Tom Greenwood, The Detroit News
While a thriving gray wolf population has been established in the Upper Peninsula for decades, there has been little evidence of them in the Lower Peninsula.
But on Tuesday, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians announced it had received confirmation that a wolf was living on its reservation.
According to the tribe’s Natural Resource Department, an image of the wolf had been recorded on a bait station trail camera during the winter of 2014.
Wolf-sized paw prints and scat were also found at the location with the prints measuring 4 3/4 inches by 3 3/4 inches and with the stride ranging from 45 inches to 53 inches.
Researchers at the Trent University in Ontario confirmed the scat samples were consistent with that of a male gray wolf.
The confirmation came as no surprise to Doug Craven, director of the tribe’s Natural Resource Department.
“We’ve had anecdotal reports and have investigated a number of tracks,” Craven said. “We’ve been anticipating that we would have wolves coming down to the reservation. It’s most likely that they came across the ice in the straights.
“It’s only five miles from the U.P. and we’ve had very cold, severe winters over the past two years which have provided ice coverage.”
According to Craven, at this point, there is no evidence of more than one wolf on the 300-square-mile reservation located in the northwest portion of the Lower Peninsula.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, there is scant evidence of wolves living in Lower Michigan.
“The probability of observing an actual wolf or its tracks in the Lower Peninsula is low,” said DNR wildlife biologist Jennifer Kleitch in a report on the DNR’s website.
According to the DNR, wolves began returning to the Upper Peninsula through Canada and Wisconsin in the early 1990s. Since then, their populations have increased and their range continues to expand.
Evidence of that expansion into the Lower Peninsula came in 2004 when a gray wolf was accidentally killed in Presque Isle County.
Between Feb. 16 and March 13, the DNR — working in cooperation with the USDA Wildlife Services and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians — conducted a wolf track survey to detect the presence of gray wolves in the northern LP.
“It’s helpful to have as many eyes as possible looking, so public reports are important for this survey,” Kleitch said.
A 2014 survey by the DNR showed there were 623 wolves living in the Upper Peninsula.
In 2012, the Obama administration removed the Great Lakes wolf population from the Federal Endangered Species list, which then led to a controversial first-ever wolf hunt in November and December 2013.
In February, the U.S. District court overturned the 2012 decision and re-entered the wolves to the federal endangered species list. The decision was decried by the Michigan DNR, which protested that the relisting was no longer necessary.
“Regardless of changes in legal status…wolves in Michigan have surpassed state and federal population recovery goals for 15 years,” said the DNR in a press release.
Culturally the gray wolf (“Ma’iingan”) is an important representation of family, cooperation, loyalty and intelligence and is revered in the Odawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi clan system.
The Associated Press contributed.