HARBOR SPRINGS, Mich. — In Michigan, the wolves are headed south.
That was the word earlier in September when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced genetic testing had confirmed the presence of a gray wolf on an American Indian reservation in Harbor Springs. Emmet County is on the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula (L.P.).
According to the DNR, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians received confirmation from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, that scat submitted for DNA analysis by the tribe in 2014 was from a male gray wolf. The announcement was made Sept. 17.
Genetic testing also confirmed the wolf was not likely to be an escaped captive, since it closely matched genetic information taken from northeastern Ontario wolves. This would be the second confirmation of a wolf being in the L.P. since 1910, said Kevin Swanson, bear and wolf specialist with the DNR in Marquette County.
"Although, I would say there have been several trailcam (camera) sightings of wolves in the Lower Peninsula, as well as several instances of tracks that certainly looked like wolves," he said. "We really don’t know if there’s a breeding population of wolves in the Lower Peninsula. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility. We have a really robust population of wolves in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.)."
According to Swanson, the wolf that was detected almost certainly crossed over an ice bridge from the U.P. Ice bridges form between the peninsulas during especially cold winters: "We thought it would only be a matter of time before they would show up in the Lower Peninsula."
Wolves had been nonexistent in Michigan for most of the 20th century after having been killed off; however, over time they drifted back to the U.P., primarily from Minnesota, but also from Ontario, Swanson said.
This latest finding happened after tribal biologists discovered tracks and collected scat from Emmet County on the reservation in March 2014. Trailcam photos were also reviewed by tribal biologists and DNR staff and an animal that appeared to be a wolf was discovered.
"We’d anticipated for some time that wolves would either come down from the Upper Peninsula or eastern Ontario," said Doug Craven, director of the Natural Resources Department for the tribe. "There is some cultural significance to the wolf in the tribe, and there is some excitement over the fact that an animal has been discovered here."
Craven added the tribe has been monitoring for the presence of wolves on the reservation since 2003.
Swanson said the northern L.P. has enough suitable habitat for wolves and could support a breeding population. Other evidence for the existence of wolves there include the trapping of a gray wolf in Presque Isle County in 2004. It had been captured and collared in the U.P. previously. It was accidentally killed in a coyote trap.
In 2014 and 2015, DNR staff investigated other tracks that looked like wolf tracks, in Cheboygan and Emmet counties. No hair or scat was available for genetic testing, however.
For the time being at least, wolves in the upper Great Lakes remain on the federal endangered list of protected species, which means it’s illegal to kill a wolf under any circumstances, except in defense of a human life.
This is controversial for ranchers and hunters, because wolves prey on livestock and deer. It’s controversial with DNR officials, too, as they maintain that wolves in Michigan are doing well and need to be actively managed.
In February, the state appealed a December 2014 ruling by a federal court that overturned a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule that had taken wolves in Michigan off the endangered species list. That case is still pending as is a federal bill, H.R. 2822, which contains a wolf rider that would end endangered species protection for wolves in Michigan and "threatened" status for wolves in Minnesota.
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the FWS. Spokeswoman Jill Fritz said the HSUS did not oppose laws in Michigan allowing farmers or pet owners to get rid of wolves that attacked their animals; however, it does oppose a hunting season on wolves.
According to the latest count, 636 gray wolves live in the U.P.
