Traverse City Record-Eagle

Cheboygan County

March 24, 2010

Two gray wolves found in Cheboygan County

Wolf pack could call that area home

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

CHEBOYGAN -- Wildlife officials say they've confirmed the presence of at least two gray wolves in Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Biologists said Tuesday they verified tracks from two wolves discovered by a landowner in remote northern Cheboygan County.

The landowner reported three sets of tracks, but scientists with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division investigated but couldn't find the third.

But they say this is the strongest evidence yet that a wolf pack may roam the northern Lower Peninsula.

"The first thing to do is to find out where their territory is. It also would be good to find out if they're breeding," said Jennifer Kleitch, DNRE wildlife biologist and Lower Peninsula wolf survey coordinator.

The discovery could lead state wildlife regulators to work out a wolf management plan for Lower Michigan. They've focused exclusively on wolf packs in the Upper Peninsula for the last several decades.

Wolves remain protected as an endangered species.

"It's exciting that wolves returned here," said Cynthia Radcliffe, Great Lakes wolf program coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation. "People love to hear the wolves howl."

She said the wolves' presence in Lower Michigan heightens the need for an educational campaign about the predator. Area residents should learn how to minimize negative interactions with the elusive canines, Radcliffe said.

"It's been a while since they've been here," said Robert Bolinger, a Cheboygan County hunter and member of the Pigeon River Country Advisory Council.

Possible concerns about wolves creating livestock losses and a reduced deer herd shouldn't become problematic, at least not for many years, he said.

"I don't think they are thick enough to bother anything," Bolinger said.

Wolves were driven to near extinction in Michigan during the last century but began returning to the Upper Peninsula in the late 1980s. A census last year turned up 577 wolves in the U.P.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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