Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

Wolves hit Isle Royale campgrounds in search of food

cheeser

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An Isle Royale wolf is pictured. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)

HOUGHTON — A warning for campers on Lake Superior’s Isle Royale National Park: Wolves are venturing into campground trash cans for easy meals. The park reminds visitors to secure and monitor food and trash to keep people and wolves separate and safe.


“Wolves are very opportunistic and will utilize just about anything as a food source, and obviously getting in the garbage is an easy one,” said Brian Roell, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’s large-carnivore specialist.

Liz Valencia, who manages cultural resources for the national park, said a couple of wolves started knocking down trash cans at the Rock Harbor campground, one of the park’s busiest areas.

Rangers’ efforts to secure trash cans and scare away the wolves failed, she said, and the wolves keep coming back.

So the park is asking visitors to help.


Hikers must keep their packs on them at all times and visitors must keep food and garbage in secure, scent-proof storage, like bear boxes, or hung up in trees at least 10 feet off the ground, according to new regulations that went into effect this summer.

“We just don’t want wolves to get accustomed to being around people,” said Valencia, which could lead to visitors getting hurt by a wolf or vice versa.

]Isle Royale National Park comprises one large island and hundreds of smaller islands, covering 850 square miles. Wolves are essential to Isle Royale, and they’re “a cherished part of the wilderness experience” for visitors, said Valencia.

The possibility of wolf and moose sightings draws in visitors from around the country to the park every year, which isn’t a problem, said Valencia, as long as those sightings are from a distance.

“Seeing a wolf digging through the garbage at Rock Harbor is not really the kind of wolf sighting you want,” she said.

Apart from being an exciting sight for visitors, the gray wolf population on Isle Royale plays a vital role as the park’s top predator. Other large predators are absent, the National Park Service says, including bears, coyotes and mountain lions.

Wolves keep the population of moose, another prominent animal at Isle Royale, stable. Biologists have been studying the relationship between the two animals since wolves crossed over on an ice bridge from Canada in 1948, making it the longest predator-prey study in the world, said DNR biologist Roell.

Efforts to keep the wolf and moose populations thriving have long been the priority of conservationists and scientists.

In 2012, the wolf population decreased drastically, partly due to inbreeding which is becoming more common as warming temperatures keep the lake from freezing over. The annual freezes allowed wolves from Canada to cross over. Without new wolves migrating to the Isle Royale, closely related ones are less likely to produce offspring, and inbred wolves may be born with crooked spines or other health problems.

As an attempt to prevent the species from dying out, the Park Service relocated wolves from the mainland of Michigan, Ontario and Minnesota in 2018 and 2019.

That “was not an easy decision,” said Roell, who was consulted about the issue.

Typically, biologists prefer to let nature do its thing, but without wolves, he said, there was no predator to keep the moose population in check. The whole ecosystem was in threat of collapse. So the relocation of 19 wolves bolstered the genetic diversity of the wolf population and stabilized the park’s ecosystem.

From a low of two wolves in 2018, the population bounced back to 14 in 2020, according to the Park Service.

Valencia said 30 wolves now live in the national park.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Gabrielle Nelson has an environmental reporting internship under the MSU Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s diversity reporting partnership with the Mott News Collaborative in cooperation with CNS.
 
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gabrielle Nelson has an environmental reporting internship under the MSU Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s diversity reporting partnership with the Mott News Collaborative in cooperation with CNS.

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Eye roll.
 
Wolves out east are basically coyotes, tiny little things. I guess they're just really leaning into the lifestyle.
 
Can't say I'm too surprised. I had a few young wolves come up on me while I was working there in 2021. They were way more curious than the wolves I have seen in the UP. One got so close I almost thought I was gonna have to crack him on the head with my canoe paddle.
 

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Are wolves in the upper midwest actually small?

The few I have seen looked really big, but I admittedly have not seen them anywhere else to compare.
 
Are wolves in the upper midwest actually small?

The few I have seen looked really big, but I admittedly have not seen them anywhere else to compare.

Body size/frame is large but rare to be over 100 lbs due to being very lean. Everybody that sees one in the wild thinks they are looking at a 120+ lb critter. I remember reading an interview with the USFWS federal trapper that trapped in NE MN through the 90s and 2000s and I am pretty sure they never recorded a weight >100 lbs. We had federal trappers on our dairy farm in MN during that time and most of the biggest wolves were around 85 lbs but looked huge.


The pics of huge wolves in the west that people think are 150+ lbs are usually not even 120.
 
Body size/frame is large but rare to be over 100 lbs due to being very lean. Everybody that sees one in the wild thinks they are looking at a 120+ lb critter. I remember reading an interview with the USFWS federal trapper that trapped in NE MN through the 90s and 2000s and I am pretty sure they never recorded a weight >100 lbs. We had federal trappers on our dairy farm in MN during that time and most of the biggest wolves were around 85 lbs but looked huge.


The pics of huge wolves in the west that people think are 150+ lbs are usually not even 120.


They're generally pretty big boys up here in Canada
 
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Eye roll.
Not really, actually if you want to enjoy hunting for many years it's critical to get more non traditional folks outdoors and appreciating that opportunity.
 
MN & UP wolves are Grey Wolves - just another time-wasting ill considered post lacking any actual understanding of this situation. Yawn.

The ones that frequent my trail cams (and for some odd reason our gravel road entrance) are plenty big. I would guess 80-100lb - which is fairly typical for greys in this part of the world.
 
Not really, actually if you want to enjoy hunting for many years it's critical to get more non traditional folks outdoors and appreciating that opportunity.

You think the grant searching out non-white climate change “journalists” is going to produce hunting advocates from the hood (I’m sorry, marginalized communities)? Ha!

I’m curious how the white middle class folks would be unaware of air pollution but non-white people in the same city would be privy to it?
 
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You think the grant searching out non-white climate change “journalists” is going to produce hunting advocates from the hood (I’m sorry, marginalized communities)? Ha!

I’m curious how the white middle class folks would be unaware of air pollution but non-white people in the same city would be privy to it?
I do. I definitely do.

I did.
 

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