Wolf pups in a beaver lodge den

We thought Wolf V074, who was collared in October 2018, was the breeding male of the Shoepack Lake Pack. However, he was not localizing around a den in spring 2019 and we suspected the pack might not have had pups. Then one day in spring 2019, completely to our surprise, while searching clusters of GPS-locations from V074 to find kills, we found the Shoepack den in a huge old beaver lodge in a beaver meadow. V074 had stopped by the den for a few hours and then moved on. This was totally unexpected but fortuitous as it provided the first pup count and den location we have ever documented from this pack. V074 has not returned to a den or rendezvous site from the pack since, and clearly he is not the breeding male. We speculate that V074 was the breeding male last year - given that he was a dominant older (4-5 years) wolf - but was usurped during the past winter by another wolf. But that is just a guess and we will never really know. In early summer 2019, V074 dispersed from this territory and is roaming the forests of Ontario. Learn more about the Voyageurs Wolf Project: Website: Facebook: Instagram: