Isle Royale Wolves

**MCBushbaby** · 03-22-2008, 05:45 PM

Keynote speaker Rolf Peterson, head of the Isle Royale wolf/moose study, gave a presentation the other day on his work. I also got a free copy of his book

Isle Royale is, for those who don't know, an island national park in the NW section of Lake superior and only about 100 miles from me.

IsleRoyaleWolf.org

Has some pretty interesting information on isolated predator-prey interactions. Because it's entirely on an island, wildlife experts have one of the most unique views of this relationship anywhere on earth. Galapagos come to mind...

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Where else can you find this kind of predator-prey relationship without having to factor in migration, public land encroachment, etc?

An interesting topic came up during the presentation when an audience member asked if there were any new wolves or moose on the island since they migrated from Canada over 100 years ago (we assume the meese swam and the wolves came over on an ice bridge from a really cold winter). Dr. Peterson said that no new animals had been introduced, and if there were, they would've been killed in classic territorial fashion by the established packs. So this means all 50-something wolfs have been inbreeding for the past century as well as the 500-600 (current) meese. Cool thing is, no deformities or problems usually associated with inbreeding have occured. The wolves simply have an extra vertebrae which, as peterson explained, 1/4 of all humans do as well.

So check it out if you have some time.

NOTE: I know the plural of moose is not meese... it's moosen.. j/k

**Rick** · 03-22-2008, 07:11 PM

Mitch - Great post. I said in another thread that my son and his better half spent a week there last summer. They hiked and backpacked the island. While they did see some moose, they were skunked on the wolves. Plenty of tracks but so sitings.

I hadn't considered the captive aspect of the island and the fact that there was little genetic diversity. Obviously the inbreeding has a detrimental affect on the animals but being in a protected habitant because it is an island there is little chance of a disease being introduced from another animal new to the area. Good stuff!!

**crashdive123** · 03-22-2008, 07:37 PM

Interesting thought on the introduction of disease. I wonder if any studies have ever been done regarding man's introduction of diseases into wildlife habitats.

**MCBushbaby** · 03-22-2008, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by crashdive123

Interesting thought on the introduction of disease. I wonder if any studies have ever been done regarding man's introduction of diseases into wildlife habitats.

Yup! Sometime in the early 1980s (where the big drop in wolf population in the graph occurred), someone brought their dog to the island (dogs are prohibited) and the canine parvovirus killed almost every wolf. For the next decade the population was so low (10-15 wolves) because, as Peterson points out, the virus can stay alive for years outside a living host!

More info here: http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/PressR...lves/wolf.html

**Rick** · 03-22-2008, 08:01 PM

Oh, man. The article says the disease was brought in on hiker's boots. Something else I had never considered.

Isn't it amazing how well Mother Nature controls things if left alone. Admittedly, she is pretty heartless but objective. Really a good post Mitch. Thanks!!

**crashdive123** · 03-22-2008, 08:02 PM

Thanks guys.

**Stony** · 03-22-2008, 08:30 PM

here are a few facts that are not mentioned anywhere:

wolves will kill off all moose on the island
wolves will empty out large areas of ungulates if left unchecked
wolves DO kill people (last documneted incident in Saskatchewan in 2006/7)
only a dead wolf is a good wolf

**MCBushbaby** · 03-22-2008, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by Stony

here are a few facts that are not mentioned anywhere:

wolves will kill off all moose on the island Only if there's a catastrophic moose die off followed by a huge wolf boom... 0.01%
wolves will empty out large areas of ungulates if left unchecked doubtful. they are an integral piece of the balance of nature
wolves DO kill people (last documneted incident in Saskatchewan in 2006/7) Only when hunger-crazed, otherwise they leave them alone
only a dead wolf is a good wolf Your bias is shown clearly in the above statements

Your first point is just pure ignorance. Not only have the wolf and moose population been in constant play beyond 100 years, but a moose can stare down a wolf pack. There are videos Peterson took that show this.

**crashdive123** · 03-22-2008, 08:33 PM

Uhh....Welcome to the Wolfpack Stony.

**Rick** · 03-22-2008, 09:36 PM

Stony - Can you site your references? That's just not right. A wolf is a predator and will only prosper when there is sufficient prey to support the population. If the prey population falls then the predator population has to fall as well. They generally starve to death. For that reason, wolves don't empty out the ungulates...unless they are stressed by lack of food.

The statement about a dead wolf is just prejudiced. They are an important piece of the natural puzzle. Pit Bulls kill a lot more people than wolves. Should we kill all Pit Bulls?

**canid** · 03-22-2008, 10:06 PM

a good example is the coyote, who's populations closely follow the population of small prey animals like rabbits/hre.

in northern california, hare are the primary prey and coyote numbers tend to follow thier loosely 7 year cycle, about a year behind. the declines in the hare populations are usualy brought about by epidemic disease [as population densities increase, contanct, and thus the communication of disease increases exponentialy], and it's the subsequent starvation of they coyotes following the hare decline that controll thier numbers, not the other way around.

**trax** · 03-24-2008, 04:02 PM

Stony's opinions don't surprise me, in fact, opinions like his are far more common than informed opinions. The documented case of the wolf killing a human in Saskatchewan is far from "documented". It's far more likely that the guy was already dead and wolves may have munched out on his carcass. Interesting, a pair of wolves living immediately next door basically, who would have been the most likely culprits, were shot. Their stomach contents showed NO human remains, nor did samples of their scat that was collected. Document that, dude.

**wildWoman** · 03-24-2008, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Stony

here are a few facts that are not mentioned anywhere:

wolves will kill off all moose on the island
wolves will empty out large areas of ungulates if left unchecked
wolves DO kill people (last documneted incident in Saskatchewan in 2006/7)
only a dead wolf is a good wolf

Whoa, where did you spring from?! I guess then that before us whities came to North America, there were no moose, since the wolves would have eaten them all (was probably them that ate the buffalo!). Guess moose came over on the Mayflower.
A few days ago, my boyfriend was out for a walk and met a pack of 13 wolves. They came to check him out and then turned tail when he shooed them off. Must have been lucky to survive I guess.
As far as I know the incident you refer to in Saskatchewan was where guys at a mining or exploration camp were feeding wolves and trying to get cool pictures of them. So those wolves came to associate people with food, and based on the tracks of the guy who got killed, he started running from the pack. An aggressive dog will kill you if you behave that way too. If people are that dimwitted with wild predatory animals, you really can't help them.

**crashdive123** · 03-24-2008, 07:08 PM

I've got no stats to back this up, but I wouldn't be surprised if more people were attacked by pit bulls or other dogs raised by drug dealers than by wolves.

**BraggSurvivor** · 03-24-2008, 07:11 PM

There is a pack of wolves about 2km south of my property line.(on crown land) Ive only counted 7 together but my nieghbor has counted up to 14. I have never had one problem with them all the years that Ive been here. No farmstock kills, no pet kills and never coming to close to the house or outbuildings. The Elk population is rising as they are showing up in area I havent seen before. People seem to leave them alone.

How big does a pack get? Do they split and form other packs when population gets too big? How big of an area do they protect?

Why Im asking is a neigbors old horse died of natural causes last winter. We found the horse as it was starting to get dark so we rode back planning to get back out there in the morning. When we arrived there the next day there were 7 wolves eating the horse and it took three shots above their heads to disperse them into the tree line. We found it strange that they were not as scared of us as usual.

Nothing but the horses head and legs left in 13 hours....amazing.

**Rick** · 03-24-2008, 07:21 PM

Bragg - Here's a good article on wolves including quite a bit of information on pack size.

http://www.wolftrust.org.uk/a-pack.html

My guess on why they didn't want to leave is they were trying to protect their food.