"Wolf behavior undeterred by tailings ponds and pit mines"

[Isela]

Excerpt from ScienceDaily.com

Wolves do not avoid areas of human disturbance when hunting moose in Alberta’s oil sands region.

New UAlberta research shows that predation rates of moose have increased near areas of high human disturbance, but low human activity, such as tailings ponds and pit mines.

“Wolves are not avoiding these features,” explained UAlberta PhD candidate Eric Neilson, who compared the population density of moose to the distribution of wolf-related moose deaths in the region. “In fact, they are using space near mines as they usually would, demonstrating that these spaces are not a deterrent.”

Full article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 103440.htm

Though it may not be quite surprising, seeing as the behavior is happening in areas without humans, it's still pretty interesting to see the wolves acting as they usually would around areas that have been heavily affected by humans. Another, more famous example would be Chernobyl. After the meltdown, the radioactive zone has pretty much become a wildlife sanctuary. The effects of humans still remain, but the wildlife figure out ways to work around that in the absence of humans. It's pretty fascinating.

[Windstrider]

This is neat. Also, I'd seen some documentaries about Chernobyl and its wildlife on tv and I was like dang, bet nobody expected them to live on let alone thrive lol. It's crazy how quickly nature takes back over abandoned human areas.

[Isela]

Have you seen the documentary "Radioactive Wolves"? It's a great resource of information regarding the wildlife in the radioactive zone in Chernobyl.

But yes, nature always finds a way to bounce back from human impacts :]