Conservation research can lead to unexpected findings. Sometimes these surprises relate to our core questions while other times they belong in a science fiction film.  One of these findings occurred while we were studying diseases that might harm wildlife in coastal BC. Though not what we set out to study, these types of discoveries are part of what makes science fun.

Internal parasites of black-tailed deer are found in wolf scat.

Many of us have probably felt a moment of panic at the sight of a little garden slug on a forkful of fresh salad en route to our mouths.  Raincoast scientists together with researchers from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Uppsala have found that wolves may have a similar experience while dining on deer.   The research team first noticed the unusual worm larvae in wolf scat during a survey of parasites in wolves.  Genetic analysis identified the microscopic worms as a parasite common to deer, but not wolves.   The likely explanation for its presence in wolf scat is that the worms were consumed by a wolf feasting on an infected deer and then passed through the wolf’s digestive tract into the faeces.

This result, which has been published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, highlights the value of using genetic techniques to improve identification of parasites in scat.

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Marine mammal abundance paper.pdf

Survey Design Paper.pdf

Hibernation paper pdf

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MacDuffee, M and E. MacIssac. 2009.  Applications of paleolimnology to sockeye salmon nursery laks and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska: Proceedings of a workshop at the Institute of Ocean Sciences.  Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 2847.

Muñoz-Fuentes, V., C.T. Darimont, R.K. Wayne, P.C. Paquet, and J.A. Leonard.  Accepted. The genetic legacy of extirpation and re-colonization in Vancouver Island wolves. Conservation Genetics.

Paquet, P.C., and C.T. Darimont. Accepted. Wildlife conservation meets animal welfare.  Animal Welfare

Munoz -Fuentes, V., C.T. Darimont, R.K. Wayne, P.C. Paquet, and J.A. Leonard.  In press. Ecological factors drive genetic differentiation in British Columbia gray wolves. Journal of Biogeography.

Darimont, C.T., S.M. Carlson, M.T. Kinnison, P.C. Paquet, T.E. Reimchen, and C.C. Wilmers. 2009. Reply to Koons: Harvest-related trait changes in an increasingly variable world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (On-line Letters).

Darimont, C.T., S.M. Carlson, M.T. Kinnison, P.C. Paquet, T.E. Reimchen, and C.C. Wilmers. 2009.  Human predators outpace other agents of trait change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 952-954.

Darimont, C.T., P.C. Paquet, and T.E. Reimchen. 2009. Landscape heterogeneity and marine subsidy generate extensive niche variation in a terrestrial carnivore. Journal of Animal Ecology 79: 126-133

Price, M.H.H., C.T. Darimont, N.F. Temple, and S.M. MacDuffee. 2008. Ghost Runs: Management and status assessment of Pacific salmon returning to British Columbia’s central and north coasts. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65:2712-2718

Darimont, C.T., T.E. Reimchen, H. Bryan, and P.C. Paquet. 2008. Faecal-centric approaches to wildlife ecology and conservation; methods, data and ethics. Wildlife Biology in Practice
4:73-87

Darimont, C.T., P.C. Paquet, and T.E. Reimchen. 2008. Spawning salmon disrupt tight trophic coupling between wolves and ungulate prey in coastal British Columbia.  BMC Ecology 8:14

Christensen, J.R., M. MacDuffee, M.B Yunker, and P.S. Ross. 2007. Hibernation associated changes in persistent organic pollutants (POP) levels and patterns in British Columbia grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Environmental Science and Technology. 41: 1834-1840

Darimont, C.T., P.C. Paquet, and T.E. Reimchen. 2007. Stable isotopic niche predicts fitness of prey in a wolf-deer system. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 90: 125-137.

Thomas, L., R. Williams, and D. Sandilands, D.  2007.  Designing line transect surveys for complex survey regions. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 9(1):1-13,

Williams, R. and L. Thomas. 2007. Distribution and abundance of marine mammals in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 9(1):15-28,

Bryan, H.M, C.T. Darimont, T.E. Reimchen, and P.C. Paquet. 2006. Early ontogenetic diet of wolves. Canadian Field-Naturalist 20: 61-66.

Paquet, P.C., S.M. Alexander, P.L. Swan, and C.T. Darimont. 2006. The influence of natural landscape fragmentation and resource availability on connectivity and distribution of marine gray wolf populations on the Central Coast, British Columbia, Canada. In Crooks, K. and M.A. Sanjayan (Eds.) Connectivity Conservation. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK.

Christensen, J.R., M. MacDuffee, R.W. MacDonald, M. Whiticar, and P.S. Ross. 2005. Persistent Organic Pollutants in British Columbia Grizzly Bears: Consequence of divergent diets. Environmental Science and Technology.  39: 6952-6960

Darimont, C.T., P.C. Paquet, T.E. Reimchen, and V. Crichton. 2005. Range expansion by moose into coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada. Diversity and Distributions 11: 235-239.

Paquet, P.C., C.T. Darimont, F.M. Moola, and C. Genovali. 2005.  Connectivity where the land meets the sea; preserving the last of the best. Wild Earth 14: 21-25.

Price, M.H.H., C.T. Darimont, N.N. Winchester, and P.C. Paquet. 2005. Facts from faeces: prey remains in wolf faeces revise occurrence records for mammals of British Columbia’s coastal archipelago. Canadian Field-Naturalist 119: 192-196.

Darimont, C.T., M.H.H. Price, N.N. Winchester, J. Gordon-Walker, and P.C. Paquet. 2004. Predators in natural fragments: foraging ecology of wolves in British Columbia’s central and north coast archipelago. Journal of Biogeography 31: 1867-1877.

Darimont, C.T., T.E. Reimchen and P.C. Paquet. 2003. Foraging behaviour by gray wolves on salmon streams in coastal British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81: 349-353.

Darimont, C.T., and P.C. Paquet. 2002. The gray wolves, Canis lupus, of British Columbia’s central and north coast: distribution and conservation assessment. Canadian Field-Naturalist 116: 416-422.

Darimont, C.T., and T.E. Reimchen. 2002. Intra-hair stable isotope analysis implies seasonal shift to salmon in gray wolf diet. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80: 1638-1642.

Human Predators in pdf

Diversity in wolves pdf

Munoz et al 2009.pdf

Conservation Genetics 2009 pdf

Ghost Runs in pdf

Faecal-centric approaches in pdf

Salmon and Wolves in pdf

Isotope niche predicts fitness. pdf