"Under a plan adopted earlier this year, up to 30 wolves are to be set free at Isle Royale, Michign over the next three years under a plan the National Park Service has settled on in a bid to bring genetic diversity back to the park's two remaining wolves".........."Chronic inbreeding has impacted the health of the island's wolf population"............"There was hope that "ice bridges" that formed between the Lake Superior island and the Canadian mainland during the winter of 2013-14 would enable wolves to arrive from Canada and/or Michigan with new genes".............."But no new wolves reached the island"............"As a result, the park's moose population has swelled to nearly 1,500".............."Balsam fir forests on Isle Royale are vanishing in large part due to heavy browsing by moose"...............Exciting it is to begin to witness the rewilding and ecological rebalancing of Royale begin anew with the late September/early October release of three new females and one new male wolf translocated from Minnesota".........."The Park Service will use GPS collar data to determine how these new wolves form social groups and visit kill sites so as to understand more about their moose predation impacts".................The GPS collars will also help biologists keep track of individual wolf life histories and confirm reproduction as it takes place"

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/10/wolves-moved-isle-royale-national-park-exploring-park

Wolves Moved To Isle Royale National Park Exploring The Park

Kurt Repanshek, Oct 2, 2018

A GPS collar helped biologists monitor the movements of a female wolf transplanted on Isle Royale National Park/NPS

Two wolves transplanted to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior are getting their bearings, roaming the park's forests and feeding on moose carcasses left to orient the animals to a specific area of the park.

The two, a 4-year-old female and a 5-year-old male, were taken from different pack territories on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota and flown to Isle Royale last week. Since their arrival, the wolves have been seen on wildlife cameras and tracked via a GPS monitoring collar. They've moved around the island and fed on provisioned moose left for them.

This male wolf was successfully moved to Isle Royale National Park on September 26/NPS

The joint capture effort between the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and USDA Wildlife Services has expanded the dataset and knowledge of wolf pack activity in Minnesota and caught more wolves in the first week than expected. Their efforts have been a critical part of the success of the wolf relocation to date. 

Over the weekend, game cameras monitoring a moose carcass caught the first images of the two wolves. As part of the translocation efforts, moose carcasses were placed in specific areas on the landscape to provide initial nutrition and attract wolves to these locations while subsequent wolf translocations occur in different areas, the National Park Service said. At different times both wolves, outfitted with GPS collars, visited carcass sites.

The image above shows GPS locations for the female. She found the first carcass (green square in the map) within two hours of leaving her crate, a park release said. She remained in the vicinity of the carcass through the following morning and then moved northeastward and visited another location where the NPS stationed a moose carcass.

As of Monday afternoon, her last GPS position indicated she had moved at least 12 miles into the interior of the island. The Park Service will use GPS collar data to determine how translocated wolves form social groups and visit kill sites to understand more about predation impacts, to keep track of individual life histories, and to confirm reproduction.

The collar signals from the male have not uploaded any data, which is normal for satellite monitoring startups, the park said, but he has been seen in game cameras and is moving around the island. The capture and translocation operations will continue in Minnesota and Michigan for the next several weeks.

 The new male wolf released on Royale

Another effort late last week to capture wolves for the recovery program ended in failure. While the wolf was sedated and taken to a holding facility for a more detailed exam, her condition deteriorated and she died. The wolf was transported to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Lab for necropsy and diagnostic evaluation Friday.

After that incident, biologists "adjusted the mix and timing of the sedatives used in the field and lengthened the time for the sedation to wear off before the wolf was transported to the holding facility," park spokeswoman Elizabeth Valencia said. "They also lengthened the time between the capture and release on the island to make sure there were no health issues with the wolf."

The 2013-14 Winter was cold enough for an ice bridge
to form conecting Royale to Michigan and Ontario, Canada.
However, no new wolves found their way to Royale

Under a plan adopted earlier this year, up to 30 wolves are to be set free at Isle Royale over the next three years under a plan the National Park Service has settled on in a bid to bring genetic diversity back to the park's few remaining wolves. This fall they hope to move six wolves to the island.

Chronic inbreeding has impacted the health of the island's wolf population. There was hope that "ice bridges" that formed between the Lake Superior island and the Canadian mainland during the winter of 2013-14 would enable wolves to arrive from Canada with new genes. But no new wolves reached the island, while one female left and was killed by a gunshot wound in February 2014 near Grand Portage National Monument.

Biologists look forward to this site again soon,,,,,,,,,A new,
genetically recharged Royale Wolf pack hunting Moose

Isle Royale wolves have been in decline for more than a decade. In recent years, park managers have discussed island and wolf management with wildlife managers and geneticists from across the United States and Canada, and have received input during public meetings and from Native American tribes of the area. Those discussions examined the question of whether wolves should be physically transported to Isle Royale, in large part due to concerns that a loss of the predators would lead to a boom in the moose population that likely would over-browse island vegetation.

Late this spring biologists said just two aging wolves remained at Isle Royale, while the park's moose population had swelled to nearly 1,500. Balsam fir forests on Isle Royale are vanishing in large part due to heavy browsing by moose, according to this year's ecological study of the two species at Isle Royale. Without intervention, the biologists who wrote the study -- Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich, and Sarah R. Hoy -- predicted the park's wolves would vanish and the island ecosystem will suffer.

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https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/10/two-more-wolves-relocated-isle-royale-national-park

Two More Wolves Relocated To Isle Royale National Park

National Park Service, Oct 5, 2018

Wolf No. 3 being released at Isle Royale National Park/NPS Jim Peaco

Two more wolves were moved to Isle Royale National Park this week as efforts continued to ensure predators would be on the island to counter the burgeoning moose population there.

On Tuesday, a she-wolf was transported by the National Park Service boat BEAVER from Grand Portage, Minnesota, and released in the park. Two days later, another female wolf was flown by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the island and carried by park staff over a hiking trail to the release site. This brings the total number of wolves relocated since Sept. 24 to four.

Up until this September reintroduction of 4 new Wolves,
there were only two inbred Lobos remaining on Royale,
with the Moose population swelling to an unsustainable 
1500 strong

Late last month a 4-year-old female and a 5-year-old male were set free in the park after being flown to the park by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A few days later, a female wolve died after being sedated after it was captured for relocation.

The wolf released on Tuesday this week weighed approximately 70 pounds and showed signs of having had pups in the past. The veterinarians estimate that she is 5 years old.  Distinguishing her slightly was the black coloration on her back. Once on the island, the wolf waited in the crate for less than an hour before walking away. Two days later she was seen on one of the park's remote wildlife cameras. The Park Service plans to release those photos at a later date.

Securing wolf on NPS Beaver for trip to Isle Royale National Park/NPS, Alex Picavet

On Thursday, an approximately 2-year-old wolf weighing 51 pounds was released. She remained in the transport crate until Friday morning before silently slipping away between monitoring checks by park personnel. 

Under a plan adopted earlier this year, up to 30 wolves are to be set free at Isle Royale over the next three years under a plan the National Park Service has settled on in a bid to bring genetic diversity back to the park's few remaining wolves. This fall they hope to move six wolves to the island.

Chronic inbreeding has impacted the health of Isle Royale's wolf population. There was hope that "ice bridges" that formed between the Lake Superior island and the Canadian mainland during the winter of 2013-14 would enable wolves to arrive from Canada with new genes. But no new wolves reached the island, while one female left and was killed by a gunshot wound in February 2014 near Grand Portage National Monument.

The goal for this fall is to translocate up to six wolves from the Minnesota and Michigan mainland to the park. This is the first phase of a three- to five-year effort to relocate up to 20-30 wolves to the isolated island park. Researchers recommended this number of wolves to establish adequate genetic variability to help accomplish the overall goal of restoring predation as a key part of the ecosystem on the island. 

The NPS plans to monitor ecological conditions and other factors, such as predation rates, genetics, moose-wolf ratios, and terrestrial and aquatic vegetation impacts to evaluate project success.

Trapping and relocation operations are expected to continue in Michigan and Minnesota for the next two weeks. 

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Backround and History of Isle Royale Wolf/Moose Study

Isle Royale National Park is a remote island located about fifteen miles from Lake Superior's northwest shoreline. The Isle Royale wolf population typically varies from 18 to 27 animals, organized into three packs. The moose population usually numbers between 700 and 1,200 moose. 

The wolf-moose project of Isle Royale, now in its 60th year, is the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world. Moose first arrived on Isle Royale in the early 1900s, then increased rapidly in a predator-free environment. For fifty years, moose abundance fluctuated dramatically, limited only by starvation.

 Wolves established themselves on Isle Royale in the late 1940s by crossing an ice bridge that connected the island to mainland Ontario. Researchers began annual observations of wolves and moose on Isle Royale in 1958-59. Isle Royale's biogeography is well-suited for the project's goals. That is, Isle Royale's wolves and moose are isolated, and the population fluctuations we observe are due primarily to births and deaths, not the movements of animals to and from the island. Also, the small number of mammal species provides a simpler system for study.

 The wolves are the only predator of moose on Isle Royale, and their effect on the moose population is relatively easy to monitor and understand. Moose are essentially the only food for wolves, although beaver are significant at times. Finally and importantly, human impact is limited in the sense that people do not hunt wolves or moose or harvest the forest; the island provides an outstanding venue for ecosystem science.

 The original purpose of the project was to better understand how wolves affect moose populations. The project began during the darkest hours for wolves in North America—humans had driven wolves to extinction in large portions of their former range. The hope was that knowledge about wolves would replace hateful myths and form the basis for a wiser relationship with wolves. After six decades, the Isle Royale wolf-moose project continues. 

Today, wolves prosper again in several regions of North America. But our relationship with wolves in many parts of the world is still threatened by hatred, and now we face new questions, profound questions about how to live sustainably with nature. The project's purpose remains the same: to observe and understand the dynamic fluctuations of Isle Royale's wolves and moose, in the hope that such knowledge will inspire a new, flourishing relationship with nature. Many of the project's discoveries are documented at www.isleroyalewolf.org.