Annual Report on Vital Signs Monitoring of Wolf (Canis Lupus) Distribution and Abundance in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Central Alaska Net

This report focuses on monitoring the wolf population that utilize Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (YUCH). Wolves are of great importance to people from both consumptive and non-consumptive viewpoints, and to the ecosystem as a whole. From a monitoring standpoint, wolves are considered to be good indicators of long-term habitat change within park ecosystems because they depend on healthy populations of large ungulate prey, which in turn respond to vegetation, weather and other habitat patterns across the entire landscape. As a top predator, wolves can play a key role in influencing ungulate populations, and as a result may influence vegetation patterns. The effects of wolves on ungulate populations may be important determinants of ungulate availability for subsistence harvest on NPS Park and Preserve lands in Alaska, and harvest by the general public on NPS Preserve lands.