A Sad Day for the Gray Wolf

Gray Wolf - Photo Credit: Wikipedia

This morning, the Michigan legislature approved the inclusion of the gray wolf to Michigan’s list of game animals. The final bill authorizes the Natural Resources Commission to review the status of the population statewide and determine what measures, including the approval of a hunting season, are appropriate to manage the number of wolves in the state.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially de-listed the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region in December 28, 2011. In less than 10 months (October 17, 2011) after the de-listing, the bill was introduced into the Michigan Senate adding the wolf to the list of game animals. Given that the total Michigan wolf population is less than 700 (US FWS, October 2011), was it necessary to enact this legislation so soon after the de-listing?

Wolf experts and the Native American community question the usefulness of a general hunt season.

"Wildlife biologist Rolf Peterson has studied wolf behavior on Isle Royale for more than 40 years. He says a public hunt could split the animals into smaller packs and actually increase reproduction.

"It's sort of if you kill one wolf, two come to the funeral," Peterson says. "I mean that's just a common sense way of expressing the ability of wolves to respond to any sort of increase in mortality."

Peterson says a hunt designed to reduce conflicts with humans could work, depending on what wolves were killed and how many. But he thinks it would have to be in a very small area.

And Peterson points out that, over the last decade trained professionals have shown that they can move in quickly to get rid of problem animals. "Wolf hunting by the public is not about solving problems. It's about people's desire to kill wolves for whatever reason that might be," he says." (a)

(a)  State Needs to Justify Wolf Hunt, December 4, 2012, Interlochen Public Radio, http://ipr.interlochen.org/episode/state-needs-justify-wolf-hunt/2012-12-04

The bill will be sent to the governor’s office and it is likely that Governor Snyder will sign the legislation. Despite claims from state representatives that this bill only gives the DNR authority to manage and study the gray wolf population, I would not be surprised that a hunting season for wolves will be approved next year.