Trapped wolf bites researcher, who kills the animal; wildlife officials call the incident rare

The second wolf killed in the state's first wolf hunt is tagged and will be checked for age and other data. Field researchers also trap and radio-collar wolves to do more extensive research. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) (CORY MORSE)

By John Barnes |
on August 14, 2014

 

Calling it "very rare," a researcher attempting to collar a trapped wolf in the Upper Peninsula was bitten and the animal killed, Michigan wildlife officials say. “He had placed a trap to try to get wolves radio-collared and when he approached this wolf it was just a little more aggressive than he was anticipating,” said DNR spokeswoman Debbie Munson Badini, of the Marquette office. "It was definitely a bite; it broke the skin, but isn’t going to do long-term damage.”

The researcher, who was alone during the incident in Gogebic County last month, shot the wolf in the head, she said. The action was necessary to test for rabies and other diseases, though the damage to the brain tissue made the tests impossible, she add. “We’ve have had other field staff bitten (by wolves). It’s not common but it’s not unheard of,” Munson Badini said.

DNR wolf expert Adam Bump was not immediately available for comment. But in a recent radio interview he characterized the early-July incident as “very rare” and said “It’s one of the risks that researchers have to take when they are trying to get information on animals to help with management.”

He said the injured researcher is under contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fish and Wildlife Services, and has done control work in the past.

 Don Lonsway, a wildlife agent for the federal government, checks the teeth on wolf shot at an Ontonagon County farm, where wolves were attacking cattle. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) 

 

“Because of the nature of the interaction … we did not want to take any risk of the wolf continuing that behavior when there weren’t extenuating circumstances,” Bump said on the Mike Avery Outdoor Magazine radio show. He reiterated the incident is “nothing major, nothing for the general public to be concerned about. It is not an escalation of fearless wolf behavior in the U.P.”

There are an estimated 636 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. Twenty-two were killed last year in Michigan’s first managed wolf hunt, out of a possible 43. An MLive.com investigation found government half-truths, falsehoods and livestock numbers skewed by a single farmer distorted some arguments for the inaugural hunt.

Supporters say that wolf hunts are an effective population-control tool for limiting attacks on livestock and pets, arguments bolstered by recent news that wolves had killed five hunting dogs in the span of three days, along with a cow.

Anti-hunt groups have placed two measures on the November ballot to stymie future hunts. But the state Senate passed a citizen initiative Wednesday that would essentially makes those measures not, and leave decisions in the Natural Resources Commission's hands.

House passage is also required for it to go into effect. The House next meets on Aug. 27.

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