MI Wolf Population Grows To 14-Year High: Survey

MICHIGAN — Michigan's wolf population grew over the past year and has remained stable for the past 14 years, according to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources survey.

The department's 2024 winter wolf population survey found a minimum of 762 wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an increase of 131 animals compared to the 2022 estimate of 631.

In addition, the survey showed the wolves divided among 158 packs throughout the Upper Peninsula, with an average of 4.8 wolves per pack.

"This year’s survey findings are statistically consistent with our wolf population surveys for the past 14 years," DNR’s Large Carnivore Specialist Brian Roell. "When a wild population reaches this stable point, it is typical to see slight variations from year to year, indicating that gray wolves may have reached their biological carrying capacity in the Upper Peninsula."

In other words, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wolf population has achieved an equilibrium between availability of habitat and the number of wolves that habitat can support over time.

Officials use two methods to find the number of wolves in the Upper Peninsula: One relies on a track survey similar to the department’s current method and the other uses trail cameras spread across the region.

Officials are still searching for wolves in Michigan's lower peninsula and are working on a new survey that is planned for early 2025. The last survey to show a wolf's presence in the lower peninsula was in 2019.

Although wolves are rarely found in the lower peninsula, a gray wolf was shot and killed by a coyote hunter in January in Calhoun County, which is roughly 300 miles south of the Upper Peninsula. Officials do not know how the wolf got there.

"Research has suggested that there is suitable habitat for wolves in the northern Lower Peninsula," Roell said. "However, this habitat is fragmented and the ability of wolves to travel the landscape among these habitat patches is uncertain. Suitable habitat becomes even more patchy in the more populated southern Lower Peninsula, which makes it unlikely that wolves would establish themselves there."

Gray wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act and can be killed only if they are a direct threat to human life, the DNR said.