Wolf population decreases, but no significant change from 2013
The results of Michigan’s 2014 wolf population show no significant change in the number of wolves in the Upper Peninsula.
According to the Department of Natural Resources, wildlife biologists estimate there is a minimum of 636 wolves in the state.
In 2013, the population was estimated at 658 wolves.
“Based on the 2014 minimum population estimate, it is clear that wolf numbers in Michigan are stable and have experienced no significant change,” DNR furbearer and bear specialist Adam Bump said in a press release. “We also did not see a significant difference in the number and average size of wolf packs as compared to 2013.”
The DNR says in the past few years the minimum population stands between 600 and 700 wolves.
The DNR primarily used a track survey to count the number of wolves, but also used radio-collared wolves and aerial observations.
About 63% of the U.P. was surveyed.
This winter, a wolf management hunt resulted in 22 wolves taken from three hunt units. The target harvest was 43 wolves.
“The fact that the 2014 estimate is 22 animals lower than the 2013 estimate is purely a coincidence,” Bump said. “We are using an estimate rather than counting all individual wolves on the landscape. In addition, wolf numbers vary greatly within a single year due to the birth of pups in the spring, and deaths from many causes of mortality other than hunting. What the estimate tells us is that the population has remained stable.”
For more on wolf management in the state, visit michigan.gov/wolves.
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Hunting wolves does not reduce conflict.
Agencies and wildlife managers that rely upon active management often promote wolf hunts as a way to reduce wolf-livestock conflict, protect prey animals, and increase social tolerance. However, research has begun to show that hunting wolves disrupts pack structure and instead often increases such conflicts
For wolves, pack structure typically constitutes an unrelated breeding pair, their offspring, and close relatives, but intense harvest may increase adoption of unrelated individuals into packs (. When older wolves are killed, packs structures are often disrupted. Territories become less defined and younger wolves may be left to fend for themselves too soon. Without the guidance of more experienced wary adult wolves, they may not learn to avoid livestock and humans. Full-sized packs with a natural distribution of age groups, and intact social systems will not resort to killing livestock as often as packs that have been hunted, nor will they kill as many wild elk or deer
Disruption of social organization and management based only on numbers has important consequences. If the “cultural knowledge” of where to hunt and/or the ability of a pack to effectively hunt is destroyed by loss of key pack members, social systems may destabilize and the remaining pack member may be more prone to conflict with humans and livestock. Smaller wolf packs – typical in the Western US - may be particularly susceptible to such impacts as odds are higher that any adult killed is a breeder making social disruption much more likely
There is little evidence to back up the specious claim that allowing wolf hunts increases human social tolerance of the species (91). There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest otherwise (57). Old prejudices die hard, and it’s difficult to demonstrate that the wolf hunts that took place after wolf delisting have increased social tolerance amongst those opposed to wolf recovery.
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