Hope this link works;Univ Alberta study
https://www.folio.ca/snowed-in-wolves-stay-put-when-its-snowing-study-shows/

Interesting idea but I have a little different take on it. I have noticed over the years that moose tend to move just as a snow storm is beginning. They don't go far before holing up in some dense cover. I think they do that because instinctively they 'know' that falling snow will cover their tracks and help mask scent. I suspect wolves move more slowly during those times so they don't miss those critters in heavy cover while moving at a greater speed. Maybe that is saying a similar thing to what the Alberta study in saying

Don't want to sound like a know it all jerk....but this isn't breakthrough science or new news. I don't know of any animal that doesn't move less during storms. We always see fewer animals or even sign when the weather turns bad. In recent years its been really pronounced during the fall hunting season with the goofy weather we've been having. I remember an old Cree trapper that used to work for us on the ranch would never hunt moose during a snowstorm. He always said that the bulls dont like the feel of snow on their antlers so they stay hidden in the heavy timber during storms. His reason might not have been exactly right, but he knew from a lifetime of hunting that moose hole up in heavy timber during a storm. I've noticed they do the same during rainy weather too.

When I trapped up in the Logans years ago we got some heavy snowfall at times and you could take it to the bank that critter movement would slow during the storms. After the storm blew through, look out because you were going to have some action because the animals would be moving a lot looking for food. Next they are going to tell us that furbearers don't move as much during severe cold snaps !

On a more serious note, it doesn't take much of an imagination to see where this is headed. They are going to say "climate change" is threatening wolves so they will have to regulate the harvest or some such nonsense....just watch

I've collaborated with U of A on quite a bit of stuff including with the lead professor on this is Stan Boutin. He had grad students doing caribou work on one of my traplines. Stan is a solid guy and respects traditional knowledge.

When you see any research coming out of U of A keep in mind that this is a university that has professors that hunt and even trap. Google guys like Mark Boyce and Lee Foote and you'll see that this is not a bastion of green peace supporters, unlike much of today's academic community.

I get a different take on the research findings, Dave. What I took out of it is not the issue of snow depth, or cold, but rather falling snow disrupting scent columns and results in poor hunting conditions for wolves. I guess as a trapper I could take that into account with my sets. Say I've been placing snares at the half-way point between two bait sites. Often these snares rely on a scent lure to pull the wolves off a trail between the two baits into the waiting snares. But if I had a week of snow forecast I might want to change up my set by leaving a trail of small chunk baits from the trail into the snare site. Or maybe I'm overthinking it!

Brian, I wasn't thinking snow depth. Just snowfall in general. Animals move less on snowy days, or even rainy days. I've noticed it with both predators and prey. Lots of reasons I expect, and scent could very well be one of them. It also might be for the same reason we dont go out as much in bad weather, the cabin is more comfortable Wind is another factor that will effect animal movement. I've noticed moose are especially wary in heavy wind. They rely on their hearing to alert them to danger and the wind makes it harder for them to hear, so they move a lot less in windy conditions.

Since you know the Bios involved I will take your word for their motives. The problems start when their work is "interpreted" by others whose motives are not so pure. We lost the most productive weeks of our wolverine season last year because of junk science. I talked to you about it when the study first started and like me you saw what was coming. Nobody up here with the power to change the outcome was interested in listening back then. They thought the biologists doing the study had trappers best interest in mind, and a lot of trappers fell into that group. Well we lost with no fight at all, and now there are trappers who will never have a chance to harvest wolverine again because of a very flawed study that used trappers to get the information they ended up using against them.

I share Dave's well-founded reluctance to dive right in and support every bit of research being proposed.

My experience is that many times starry-eyed ideologically driven "researchers" are really beginning with not just a theory, but rather a nearly pre-determined idea of what the outcome "should" be. (Witness the propensity to blame "climate change" for everything from population shifts to yeast infections...!)

Researchers love to be able to say "Well, the trappers out there helped me with the study." It gives them credibility that they otherwise would not have. In some cases it actually makes their studies even possible when they need to capture some furbearers for tagging, etc!

These days, when a "researcher" comes around handing out shovels, I want to be sure I'm not going to be using one to dig my own grave!

Science ain't what it once was, I'm sorry to say.

Pete