By Cory Olsen
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — To hunt or not to hunt, that is the issue, and as the state of Michigan edges closer and closer to classifying the gray wolf as a game species, those two options have created a maelstrom of feelings in the wildlife community.
Suffering from near eradication by past federal and state bounty programs, the gray wolf’s numbers have rebounded to a count of nearly 700 animals.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Michigan Gray Wolf Recovery and Management Plan can be credited for that. However, some haven’t been so happy to see the resurgence.
Livestock farmers in the Upper Peninsula have documented cases of depredation and hunters have reported attacks on the dogs they use to track bear.
Yet neither of those issues are reasons to implement a hunting season on the wolf, opponents say, and they’re saying it loudly.
“I’m totally against it,” Pat Riley of Cedarville said. “It’s something that’s just not needed. I know that the feeling among hunters seems to be the want of a total extermination of the wolf and I don’t believe in that.”
Pro-wolf season hunters say they’re not interested in eliminating wolves from Michigan, they just want to keep their numbers in check so things don’t get out of hand.
“I’m for anything that gets people in the outdoors, so yes, I’m definitely for a wolf hunt, but I’m also against the wolf’s growth in Michigan,” Mark Pattullo of Luzerne said. “It’s been so detrimental, they’ve decimated the deer population in some areas.”
Both sides of what has turned into a heated argument on websites, blogs and Facebook pages say there’s misinformation being spread to the public. Both sides call each other extremists — one group is vilified as stone cold killers, the other as dreamy-eyed wolf-lovers.
“Everybody wants to save the pretty animals until they find out what they can do,” Pattullo said. “Animals don’t work on remorse they function on population and hunger. Wolves are an aggressive killer and they will kill for fun. They are killing machines. Yes they are beautiful but they’re also brutal.”
Pattullo, an avid coyote hunter said he’s amazed at what coyotes can do in the woods, killing deer fawns and other animals, he’s afraid of what a well-established wolf population could accomplish.
“The wolf is a much better hunter (than the coyote) and I don’t want to go back to the days when they were the dominant animal in the area,” Pattullo said. “It’s kind of like a nuclear power plant, we need it but nobody wants it in their back yard. I don’t want them to be a dominant factor.”
Nancy Warren, the Great Lakes Regional Director of the National Wolf Watcher Coalition questions why fellow Michigan residents have gotten used to living with a bear population but fears the wolf so much.
“There is no evidence to support that wolves hunt for the thrill of the kill, man is the only one who does that,” Warren said. “What wolves will do is constant testing. They test for the weakest animal of the herd, the dumbest animal of the herd, but they’re not always very successful.
“So hunters will see a wolf chasing a deer and think that’s a bad thing, but they often don’t see the end of that situation,” Warren said. “Almost all the time the deer get away. They don’t kill for the thrill, they kill to eat.”
If a hunt happens, it’s likely to be structured like the Michigan elk hunt, in which interested individuals put their name into a lottery and only a certain number are able to purchase licenses. That prospective number for a wolf hunt varies based on who you speak to, but most figure it to be around 10 to 30 percent of the projected wolf population.
That doesn’t please Warren one bit.
“Depending on how a wolf hunting season would be structured it could cause some serious consequences to happen,” Warren said. “It could cause more instances of depredation to happen.”
Warren said a season just isn’t warranted yet.
That’s just propaganda and lies according to Bruce Hemming of Omaha, Neb. Hemming left Michigan after living in the Upper Peninsula for 15 years and said he watched the deer population suffer more and more as the wolf regained its ground.
“In Idaho, Wyoming and in Yellowstone the feds have been killing wolves for years and just the opposite has happened,” Hemming said. “They’ve had less instances of depredation. It’s all just fear mongering.”
“I think in vast ecosystems where man hasn’t developed like parts of Canada (wolves) have a role,” Hemming said. “They’re fine in the system as long as you maintain control. Everywhere you look you see devastation if you don’t maintain control and I saw that first hand in Ontonagon County.”
Hemming said most of the problem is the opposing group’s fascination with the mystique of the wolf.
“All I see from the other side is a lot of emotional intoxication, they don’t want to face reality,” Hemming said. “I mean, come on, these are just a bunch of wild feral dogs that need population control.”
Pat Riley is concerned it’s about more than just controlling the population.
“Things are in the hands of the DNR, that makes me uncomfortable,” Riley said. “I think money comes into play in this and Michigan is a tourist state. Then the next thing is going to be the big cats. Some have been seen around the U.P. but I suppose they’ll be the next target.”
Warren said she doesn’t support a hunting season with just 700 wolves, half of what she says is the biological carrying capacity for the animal in the U.P.
“Would we be having a conversation about having a deer or bear season with just 700 animals?” Warren asked. “The idea of just having a trophy on a wall is not a good reason for a hunt. When we’re talking about a recreational hunting season for any animal, we don’t even consider it until the species reaches its biological carrying capacity.”
Jon Brown of Ontonagon says he’s one of the first people in the U.P. to legally kill a wolf this year.
“The farmer I work for has had a a lot of depredation and we were able to pull a permit shortly after the new year,” Brown said.
Brown said the farm has worked with the DNR to try non-lethal means to keep the wolves from killing the Angus and Hereford beef cattle they raise.
“They came out three or four years ago and installed the sound canons and fladry on the fences and construction flashers. The flashing lights never worked and the little streamers on the fences, the wolves saw them on the first night then got used to them.”
Brown said the sound canons worked for a couple of weeks or so, but eventually the wolves continued doing what they were doing.
“The wolves got accustomed to all of it and just kept on killing,” Brown said. “The wildlife services has killed 32 wolves on that farm alone since early 2000s, so that goes to show you just what happens.”