Are there wolves in our Area?

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I Macaulay

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Feb 27, 2021, 12:21:41 PM2/27/21
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Hoping someone can provide a short response,  

For years I was told that there were no Wolves nor Moose in the West Carleton Area.

Is this true, or has there been any change reported is this status?  

What about in the Bishop Mills Area?

Ian

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario
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Stewart Hamill

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Feb 27, 2021, 12:42:57 PM2/27/21
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The wild canid expected and normal around here is the Eastern Coyote, larger than the Western Coyote due to hybridization with our Eastern Wolf, which is in Algonquin Park .

Stew

Stewart Hamill

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Feb 27, 2021, 12:45:07 PM2/27/21
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There are stray Moose scattered all around Eastern Ontario.

Stew

Frederick W. Schueler

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Feb 27, 2021, 1:51:11 PM2/27/21
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On 27-Feb.-21 12:21 p.m., 'I Macaulay' via NatureList wrote:

> For years I was told that there were no Wolves nor Moose in the West
> Carleton Area.
>
> Is this true, or has there been any change reported is this status?
>
> What about in the Bishop Mills Area?

* there was, probably one, Moose that went through in 2019. Aleta and
Cary Gibson saw "it," and Matt & Amanda saw tracks, and there was a news
report of a passage through Kemptville. There have been individual
wanderers previously.

I think it's pointless to try to call individual Canids "Wolves" or
"Coyotes" around here, since it takes multivariate measures of skull
morphology and DNA sequencing to say how latrans vs lyceon they are.

fred.
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kari gunson

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Feb 27, 2021, 2:30:15 PM2/27/21
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I saw fresh Moose tracks on a cross county ski trail at Mer Bleue a
month ago.

Kari

Frederick W. Schueler

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Feb 27, 2021, 2:49:40 PM2/27/21
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On 27-Feb.-21 2:30 p.m., kari gunson wrote:
> I saw fresh Moose tracks on a cross county ski trail at Mer Bleue a month ago.

* that's the western edge of the well-established Easternmost Ontario
population. One of the highlights of the environmental "assessment" for
the Boundary road dump was the way the assessors missed the droppings
and browsings of Ontario's largest Mammal.

Kerry Coleman

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:19:41 PM2/27/21
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The Eastern Wolf was listed as special concern when the Endangered Species
Act took effect in 2008, and was renamed Algonquin Wolf and re-classified as
threatened on June 15, 2016. Status assessments by the Committee on the
Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and by the Committee on
the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO) refer to the same
taxonomic entity (group of animals). However, COSSARO concluded that Eastern
Wolf is no longer the appropriate common name. Although there was once a
distinct species called Eastern Wolves, a long history of hybridization
among Eastern Wolves, Grey Wolves, and Coyotes, has led to a hybrid taxon
that is evolutionarily distinct from other canids. As a result, COSSARO
believes that a new name, the Algonquin Wolf, is most appropriate.

There was controversy with respect to the name change and re-classification
of the "Algonquin Wolf" as to whether or not they even existed as a distinct
species, in what numbers and where. The Ontario Fur Managers arranged for
over 400 samples to be sent to Princeton University for genome sequencing as
well as to the MNRF lab at Trent Univ for DNA analysis. All of these samples
came from central Ontario around Algonquin PP and the 3 other areas
identified for additional wild canid protection.

Overall, 300 trappers voluntarily agreed to participate in this research
initiative and in total, 392 unique genotypes of « canids » were analyzed.

The results were as follows :
294 were eastern coyotes (294 of 392 = 75.0%)
49 were hybrids of two groups (12.5%)
24 were admixed or « hybridized extensively » (6.1%)
14 were gray wolves (3.6%)
11 were Algonquin wolves (2.8%)

These samples were taken in areas identified as core Algonquin Wolf habitat.
Some of the samples were taken from north of Algonquin PP, in the area of
Killarney PP because that area was also designated for protection for
Algonquin Wolves as core habitat. That may explain why 14 gray wolves were
sampled. I think it would be safe to conclude wild canids in the Ottawa area
and south of Ottawa are eastern coyotes. That doesn't not preclude an animal
dispersing into this area but in all likelihood if it bred it would result
in a hybrid i.e. the eastern coyote.
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Bev Wigney

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:41:12 PM2/27/21
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In September 2017, I stayed at a friend's farm on Pana Road which is
just north of where Continental Mushroom used to be outside Metcalfe.
One morning, just as I went to go out the door with my dogs, a Moose
walked between the door of the house and my van that was parked about
4 metres from the door. I raced to get my camera and followed it down
the lane, clicking away like mad on my camera and then actually looked
at the LCD screen and it said, "no memory card". Doh!! I had taken
it out to download a bunch of my butterfly and tree frog photos into
my computer and forget to replace the card. The Moose wandered over
to some old apple trees and started eating windfalls. I raced back
indoors to get the memory card and came back out to start shooting
just as a pickup with an extraordinarily noisy muffler tore by on the
road just beyond the Moose. The Moose trotted off into the forest. I
am quite sure that the Moose knew the property very well and was
probably a frequent visitor to the apple trees as it went straight to
them. My friends go away for the summer each year and don't return
until around the end of October, so a Moose would normally have the
property all to itself for much of the season.

bev
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rmb...@istar.ca

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Feb 27, 2021, 4:12:06 PM2/27/21
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Bev, forgive me for sitting here laughing, for I have had several
events of something-not-right-with camera (dead battery, no film, card
error, etc.) as well as the truck that suddenly comes blaring down the
road just when you're near some interesting animal. I feel your pain.

Then, there's the serendipitous moment like I had last week, I was
taking pics of the usual tree sparrows, juncos and redpolls when a red
crossbill suddenly landed in their midst. I very happily got a few
photos. But then...the accursed loud-muffler blaring truck went
blasting by on the highway and everything took off, and I haven't seen
that crossbill since.

Rose-Marie
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Frederick W. Schueler

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Feb 27, 2021, 5:04:59 PM2/27/21
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On 27-Feb.-21 3:41 p.m., Bev Wigney wrote:

> The Moose wandered over to some old apple trees and started eating windfalls.

* I was out in our Cedar bush this afternoon (15h00, 2.5C, overcast,
snow soggy) and under an Apple tree that has been pretty well engulfed
by the Cedars, I saw a 20 cm circle of red-brown shreds of apple on the
snow. Red Squirrels had stashed a lot of apples in forks of branches
this fall, but this is the first time I've seen evidence of one of them
having been eaten (It was under a place where I'd seen an apple a few
days ago). I wonder it the fruit was shredded because the flesh was so
winterized that only the seeds were of interest to the Squirrel?

Peter de Wit

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Feb 27, 2021, 7:22:11 PM2/27/21
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Sorry for going off the original topic.

We see moose and moose tracks regularly in Larose Forest.   Actual moose sightings probably once per week this winter, fresh looking moose tracks daily. Fewer sightings in previous winters, much more this year.  We have never seen a moose outside of winter in Larorse but we visit less since it's extremely buggy.   Larose Forest is very swampy, which I guess suits them.

I know that's anecdotal evidence, we could be seeing the same moose every time.  

- Peter

V. Kirkwood

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Feb 28, 2021, 9:47:23 AM2/28/21
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I've watched a Coyote try to reach squirrel-stached apples. It would stand up on hits hind legs with its front paws on the trunk of the tree, trying to reach the stashes. It was, for the most part, unsuccessful.

Valerie Kirkwood

Acton's Corners/

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Jim Beckett

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Feb 28, 2021, 5:16:16 PM2/28/21
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I have seen a variety of canids in my back field (between Hallville and Mountain)and in the Winchester Bog (northeast of Hallville) ranging from what I identified as coyotes through a variety of body configurations and colours up to much solider animals with tighter coats and which are usually much darker, almost black..
Jim


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