wolf blood types, book chapters and phenology
Shannon Barber-Meyer
Last night at the monthly meeting Judy asked if wolves have blood
types like humans do. I didn't know the answer - so did a little
checking this morning and found that dogs have blood types (but they
don't go by our ABO system). So I would speculate that other canids
like wolves also have blood types as well - although what I came
across in my quick search was related to dogs (which I suppose makes
sense given a veterinary focus).
Also, I wanted to share with the folks at the meeting (but I forgot
about it until I got home!) that there is a great book that came out
fairly recently on Great Lakes wolves. The book is called Recovery of
Gray Wolvese in the Great Lakes Region of the United States by Wydeven
et al. 2009. Dr. Mech authored one chapter on the study I spoke about
last night called "Long Term Research on Wolves in the Superior
National Forest" and Dr. Michael Nelson coauthored a chapter on "Prey
of Wolves in the Great Lakes Region". If you are interested in wolves
in this region - it is a nice compilation of topics even including a
chapter on wolves and the Ojibwe.
Lastly, I was thinking during your meeting last night that many of you
probably had important data to share regarding phenology of species in
this area. If you aren't aware of the National Phenology Network - it
might be something folks interested in citizen science would like to
check out. There are specific things they are asking citizens to look
for among specific species (e.g., first evidence of breeding, first
flower to bloom, first calls heard, etc.). Citizens record their
findings on the website and I believe you can compare with folks
across the nation and across years. A few years ago I took some
training on this and it seemed to me to be a worthwhile
easily-accessible coordinated effort that can be used across many
skill sets with kids in grade school or the most distinguished expert
in the field. Here is some info from their website if you are
interested.
http://www.usanpn.org/
The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists,
government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all
ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in
the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the
Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with
far more data than they could collect alone.
Happy Friday!
Shannon