Tuesday morning we headed out
north along the frozen Sasejewan Lake. Snow squalls were
moving about the winter landscape.
We were following wolf
tracks across the lake to a moose kill site near the north
end of the lake. These were the same wolves we had tracked
yesterday.
Along the shore we came upon
this "running branch." It left no tracks behind itself.
We paused for awhile to try to
get a fix on any radio-collared wolves that may be in the
area.
The occasional snow squall did
hit us. Snow fell thick.
One of the snow squalls off in
the distance.
We followed the wolf tracks to
the site of the dead moose. It had been stripped clean of
meat long ago, but most of the bones were intact. The only
tracks we found near the carcass were those of the wolf we
had been tracking.
This is a photo of the bone
marrow of the dead moose. Dan told us that when the bone
marrow looks like this -- pink or red and somewhat "bubbly"
-- it indicates that the animal was very low on energy
reserves and probably not very well or strong. Normal
healthy bone marrow is whitish and of a smooth consistency.
Along the shoreline of the
frozen lake we found plants typical of such shores. This is
a small aromatic shrub called sweetgale.
After leaving the moose
carcass we split into two groups. One group followed the
wolf tracks as the led away from the dead moose, across the
lake and south along the shoreline.
This photo shows us
studying the wolf tracks.
We found a small hole in the
ice near the shore, where the ice was weak. Assistant
instructor Alexis couldn't resist sticking his head into the
hole to see what was down there.
We think the hole was
made or at least used by an otter.
At the west end of the lake we
lost the wolf trail in a maze of fisher, marten, snowshoe
hare and flying squirrel tracks.
