. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 470 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 117. Figure 1. Dead wolf at entrance to Porcupine den in northern Wisconsin 10 January 1996. Wolf 234M had been dead for 24 or more hours at the time the carcass was found. A Porcupine continued to visit the den site after the death of the wolf, as evi- dent by urine and fresh Porcupine tracks at the entrance, and it may have just left the den site when we initially approached, and was observed about 20 m from the den. It is unknown whether the wolf had entered the den while the Porcupine was using it, or
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 470 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 117. Figure 1. Dead wolf at entrance to Porcupine den in northern Wisconsin 10 January 1996. Wolf 234M had been dead for 24 or more hours at the time the carcass was found. A Porcupine continued to visit the den site after the death of the wolf, as evi- dent by urine and fresh Porcupine tracks at the entrance, and it may have just left the den site when we initially approached, and was observed about 20 m from the den. It is unknown whether the wolf had entered the den while the Porcupine was using it, or if the Porcu- pine had moved in after the wolf had occupied the den. Two additional cases of wolf use and death in Por- cupine dens have been observed in Wisconsin in recent years. On 17 December 1997 wolf 243F, the alpha female of the Miles Lake Pack in northeastern Price County (latitude 45° 59'N, longitude 90°6' W) was found dead in an uprooted White Cedar (Thuja occi- dentalis) cavity full of Porcupine droppings. The wolf had severe alopecia and apparently died due to the affects of sarcoptic mange. Her two pups had died from a combination of mange and parvovirus during the previous summer (N. J. Thomas, personal communi- cation). On 27 January 2000, a radio-collared female wolf was found dead in a Porcupine den at the base of a Sil- ver Maple (Acer saccharinum) in the Bad River Indian Reservation of Ashland County (latitude 46° 28'N, longitude 90°6'W). The wolf had been the alpha fe- male of the West Firelane Pack which consisted only of three wolves in early winter. All pack members were observed to have sarcoptic mange. The female wolf also apparently died from the effects of sarcoptic mange. Sarcoptic mange was first identified in Great Lakes wolves in late 1991 (Wydeven et al. 1996), and seemed to affect most intensely the Wisconsin wolf popula- tion in 1992-1993 (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 1999). Wolves affected by this disease appear to be willing
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