A female wolf steps out of her crate after arriving on the island. (U.S. National Park Service)

From CBC News · October 10, 2018 

After years of serious decline, the wolf population on Michigan's Isle Royale National Park is finally growing, thanks to human intervention.

In late September, the U.S. National Park Service began capturing and transferring wolves from the mainland, to the island, which is located on Lake Superior, not far from Thunder Bay, Ont. 

As of Tuesday, four adult grey wolves, captured on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota, had been moved to the island, said Phyllis Green, superintendent of the park, who explained that capturing and moving wolves is no easy task. 

"It is an amazing amount of work with some really great people that understand and know wildlife needs and how ... to do as safe a transport as we can," she said. "So it has been a unique and amazing experience."

Canadian wolves could add to genetic diversity

The hope is that the new wolves will revive the park's wolf population, which had dwindled to just two inbred animals, and was in danger of being wiped out altogether on the isolated island, which is also the site of a long-running study on the predator-prey relationship between moose and wolves. 

Captured wolves are being carefully selected for transfer, said Green, and most that have been caught have not made the cut.

The animals must not only meet an age requirement, and pass medical tests administered by wildlife veterinarians before being moved, but they must also meet "distance criteria." 

"Basically they have to be far enough away from each other that we know that they're not part of the same pack," said Green, adding that the population on the island must have broad genetic diversity.

This fall, wolves are being captured in Minnesota and Michigan, she said, but they may also look north of the border in the future. 

Discussions have been started with the province of Ontario, about the possibility of adding Canadian wolves "into the mix," she said. 

"We would love to see Canadian wolves be part of this mix on the island ... because they never went through the loss of numbers towards extinction that we did in the U.S. They've remained a little more pure in their genetics, they have very little dog or coyote in them." 

"So you have some pretty robust wolves on the Canadian side." 

Strategic release

The one male and three female wolves that have so far been moved to the island are being released in selected locations, Green said, as far as possible from the two wolves that were there before. 

The transfer is not without its dangers for the animals. A fifth wolf had also been cleared for transfer earlier this month, but died before that could happen. In a release, the U.S. National Park Service stated that the fatality sparked changes to protocols in an effort to reduce stress on the animals.

The relocated wolves are collared, and are being tracked by radio and satellite, Green said. 

The hope is to transport up to eight wolves from Minnesota and Michigan to the island this fall, said Green, but this is just phase one of the multi-year project. 

The park service ultimately plans to transport 20 - 30 wolves to Isle Royale.

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To see the original article and read related stories, follow this link to the CBC News website.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/isle-royale-wolf-transfer-1.4846093