Officials taking closer look at Isle Royale wolf population
The Associated Press
· Traverse City, Mich.
· In this Feb. 10, 2006, file photo a pack of gray wolves is shown on Isle Royale National Park in northern Michigan.AP file
Federal
officials said Wednesday they will take a closer look at whether to
bring more gray wolves to Isle Royale National Park, where the iconic
predator is on the verge of dying out after suffering a population
free-fall in recent years.
The National Park Service began a
wide-ranging study in 2015 of strategies for managing the Lake Superior
island chain's wolves, moose and vegetation for at least the next two
decades. But with only two wolves believed to remain as of February, the
agency said it would narrow its focus to whether to bolster their
numbers — and if so, how.
"At this time, natural recovery of the
population is unlikely," the park service said in a statement. "The
potential absence of wolves raises concerns about possible effects to
Isle Royale's current ecosystem, including effects to both the moose
population and Isle Royale's forest/vegetation communities."
Taking
the closer look does not necessarily mean the park service is leaning
toward moving more wolves to the island, Superintendent Phyllis Green
said. But internal discussions and public comments have led staffers to
drop consideration of alternatives for keeping moose numbers in check
through methods such as hunting, as opposed to maintaining the reliance
on wolves as predators.
"The central question is in the next 20
years, while things are changing on the island, will wolves play a role
in managing moose or not," Green said.
Wolves have been a beloved
feature of Isle Royale, a rugged, isolated wilderness roughly 15 miles
from the Canadian shoreline. Sightings are unusual, but visitors thrill
to the occasional nighttime howls that announce the wolves' presence.
Scientists
believe they first migrated to the island park across winter ice
bridges in the late 1940s. Their numbers grew as they feasted on moose,
which themselves had arrived around the turn of the 20th century. Since
then, the two species have benefited each other, as moose provided the
wolves an ample food supply, while wolves kept moose numbers from rising
so high that they would gobble up too much of the island's trees and
bushes.
Biologists with Michigan Technological University have
studied their relationship since the 1950s in what is described as the
world's longest continuous study of a predator-prey relationship in a
closed ecosystem.
Wolf numbers have averaged in the low 20s,
divided into several packs, but have declined steeply in recent years —
probably because of inbreeding and disease, scientists say.
The
park service hosted public meetings last summer and received thousands
of comments, with some favoring bringing more wolves to the island and
others opposing it. Because the study is being revised, the agency said
an additional 30-day public comment period will be granted.
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