Times have changed. In Michigan we plan on killing wolves because some feel there are too many. It's a different story on Isle Royale where the wolf population is hanging on by a thread. But because Isle Royale National Park is a designated wilderness area, we, as humans, have pledged not to intervene. So what should we do? The National Park Service has a big decision to make. The folks who have been studying this place for a long time share their thoughts in this op-ed piece.
IN Lake Superior lies a remote island, Isle Royale National Park, 134,000 acres of boreal and hardwood forests where a life-or-death struggle between wolves and moose has been the subject of the world's longest study of predators and their prey, now in its 55th year.
You can listen to today's Environment Report here or read an expanded version of the story below.
Wolves and moose fight for survival on Michigan's Isle Royale National Park. For more than 50 years, researchers have been closely watching them in the world’s longest-running study of predators and prey.
The number of predators on the island has been sinking fast.
The Park is a dedicated wilderness area, so managers do their best to keep it as untouched by humans as possible. But people might need to step in.
Phyllis Green is the park's superintendent. “At this point we’re concerned about the low levels of wolves on the island, but we’re also concerned about making sure the next steps we take are well-thought-out,” she says.
There are just eight wolves left on Isle Royale. This is the first year that Michigan Technological University researchers were unable to document any pups born to the wolves.
ISLE ROYALE, Mich. (AP) - Isle Royale National Park's gray wolves apparently don't have a gender gap after all.
Scientists reported last year that only nine wolves remained on the Lake Superior island chain - the lowest total in more than 50 years. They said just one was known to be a female, raising doubts about the predator's long-term prospects for survival in the wilderness park.
But Superintendent Phyllis Green said Thursday that genetic analysis of wolf excrement and additional observations suggest that four or five of the animals are females.
Even so, Green says the wolves' situation remains tenuous and experts are studying how climate change may affect them.
Michigan Technological University biologists are conducting their annual winter study at Isle Royale and are expected to release updated wolf and moose numbers next month.
"Romeo" was eager to mate with other females. He was one of the wolves that died in the mine shaft last fall. He's seen here following a female wolf in 2010.
That's the lowest number recorded by researchers who have been studying the Isle Royale wolf population for the last 54 years. It's the longest continuous predator-prey study in the world.
Rolf Peterson holds up the song sheet for the evening. Candy Peterson loves to get people singing. She says "people shouldn't say, 'I can't sing,' they should say 'I don't sing very often.'"
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Rolf Peterson outside of the Bangsund Cabin on Isle Royale. Peterson has been studying wolves and moose on Isle Royale for 42 years. With the wolf population down to nine, the longest running predator-prey study in the world hangs in the balance.
The ups and downs of the wolf and moose populations on Isle Royale. The 54 year study holds an incredible amount of data. The wolves are at their lowest point yet.
Credit John Vucetich/Rolf Peterson / Michigan Tech
The "West-End Duo." Possibly the only breeding pair left on the island.
Credit John Vucetich/Rolf Peterson / Michigan Tech
The Chippewa Harbor Pack howling in winter. An unusual time of year for this kind of behavior. The wolves could be looking for new mates.
The probability of a new ice bridge forming is lessening as the planet warms. Circles on top show when an ice bridge formed. Circles on bottom show when there was no ice bridge.
Credit John Vucetich/Rolf Peterson / Michigan Tech
Wolves on Isle Royale.
Credit John Vucetich/Rolf Peterson / Michigan Tech
The alpha male of the Middle Pack. The pack was wiped out in the last year.
Credit John Vucetich/Rolf Peterson / Michigan Tech
The Chippewa Harbor pack on Isle Royale.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Candy Peterson, Rolf Peterson's wife and research partner, gives a talk to the Moosewatch volunteers at the Daisy Farm campground. Her subject this evening, "reverence."
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Candy Peterson talking about "reverence" at Daisy Farm campground on Isle Royale. She's talking to a group of Moosewatch volunteers.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Candy Peterson uses part of the Isle Royale wolf-moose study bone collection in her talk.
Researchers like Durwood Allen, and Michigan Tech's John Vucetich and Rolf Peterson have been keeping a close eye on the animals on the island for more than five decades.
Peterson has been doing it the longest. He's been watching and documenting things on Isle Royale for 42 years.
Moosewatch volunteer Dave Beck holds up a marked antler. Team leader Jeff Holden looks on. They mark the antlers and hang them in a tree so others know the antler has been found and documented.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Moosewatch volunteers hike along the trail on Isle Royale National Park.
Credit Mark Brush
The trail on Isle Royale traverses a lot of rocky terrain.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
L to R - Moosewatch volunteers Pete Prawdzick, Dave Beck, and Jeff Morrison.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The map guides their way when they head off trail.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Getting ready to go off trail.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Moosewatch group leader Jeff Holden stops for a snack.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
A found bone. The volunteers stopped, dropped packs, and searched for more bones. This moose bone was likely left here by an animal. No other bones were found.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Flags are put up to mark the search area after a bone is found.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The site of the found bone.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Susie Morrison takes a break.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Beck finds a shed moose antler in the dense understory.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The antler is marked and hung in a tree so other volunteers who might find it know it's been documented.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Hanging a found antler in a tree.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Beck marking an antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Beck marking an antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Measuring the size of the base of the antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Making a note of the find.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Beck and Dave Conrad get ready for rain.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The Moosewatch volunteers. L to R - Dave Beck, Pete Prawdzick, Jeff Holden (group leader), Dave Conrad, and Jeff Morrison, Susie Morrison.
Wolves and moose are at the heart of the world’s longest running study of a predator and its prey. The drama unfolds on Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior.
But it’s a big island, almost entirely wilderness.
The researchers from Michigan Tech say they can’t cover all that ground alone.
So they have a program called Moosewatch. It’s a backcountry expedition where you pay to help out with the wolf-moose study. But be warned: it’s no easy little walk in the woods.
"We’re going to trash through the understory here for a third to half of a mile and see if we can find some dead moose."
That’s Jeff Holden. He’s a Moosewatch group leader, in charge of a group of six (himself plus five volunteers). We’re going to push our way into the thick forest.
Moosewatch volunteers Susie Morrison (front), (L to R) Dave Beck, Pete Prawdzick, Jeff Holden (group leader), Dave Conrad, and Jeff Morrison.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Moosewatch volunteers hike along the trail from Daisy Farm campground on Isle Royale National Park.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The spot where they'll start hiking off trail.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The volunteers get ready to go off trail. They fan out and make sure they can hear and see the person next to them as they make their way through the dense forest on Isle Royale.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Conrad with an antler he found. They mark the antlers and hang them in a tree so other volunteers know this antler has be found and cataloged.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Conrad with his found antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave was here, is the marking on the antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
The antler is then hung in a tree so its clear this antler has been found and recorded.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Dave Beck with another find. They scrawl "NPR was here" on this moose antler.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Susie Morrison volunteers with her husband Jeff. She says searching for moose bones is more rewarding than going on a cruise.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Pete Prawdzick has been a long-time friend with group leader Jeff Holden. He likes the idea of walking in a spot that no one has traversed in a long time. And, he says, he loves the physical challenge of hiking off trail with heavy packs.
Credit Mark Brush / Michigan Radio
Jeff and Susie Morrison as the rain comes. They are a husband and wife Moosewatch team.
The longest running predator-prey study anywhere in the world takes place right here in Michigan.
For more than five decades, researchers have been closely watching the ebb and flow of wolves and moose on Isle Royale.
To do their work, wolf biologists Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich of Michigan Tech lean on those willing to pitch in and help.
Moosewatch volunteers hike off-trail for miles with their backpacks getting heavier as they pick up moose bones along the way.
They get bitten by bugs, scratched by branches, and soaked by the rain as they make their way through Isle Royale's boreal forest.
And they pay for the experience. It costs $450 per person, which covers the expenses for the wolf-moose project.
The researchers have been relying on these summer volunteers since 1988. John Vucetich says overall, about a third of all bones they collect are collected by Moosewatch volunteers.
"In a typical year they find the skeletal remains of 50 to 75 moose. They perform necropsies on these moose and collect several specimens (skull, jaw bone, metatarsus, and any arthritic bones)," says Vucetich.
Rebecca Williams and I recently went out with a Moosewatch group on Isle Royale.
Each group is made up of six people. Five volunteers and one group leader.
The leader is in charge of making sure people don't get separated and lost in the dense forest.
Our group leader, Jeff Holden, described himself as a bit of a mother hen, which is a good quality to have for someone looking after five people for an entire week in the backcountry.
Holden's job was made especially hard when we arrived. He now had two reporters to keep track of as well.
I tended to wander off a little with my camera as I tried to anticipate where the volunteers would come out of the woods:
I never wandered too far, and I captured some video of these volunteers at work in the woods.
Here's what the Moosewatch experience is like:
Moosewatch volunteer David Conrad says his friends don't know what to think of his trip to Isle Royale.
"They can't find this place on a map," says Conrad. "They think the U.P. is part of Canada. [I tell them] 'yeah, I'm going to an island in Lake Superior to count dead moose, and maybe see a live one.' People think I'm crazy. It's just a cool little adventure."
When you camp on Isle Royale, you don't necessarily have to sleep in tents.
You can sleep in a "camping shelter," which is basically an elevated, screened-in, wooden structure.
It can protect you from the elements and the bugs.
And based on our experience, it seems people have had some time on their hands waiting out storms in these shelters.
Park visitors have left messages on the walls - something we humans love to do - even long before we had Facebook walls to write on.
We were expecting profane, but we found inspiring, humorous, artistic, and messages describing their experiences while on Isle Royale. (O.k., there was a little profanity here and there. It is graffiti, after all.)
To see the messages, take a look at the slideshow above.
Some of our favorites:
"45 miles 8 days all w/diabetes! 2010"
A diagram showing you where to "BANG HEAD." It was surprisingly accurate. I hit my head on that low beam 5 or 6 times.
"Flight over for 3 - $625.00 - Gear and food - $300.00 - Spending my 50th birthday hiking with my daughter and son - priceless (50 miles) - JMR 8/2007"
"...My girlfriend says everything is my fault (it is)..."
"...Lots of rain, no bugs, probably going to have tapeworm. LIVING THE DREAM!"
"we came, we saw, we got eaten by giant, rabid, mutant squirrels! Help..."
Write on our walls! Tell us about your camping experiences around Michigan. The good. The bad. The unforgettable.
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