Global Courant
Gray wolves are thriving in Isle Royale National Park, five years after authorities began a last-ditch effort to prevent the species from going extinct on the Lake Superior archipelago, scientists said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the park’s moose population continues a sharp but necessary decline. Overpopulation of the lumbering mammals caused their own famine as they outnumbered available balsam pines — their primary food during long, snowbound winters, biologists at Michigan Technological University said.
The trends seem to justify federal officials’ 2018 decision to move wolves from the mainland to Isle Royale, the researchers said, arguing that the return of the predators helps rebalance an ecosystem. as their numbers fell to just two.
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The scientists’ annual report, based largely on aerial observations last winter, estimated the rebuilt population at 31 wolves — up from 28 last year. It said the wolves appeared to form three packs, while others roamed alone or in smaller groups . The moose total was about 967, down from 1,346 last year and down 54% from about 2,000 in 2019. Ecologists are celebrating what they hope will be a healthier herd.
“It’s been hugely successful,” said co-leader Sarah Hoy, a research assistant professor and animal ecologist. “That’s what everyone was hoping for.”
But the initial results haven’t settled the debate over whether humans should save struggling species on Isle Royale or other designated wilderness areas, where federal law requires nature to take its course.
“We felt and still believe that the National Park Service should not have stepped in and set up this artificial wolf population,” said Kevin Proescholdt, conservation director for the advocacy group Wilderness Watch.
A pack of wolves is seen after killing a moose in Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park. Gray wolves are thriving in the park again, five years after they nearly went extinct. (AP Photo/Rolf Peterson, Michigan Tech)
Scientists believe the island’s first moose swam to Isle Royale around the turn of the 20th century. Wolves arrived in the late 1940s and apparently crossed the frozen lake surface from Minnesota or the Canadian province of Ontario. While technically part of Michigan, that state’s coasts are farther out.
Elk provided an ample supply of food for the wolves, which in turn helped control moose numbers. Both populations have risen and fallen over the years, influenced by disease, weather, parasites and other factors. But inbreeding eventually took its toll on the wolves, whose numbers plummeted between 2011 and 2018.
Some experts said they should go extinct like other species that once inhabited the island, including the Canadian lynx and woodland caribou, which shared the same predator-prey relationship as today’s wolves and moose.
“Species come and species go,” Proescholdt said, arguing that the federal Wilderness Act “imposes upon us to master nature and not impose our human desires.”
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Michigan Tech park officials and scientists argue that the absence of a predator from the moose and beaver food chain would have been disastrous for the island’s forest. Even now, balsam firs are in decline due to moose browsing and an attack of tree-killing spruce budworm, the report said.
Experts recognize that the same factors that nearly wiped out wolves — mainly inbreeding — could eventually return. Global warming means fewer ice bridges form on Lake Superior, reducing the likelihood of wolves migrating from the mainland to the park and diversifying the gene pool. The closest point of the vast archipelago to the mainland is about 15 miles away.
That could mean park managers have to import a few wolves every decade, Hoy said.
They brought in 19 wolves in 2018-19 from Minnesota, Ontario’s Michipicoten Island, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Only a few are believed to be alive — not surprising since wild wolves rarely live longer than five years, Hoy said. But their descendants would have produced at least seven litters of pups.
This year’s field study discovered an 11-member pack on the east side of the main island and a five-member pack on the west side. There were three groups of at least three wolves each and a few loners or pairs. A new platoon also appears to be forming, the report said.
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The 28% decline in the moose population from 2022 is one of the largest one-year collapses ever seen in the park, it said. Although predation by wolves is partly responsible, autopsies indicate that the main cause was starvation from overpopulation.
While relatively few moose calves seem to survive to adulthood, there’s no reason to worry about the moose’s near future, said Michigan Tech biologist Rolf Peterson. They have dropped to 400-500 before and bounced back. But the warming climate, tick infestations and other long-term challenges will remain.
For now, the park’s ecosystem is getting healthier thanks to the return of the wolves, he said, suggesting the decision to intervene was the right one.
“The old hands-off approach to national park management, thinking everything will be fine, probably isn’t enough,” Peterson said. “Our footprint is all over the world.”
