MDNR is trying to find out
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently announced the findings of its 2024 winter wolf population survey, which estimated a minimum of 762 wolves roaming the Upper Peninsula. This marks a significant increase from the 2022 estimate, further solidifying the region’s status as a stronghold for gray wolves.
As Brian Roell, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist, explained, “This year’s survey findings are statistically consistent with our wolf population surveys for the past 14 years. When a wild population reaches this stable point, it is typical to see slight variations from year to year, indicating that gray wolves may have reached their biological carrying capacity in the Upper Peninsula.”
However, the department’s efforts extend beyond the Upper Peninsula. They plan to continue their search for wolves in the Lower Peninsula. The low-density levels of wolves in the Lower Peninsula make the track survey protocol used in the U.P. impractical. Instead, a targeted search approach based on resident reports of wolves or wolf signs—such as tracks or scat—is used to concentrate efforts in areas more likely to have wolves. The department plans to test new technology using trace DNA collected from fresh tracks left in the snow to verify suspected wolf presence.
While it is possible that individual wolves currently occupy the Lower Peninsula, as of April 2023, the state’s wolf population is not known to extend to that part of Michigan. However, there have been tantalizing clues of their presence in recent years. During the 2011 targeted winter track survey, and shortly after the 2015 survey period, tracks consistent with a wolf were observed in Cheboygan and Emmet counties. In 2014, biologists from the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians captured what appeared to be a wolf on a trail camera and were able to collect a scat sample, which DNA analysis confirmed belonged to a male wolf.
More recently, the last wolf identified in the Lower Peninsula was a male taken in January 2024 in Calhoun County by a coyote hunter, though an investigation failed to determine how the wolf came to be in that area. As Roell noted, “Research has suggested that there is suitable habitat for wolves in the northern Lower Peninsula. However, this habitat is fragmented and the ability of wolves to travel the landscape among these habitat patches is uncertain. Suitable habitat becomes even more patchy in the more populated southern Lower Peninsula, which makes it unlikely that wolves would establish themselves there.”
Wolves were once abundant across Michigan, but their numbers dwindled due to hunting, trapping, and habitat loss. By the early 1900s, they were considered extirpated from the state.
According to the Michigan DNR, the last known wolf den in Michigan was located in Cheboygan County in 1935, and the last documented wolf killed in Michigan prior to their return was in Alcona County in 1960.
In the late 1980s, wolves began naturally re-colonizing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from Wisconsin and Ontario populations that had re-established themselves. The first den with pups was confirmed in 1991 near Ironwood in Gogebic County.
The natural re-colonization of wolves in the Upper Peninsula after nearly being wiped out is considered a major conservation success story in Michigan.
With wolves in Michigan currently protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, the DNR’s efforts to monitor their presence, especially in the Lower Peninsula, take on added importance. As the state continues to advocate for returning wolves to state management, understanding their distribution and potential to establish new populations will be crucial for informed conservation and management decisions.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NCTC Image Library.
