Page Title

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) was officially listed as a federally endangered species in 1974 due to severe overharvest resulting from fur trapping, bounties, and livestock protection efforts. In 1978, wolves in Minnesota were reclassified as threatened, allowing state and federal authorities to remove depredating wolves under a strict set of guidelines. In the past three decades, Minnesota's wolf population has rebounded from an estimated low of 350 wolves to more than 3,000 wolves today, thereby satisfying the recovery criteria outlined in the federal wolf recovery plan. On March 12, 2007, gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes region were officially removed from the federal

list of threatened and endangered species and management responsibility for the wolves in this region returned to the states and tribes.

Wolf surveys conducted in Minnesota have revealed the adaptive ability of wolves to occupy diverse habitats. In northeastern Minnesota, an impressive amount of data has been gathered from wolves inhabiting primarily wilderness tracts. However, little has been done to study wolves residing within or near more developed areas, where there is an increased likelihood of wolf-human interactions. As a result, a paucity of data currently exists on how wolves respond to the challenges of living in areas with greater human densities. This information gap will adversely impact our ability to effectively manage wolves in these areas in the future, since there are likely to be different management strategies for wolves residing in urban and wilderness settings. Wolf research staged within a more urban landscape is necessary to augment our current knowledge of wolf population dynamics and ecology in a changing world with ever increasing human population pressures (more residences, vehicles, roadways, pets).

The city of Duluth (population ~90,000) is a growing metropolitan area located within Minnesota's primary wolf range and provides an interesting opportunity to investigate wolves at this interface. By studying wolf packs residing in or around this urban area, we will be gathering new information that will help fill this data void. Data collected on wolf movements, territoriality, and pack sizes will be used to estimate wolf density and, alongside existing data, will help us to better manage the wolf on ceded lands in northeastern Minnesota.

The ceded lands wolf research project began in April 2007 and is currently funded for three years. Trapping during the summer/fall 2007 resulted in the capture and collaring of three adult male wolves from different packs. GPS/Argos collars were chosen due to their ability to obtain and store a large number of locations and regularly transmit the data to a polar-orbiting Argos satellite. This satellite then transmits the data to a processing center which packages the data and sends it to us by e-mail. Collars are scheduled to obtain locations twice a day, at dusk and dawn, and transmit data every three days. Location data are regularly analyzed and provide us with improved estimates of pack territory size.

In order to obtain a more accurate estimate of wolf density in the ceded lands study area, six additional packs will be collared in summer/fall 2008 and their movements monitored for up to 16 months. Aerial surveys will also be conducted in the winter months to determine size of each collared packs.