Can you hear us now, wolves? How ’bout now? “Non-consumptive” uses of wolves are increasingly popular in the Upper Midwest, but they could turn into too much of a good thing.
By: MARY CATHERINE O’CONNOR
It’s hard to be stealthy in a 40-foot motor coach. But Phil, our fearless driver who had been schlepping the 20 of us journalists around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin all week, did his best as we ventured deeper into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, in search of wolves.
Our secret weapon was Dave MacFarland, carnivore staff specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Wildlife Management. He had scouted the area earlier and had found some signs of the local Pembine pack. But the scat was days old so he wasn’t very confident that any wolves would be close enough to hear his howls.
At our first stop, we tiptoed out of the bus—all of us surprised by just how loud footfalls on a gravel road can sound. MacFarland howled four times, turning his body 90 degrees each time, and we waited. Dogs responded. We were too close to town, he whispered.
At our second stop, deeper into the forest, MacFarland repeated the first four howls. We journalists, Fellows from all over the country who were gathered with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources for a week-long study of the current mining resurgence in the upper Midwest, were happy to be deep in the dark forest after hours spent in deep, dark mining operations.
Alas, there were only crickets. So MacFarland gave it another go, this time amping the volume a bit, as those of us with audio equipment held our microphones a bit higher. Two minutes passed. And then, there it was: A very distant, barely audible response from a single wolf. It was thrilling. (I will note that some of our more cynical companions alleged that someone must have been replaying muffled audio of MacFarland’s howl, but I like to believe it was real. If MacFarland didn’t think the response was legit, he didn’t let on.)
Camps with Wolves
Wildlife specialists and biologists in Wisconsin and Michigan have been howling for wolves ever since the canid made its return to those states in the late 1970s and 80s, respectively. But Brian Roell, wolf specialist with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, says that in recent years he’s been getting many more calls and requests from individuals who want to hear wolves howling, find their tracks and, hopefully even glimpse the allusive animals.
“The non-consumptive uses for wolves are growing,” Roell says. As it happens, this November will mark the first wolf hunting season in Michigan since the animal was removed from the Endangered Species List (Wisconsin’s first wolf hunt was last fall). Roell does not, however, think the spike in interest in wolf tourism (for lack of a better term) is correlated with the upcoming hunt. He just thinks wolves are increasingly associated with the U.P. and they’re on the minds of more travelers to the region.
“I’m getting more phone calls, emails and folks stopping by, saying things like ‘I’d like to see wolf tracks.’ So I say sure. I ask where they’ll be camping and I try to narrow it down. If I have knowledge of a nearby pack or what roads they should use, I share that. I am the keeper of most of the wolf info so I have pretty good knowledge of the whole U.P.,” says Roell.