Gray wolf confirmed in northern Lower Peninsula

[marmar]

It took a year and a half, but there's now no doubt: The animal spotted on a trail camera in Emmet County in the northwestern Lower Peninsula was indeed a gray wolf — only the second one confirmed in the Lower Peninsula since 1910.

The wolf was confirmed on the reservation land of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. After spotting wolf-like tracks and seeing what appeared to be a wolf on a trail camera in March 2014, tribal biologists were able to collect scat and send it to Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, for analysis. The results came back last week and confirmed a gray wolf. They also show it is not likely an escaped captive wolf, as its genetic information closely matches that of wolves in northeast Ontario.

Tracks found on reservation land indicate there could be two wolves, said Kevin Swanson, the state Department of Natural Resources' bear and wolf specialist based in Marquette. ................(more)

http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/09/17/gray-wolf-confirmed-northern-lower-peninsula/32565067/

[HassleCat]

1. More than we think

It makes sense they would be there, just a short hike across the ice from Isle Royale. Wolves have lived below the radar in the northern region for a long time. When I was a kid in northern Wisconsin, in about 1968, I was deer hunting and these guy came over to our party and asked if we knew what kind of animal they has shot. They thought it was a coyote, but it was five feet long and over a hundred pounds. It was a wolf, and it was obvious to anyone with a brain. These guys had gunned it down without even knowing what they were shooting at, which is common practice for "hunters" like Dick Cheney. There are incidents like this all over Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, but they're not reported because nobody wants to get in trouble.