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November 14 2004Scientists eager to study area wolf populationConfirmed wolf likely migrated across the iceByRecord-Eagle staff writer GAYLORD - Deep, dense and off the beaten track, northern Lower Michigan's forests provide shelter and sustenance for deer, elk, beaver and birds. And, it appears, the woods provide equally fine habitat for the gray wolf. A confirmed sighting of a wolf in northern Michigan last month - the first such documented find in nearly a century - has biologists, researchers and environmentalists excited to learn how many of the predators roam the wooded expanses south of the Mackinac Bridge. "I would like to hear a wolf howl in the Lower Peninsula," said Brian Mastenbrook, a state Department of Natural Resources biologist. "I think that would be a neat thing." Mastenbrook and fellow DNR biologist Glen Matthews said they weren't surprised to hear of an Oct. 23 incident in which a hunter and trapper killed a wolf near Rogers City in Presque Isle County. Jeffery Karsten shot a 70-pound female gray wolf caught in a coyote trap near his home. Karsten said he thought he killed a large coyote, and Presque Isle officials declined to press charges against him for killing a federally protected animal, ruling the shooting a case of mistaken identity. But what had been rumored for years was now fact - at least one wolf somehow crossed the divide between two peninsulas and set up home in northern Lower Michigan. WOLF HISTORY Bounty hunters wiped out the wolf in northern Lower Michigan; the last recorded sighting was in 1910. Virtually extinct in the Upper Peninsula, too, the wolf population slowly rebounded over the past two decades as animals migrated there from Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Today, the U.P. wolf population stands at around 360. Many researchers believe wolves crossed ice that formed at the Straits of Mackinac during two consecutive frigid winters. Wolves are prone to long journeys, and the animal killed near Rogers City was located near Manistique in the Upper Peninsula as recently as February. WOLVES AND PEOPLE Northern Lower Michigan's habitat may support wolves, but that doesn't mean they'll be tolerated by humans. "The sentiment is that most people are unaware that the wolves are here," said R. Ben Peyton, a Michigan State University professor who's studied human and wolf interaction. "When they learn wolves are in Michigan, they usually think it's neat, but they don't want them showing up in their back yards." Wolves in the U.P. are plentiful enough that they occasionally cross paths with humans, and sometimes attack livestock, rather than deer, their primary food source. Concerns about wolf attacks on livestock, pets or simply anti-wolf prejudices have led to a number of unsolved wolf slayings in the U.P. in recent years. FUTURE IN MICHIGAN The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed this summer to remove wolves from the list of threatened and endangered species. If finalized, it would remove gray wolves in the eastern United States from the threatened species list, leaving states and tribes with wolf populations to assume control of wolf management in an area that stretches from the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas to the East Coast. The southern border includes Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with Canada as the northern boundary. "The north woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are healthier ecosystems because of the presence of wolves," said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "These animals provide a living laboratory to study how a top predator affects plants and animals within the entire ecosystem." Two lawsuits stand in the way of the delisting, filed in federal court by the organizations Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation. Lisa Yee-Litsenberg, manager of the Great Lakes Wolf Project for the National Wildlife Federation, said the group is concerned about the proposed delisting, especially because of an increase in the number of illegal wolf kills throughout the Great Lakes area. Meanwhile, the state is updating the wolf management plan first adopted in 1997. Matthews, Mastenbrook and Brian Roell, the DNR's wolf coordinator, said it will take time to change the plan to include the Lower Peninsula, beginning with a wolf count once snow covers the region. Yee-Litsenberg said her organization would also be involved in the process, mainly through educational programs. "There is a lot of work to be done to prepare residents of the Lower Peninsula to be ready for wolves," she said.
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