By Dylan Engels
Michigan’s population of wolves has been growing since they were added to the Endangered Species Act slightly more than 50 years ago.
Since then, wolves have slowly repopulated the Upper Peninsula, moving from the western Great Lake states.
And on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, where the National Park Service reintroduced wolves from the mainland starting in 2019, the population is estimated to have grown to around 30.
The island’s wolves have had a strong influence on the diet of foxes but little impact on the diet of American martens, both of which are predator species.
That’s according to a new study by researchers from the national park and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
According to a report from the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, “Wolves began immigrating from Wisconsin, and in 1991 a pack was confirmed to be reproducing in Michigan.” The report said the population has grown to 762 as of 2024.
That growing population has affected other wild animals such as beaver, fawns and other small mammals, according to Amy Trotter, the chief executive officer of Michigan United Conservation Clubs.
“We are saturated with wolves in terms of available habitat and growing conflicts,” Trotter said. “We would like to see wolves managed on the landscape at a lower level than they are right now.’
The Department of Natural Resources recently announced its own survey to determine whether any wolves live in the northern Lower Peninsula.
This idea of a regular hunting season followed a decision in 2011 when the Obama administration attempted to take gray wolves off the endangered species list because of their growing numbers.
In 2013, there was a one-time hunt that allowed up to 1,200 wolf hunting licenses to be issued for use only in certain areas of the Upper Peninsula. In 2020, the Trump administration removed their endangered species status, but a federal judge reversed that action.
Trotter said hunters in the UP frequently lose hunting dogs to wolves, another reason Michigan United Conservation Clubs supports a hunting season for wolves.
Meanwhile, the new National Park Service-University of Wisconsin study found through analyzing 600 scats from 20 martens and 63 foxes that reintroducing wolves on Isle Royale didn’t affect martens much, but had a heavy impact on foxes.
The foxes changed hunting patterns to maintain their diet of moose, small prey and berries, the study said. It appeared earlier this year in the Journal of Mammalogy.