study analyzed how pup survival rates vary temporally and spatially throughout Yellowstone’s Northern Range and some interior locations. Data was quantified using field notes from Yellowstone Wolf Project staff, focusing on the months May through September, and years 2009 and 2010. The data was originally collected and recorded from direct observation of wolves by Wolf Project staff and other diligent citizen scientists. Using this data, I quantified number of observed breeding wolf packs, and pup high counts and survival rates specific to each pack. This report includes spatial information specific to Yellowstone regarding temporal trends in pup survival in the form of visual maps. My analyses found that high counts by pack did differ throughout the observational period in both years, survival rates in 2009 varied by pack and did not vary in 2010, though survival rates between packs were not statistically significant