Monday, October 29, 2012

With all the tall tales currently circulating about alleged "monster" Gray Wolves tipping the scales at 175+ pounds, Idaho Biologist Jason Husseman shared the following information with Norm Bishop depicting our biggest Wolves hitting the scales at 135 pounds--see data below

FROM OUR FRIEND NORM BISHOP WHO SECURED THIS WOLF WEIGHT DATA FROM JASON HUSSEMAN, IDAHO WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST
Seems like a lot of Wolf weights being tossed about, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and get all the backlogged, pre-IDFG wolf management capture forms entered (250-plus capture events), and then summarize the weights for all recorded captures.  I also did this for all mortality weights, but kept them separated under the rationale that there may be differences between the two categories (e.g., diseased, dead wolves being lighter than healthy, live wolves, or harvested pups coming from later in the season when they are heavier than pups caught during the capture "season").

135 pound Gray Wolf--as big as they grow em



That said, here's the Excel document to file away on your computer somewhere for when you get asked about the massive 175 pound wolves running around Idaho, or if you want, just the summary tables (below):

Table 1.  Summary of weights (scale and estimated) from wolves captured in Idaho.
Male
Female
Mean
Range
n
Mean
Range
n
Adult (>2)
100
72-135
98
82
50-101
71
Subadult (1-2)
85
65-113
56
73
50-92
82
Pup (0-1)
55
20-105
67
49
25-85
60
Table 2.  Summary of wolf weights from confirmed mortalities in Idaho.
Male
Female
Mean
Range
n
Mean
Range
n
Adult (>2)
99
69-132
41
79
46-98
36
Subadult (1-2)
91
66-101
8
74
65-81
11
Pup (0-1)
71
25-90
9
54
23-70
7

 ____________________                                                   
Jason Husseman
Regional wildlife biologist
PO Box 1336
99 Hwy 93 North
Salmon, ID 83467

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