Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was started with those in attendance describing what they were doing. Paul Krausman explained that he has left the University of Arizona and joined the University of Montana and thought it would not be appropriate to Chair the group but hoped that he could stay on the Team. There were no objections. Ballard handed out three papers: 1) an accepted JWM manuscript comparing diets of Mexican wolves and coyotes, 2) a progress report by Chip Cariappa describing his progress at estimating wolf population size from scats, and 3) Michael Panascis Ph.D. proposal to examine wolf-coyote hybridization in coyotes of the Blue Range. Morgart indicated that he would get the 3 papers scanned and forward them to AMOC. Krausman indicated that it took a long time for him to receive comments back from AMOC on research proposals. Morgart indicated he would attempt to streamline that process. He believes it is important to keep AMOC involved so that Directors know what is going on. A question was asked about the status of Dan Starks thesis. Krausman indicated that Dan had taken a wolf job in Minnesota and was probably busy getting settled in. Ballard had talked with Stark in August and Dan had indicated he was just starting to analyze his data. It was urged that Krausman ask Dan to get going. Bergman asked if our group should reevaluate the original research needs list developed at the Springerville, meeting. Bergman agreed to retrieve that list and Morgart will send out to AMOC and I assumed this Team. Stuart Breck outlined his plans for the cow study. So far they have collared about 188 calves and 10-15 of these have been lost. All predation has been from lions. They are trying to develop better herding practices (fencing and others). Breck indicated there are lots of problems with open range grazing. Someone mentioned that there is a lithium chloride study on captive wolves. Somebody needs to find information on this study and distribute to this group. Krausman indicated that we still have no idea of the prey base for Mexican wolves. Ballard and Krausman submitted proposals addressing this issue almost 10 years ago and we still know nothing. Krausman asked if that was the type of proposals the group wanted to see. There appeared to be consensus that this issue was important so Ballard and Krausman will redo the proposal. Oakleaf mentioned there appeared to be a lot of predation on elk calves and perhaps we should address that issue as well. The group discussed genetic needs and it appeared that Melanie Culver, Warren Ballard, and students have it covered for now. The samples need to be standardized between the data collected by Sarah and Chip. Morgart indicated if we needed blood samples let him know. Sarah Rinkevich described her study on the San Carlos Reservation where she has raised $250K for a 4 year study, to be conducted at The University of Arizona. Chip Cariappa provided an update of his study. He has developed his Ph.D. proposal and found attending modeling workshops and attending Gary Whites course very helpful. He has identified a 1,000 square mile study area with known numbers of wolves and has established 310 miles of transects along areas where wolves frequent. He conducted a pilot study in September and has extracted DNA. He plans additional laboratory sessions in October, November, and in the spring of 2008. Bryan Kluever gave a summary of his recently completed cow behavior study at The Univeristy of Arizona. They looked at vigilance and other behaviors before and after predation events. Animals appeared more vigilant after the event but it was for a short time period. They also seemed to react by changing group size. They also conducted a pen study. Cows appeared to react more strongly to canid scent.

The group agreed to having Melanie Culver assume Chair duties; Warren Ballard will continue as Secretary. The scientific committee will help prioritize which research proposals are worth pursuing. All papers will be sent to AMOC to review - so that they can have a heads up on what is coming down the line. New proposals will be posted online for the group to review. Comments on proposals should be sent to Stuart Breck, then proposals can be discussed by the group. The group agreed that our annual meeting would be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Wildlife Society, which will be held in 2008 in Miami.

Warren Ballard has an accepted JWM manuscript comparing diets of Mexican wolves and coyotes.