Figure 6.—Wolves travel single file in deep snow. (Photo courtesy of L. D. Mech.)
Figure 7.—(A) A single wolf must break his own trail through the snow. (Photo courtesy of L. D. Frenzel.) (B) Regular use by a pack keeps trails open. (Photo courtesy of L. D. Mech.)
The second type of wolf movement affected by snow is the leaping and bounding associated with chasing prey. The shallower angle of the wolf's bound ([fig. 8]) (compared with that of the deer) often causes the wolf to flounder in snow that presents little hinderance to deer (Mech 1970). Such was the case in January and February 1967 in our study area. During 1967-68 no observations of wolves chasing deer were made by the authors, but reports by other field workers indicated that running conditions were similar to those of 1967.
Figure 8.—Wolves run at a shallow angle, thus hindering them in deep snow. (Photo courtesy of D. H. Pimlott.)