SAVING WOLVES IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION Once one of the most
widely distributed land mammals in North America, the gray wolf
has also been one of the most persecuted. State, local and
private bounties and a federal extermination program have nearly
eliminated the gray wolf from the lower 48. By the 1970s, Great
Lakes wolves survived only in northeastern Minnesota and Lake
Superior’s Isle Royale National Park. With federal protection,
wolves have grown in numbers and dispersed from Minnesota into
northern Wisconsin and, from there, into the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan. In the spring of 2010, for the first time in decades,
wolves raised pups in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan.
Such progress clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the
Endangered Species Act, but wolf recovery is far from complete.
The latest science shows that wolves in the Great Lakes suffer
from hybridization with coyotes, disease, illegal shootings and
vehicle kills. Despite the gray wolf's continuing endangerment
in Great Lakes st