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Wolves and the Isle Royale Environment: Restoring an Island Ecosystem

Posted on October 4, 2020

The National Park Service made a determination to augment the number of gray wolves (Canis lupus) on Isle Royale National Park to restore this apex carnivore and predator-prey relations. This report summarizes project results from September 2018 to April 2020. Nineteen wolves captured in Michigan, Minnesota, and Ontario during September 2018–2019 were translocated to Isle Royale. We estimated 14 wolves present on Isle Royale on 14 April 2020. Eight wolves died with the most common cause of mortality intraspecific aggression.

GPS location data suggested female wolf 014F denned in spring 2019 and established several rendezvous sites. Images from a remote camera in September 2019 support at least two pups were reared. Location data from GPS collars also demonstrated denning activity for wolf 001F in early April 2020. Genetic analysis of scat samples will provide additional support for reproduction of these wolves. Limited data suggested potential for denning activity for wolves 012M and 015F during spring 2020; however, collar failure precluded confirmation… [read PDF for full document]

Document: NPS-SUNY-Isle-Royale-Wolf-Summary-Report-2018-2020.pdf

Author(s): Mark C. Romanski, Elizabeth K. Orning, Kenneth F. Kellner, Dean E. Beyer Jr., Kristin E. Brzeski, John Hart, Donald H. Lonsway Jr., Ashley A.D. McLaren, Seth A. Moore, Brent R. Patterson, Lynette R. Potvin, Michelle L. Verant, Tiffany M. Wolf, and Jerrold L. Belant

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Some groups want federal protection for Great Lakes gray wolves dropped as role of Endangered Species Act examinedtinyurl.com/yakmph7dRepublican lawmakers in the U.S. Committee on Natural Resources argued at an oversight meeting that the Endangered Species Act was an overreach of federal authority and an ambiguous statute, as part of a broader reexamination of conservation laws.Federal protection for nearly 50 years has helped gray wolf populations steadily recover, mostly in the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions. But in the past 20 years, conservationists, hunters, ranchers and politicians have used different definitions of recovery to repeatedly shift the gray wolf on and off the endangered list. At issue is whether the species has recovered enough to be sustainable and how states will regulate hunting.“Wolves have made encouraging progress since they were first protected,” said Amanda Wight, senior program manager for wildlife protection at nonprofit Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States. “But it’s important to remember that federal protections are still very necessary for wolves. They’re still absent from most of their historic range, as well as most currently suitable habitat. And wolves face many ongoing threats, including climate change, loss of habitat and inadequate regulatory mechanisms by state agencies.”While conservationists and wolf experts emphasize the need for wolves to be present in their historic range to consider them recovered, proponents of delisting say gray wolf populations across the region have sufficiently bounced back.If gray wolves are delisted, Runty said, the main concern among conservationists is that inadequately regulated hunting may significantly hurt their population numbers — and the broader ecosystems.When the species was delisted during windows under Obama and Trump, advocates say states in the Midwest held hunting competitions that turned into “bloodbaths.”“When you’re considering whether or not to remove a species from the Endangered Species Act, I think it’s important to consider: If that protection goes away, is the species likely to go back to what caused it to be endangered in the first place? ... See MoreSee Less

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