DNA Update-Wolves Need Your Help!

Are wolves present in Maine?  The science and the growing evidence tell us that wolves are here.  The northeast U.S. combined with Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula and New Brunswick contain tens of thousands of square miles of potentially suitable wolf habitat-some of the best and most extensive habitat in the lower 48.  It is unlikely that wolves were ever extirpated from the region given their ability to travel more than a thousand miles during dispersal and their very close proximity to northeast states including New York and Maine.

In 2019, after decades of unsuccessfully asking the state and federal governments for help, the Maine Wolf Coalition began its own effort to document the status of wolves in Maine.  Our small group of volunteers began setting out trail cameras and riding woods roads collecting and preserving canid scat.  A scat we collected in 2019 was proven through DNA analysis to have come from the first DNA documented live Eastern wolf ever found in Maine.  https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/wolves-in-maine-will-poop-prove-they-are-returning-to-new-england 

The Eastern/Algonquin wolf is a small wolf which ranges from the Great Lakes east to southern Quebec.  They can easily be mistaken for “coyotes” which are all actually coyote/wolf hybrids.  For this reason, actions must be taken to minimize the taking of “coyotes” to save this extremely rare wolf.  https://www.ontario.ca/page/eastern-wolf

Our trail cameras have been phenomenally successful as we have photographed numerous large, wolflike canids across Maine from the New Hampshire border to northern Aroostook County.  For example, we have a large number of photographs and videos of this animal, which we believe to be a wolf.  He is one of a mated pair which produced at least five pups in 2023.    Not surprisingly, the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife identified this animal as a “coyote” simply by looking at a photograph.

Despite documenting a living Eastern wolf, our DNA research efforts have been disappointing.  We have the samples, and after five years of collecting, we are still waiting for most of the samples to be analyzed.  Our first group of samples went to a lab in California which was able to extract the DNA but could not interpret the results.  The extracted DNA was sent to Ontario where the lab identified the Eastern wolf scat.  That same Ontario lab was unable or unwilling to adequately analyze additional samples.  Another Canadian lab that we had sent samples to, lost them.  The bulk of our samples are now at a lab in the midwest U.S..  The cost to conduct DNA analyses of these samples will be approximately $15,000.  If you would like to help, you can do so by sending a check to: The Maine Wolf Coalition, Inc.  30 Meadow Wood Drive, South China, ME  04358.  All contributions are tax deductible.

This DNA work is essential to identifying the status of wolves in the northeast and to giving them the protection to which they are legally entitled under the Endangered Species Act.  Currently neither the federal nor state governments acknowledge the presence of wolves in the northeast.  This allows the states to encourage the killing of wolves by encouraging the killing of coyotes while the federal government deliberately looks the other way.  This is a situation that must not be allowed to continue. 

Quebec’s Mont Tremblant National Park-A Wolf Sanctuary

Did you know that wolves live in Quebec less than a three hour drive from the Maine and New York borders respectively?  Eastern/Algonquin wolves live just sixty miles from New York and seventy-five miles from Maine.  Mont Tremblant National Park is a relatively short drive northwest of Montreal and is located in the heart of Eastern wolf range. https://www.sepaq.com/pq/mot/index.dot?language_id=1

I spent a couple of days in Quebec this summer and had the opportunity to speak with a wolf biologist and drive through the park looking and listening for wolves.  The park is nearly six hundred square miles in size and has multiple wolf territories.  Hunting and trapping are prohibited.

The Eastern wolf is the park symbol.  I was very pleasantly surprised to see the positive emphasis on wolves as evidenced by these photos taken in the park. 

Hunting and trapping of wolves outside the park is largely uncontrolled.  Nothing is known about the current numbers and locations of wolves dispersing from in and around the park.  The park is extremely important as it serves as a potential source population for Eastern wolves dispersing to the northeast U.S.

I was very surprised and impressed with the efforts being made to try to ensure that these animals survive.  Other than hunting and trapping, perhaps the biggest threat to Eastern wolves is genetic swamping or introgression with “coyotes”.  Using trail cameras and scat, park researchers are attempting to determine the extent Eastern wolves are being replaced by coyote/wolf hybrids.  This ongoing hybridization in Ontario and Quebec gives an added sense of urgency to wolf recovery in the northeast U.S. where protected wolves might have the benefit of federal resources to ensure that they continue to survive as a species.  This would be similar to work being done to ensure the genetic integrity and survival of the red wolf.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wolf

I strongly encourage you to go to places like Mont Tremblant and travel back to a time and place where wild wolves continue to roam freely.  You will see that wolves are just like any other animal.  They want nothing from us other than to be left alone.  

More than twenty five years ago, the Maine Wolf Coalition set up a wolf sighting hotline.  We asked people to phone in their sightings of large canids so that we could have a written record on sighting report forms.  We are still getting sighting reports in some of those same areas today.

The big differences between now and then are cell phone and trail cameras.  Whereas in the past we had few photos, today we frequently receive photos of canids, some of which are very wolflike and all of which are very interesting.  These contributed photos have proven to be a valuable source of information for further investigation by our volunteers.

Please send us your photos of any northeast canids you believe may be wolves.  Here are several we have received recently.  We will keep your name and location confidential.  Unlike the government, we take your sighting reports very seriously.  Thank you!

Please send your photos or videos to:  info@mainewolfcoalition.org

From the Biologist: 

For more information on research completed by Dr.  Jonathan Way please visit the Eastern Coyote/Coywolf Research website linked below.

MWC Current Projects:

At the MWC we do some interesting analysis of videos or pictures. We utilize a number of tools to try to get information about the canids we find interesting. We are especially interested in estimating the measurements of these animals.  To accomplish this without trapping the animal we have to get a little creative.  

Once we have located a canid that has wolf-like characteristics we need to get a height estimation.  The height of the canid is important to determine whether the animal is a coywolf (eastern coyote) or an eastern wolf.  The height range of the coywolf or eastern coyote is 21 - 24 inches at the shoulder, with most averaging at about 22 inches.  On the other hand, eastern wolves in Algonquin Park, Canada are taller with an average height range between 25 - 27.5 inches.   To get a good estimate of a canids height, we set up several yard sticks at different locations within the picture frame of the trail camera (See picture on left side below).   On the yard stick, we mark off every 6 inches with a black Sharpie, so it stands out in the picture or video. Then, when we get a picture of a wolf-like canid at about the same distance from the camera as one of the yardstick, we place the pictures side by side and take a screenshot of them together - basically we are making a composite of both pictures together (look at examples below).  Next, we then can make a copy of the yard stick and move it next to the canid to see approximately how tall the animal is. Sometimes, if the canid is a little further away than the yardstick we can only get a minimum height.  We know that the canid will be taller than the estimation because it is further from the camera than the yardstick. When we make a copy of the yardstick we use a 24 inch section of the yardstick.  Anything less than 24 inches is too small to be an eastern wolf.  So the section of the yardstick you see in front of the canid is 24 inches in height

Take a look at the example below. On the left you can see 4 yardsticks in the frame.  Then we have the picture of the canid.  For this particular picture we used the yardstick that is second closest to the camera, which is slightly closer to the camera than the canid.  This means that the yardstick measures will be a little smaller than in real life - so when we move it to measure the canid, the measurement will be less than the actual height of the canid.  

In this case the animal is several inches taller than 24 inches, so about 27 inches - but remember, this is smaller than actual because the canid is further away from the camera than the yardstick used to measure it.

Notice the 4 yardsticks on the left side of the composite photo.  We made a 24 inch copy of the yard stick that is second closest to the bottom of the picture and moved it infront of the canid on the right.  The canid on the right is further from the camera, which means this estimation is a minimum height of  about 27 inches.  The actual height will be higher because the animal is further from the camera than the yardstick used in the measurement.  

Canid Photos from the Field

A Carousel of Canid Images from around Maine  

(To change the photo, hover your mouse over the photo and click on the arrows to move through the photographs.) (Source:  MWC)

For more information please visit the following Maine Wolf Coalition sites.