Wolf Found Dead After Traveling Across Ice Bridge on Lake Superior

The struggling wolf population took an unexpected hit recently -- a gray wolf with the nickname Isabelle was found dead in northern Minnesota. The Associated Press has the full story:

One of the few remaining gray wolves of Isle Royale National Park has been found dead after escaping to the mainland across a Lake Superior ice bridge, a scientist who studies the predators said Tuesday.

The 5-year-old female's body was discovered along the shoreline on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota, biologist Rolf Peterson of Michigan Technological University told The Associated Press. She apparently hadn't been shot and the cause of death could not be determined immediately. She had been severely wounded last year by other wolves. The carcass was found Feb. 8, Isle Royale Superintendent Phyllis Green said, adding that a park service veterinarian and Peterson's team will perform an autopsy. The dead wolf had been fitted with a radio collar and its serial numbers confirmed her identity, Peterson said. He and other scientists who follow the island park's wolves and moose had nicknamed her "Isabelle." Her loss was a blow to an already struggling wolf population at Isle Royale, which has fallen sharply in recent years. Only eight remained in 2013, down from 24 just five years earlier. Their numbers last year were the lowest since scientists began observing the island's wolves in the 1950s.

The AP goes on to report:

Three pups are believed to have been born in the past year, boosting the population to 11, although Isabelle's death and the death of another adult on the island reduced it to nine.

The slump has touched off a debate over whether humans should bring more wolves to the island to replenish the severely inbred population. Peterson and Michigan Tech biologist John Vucetich, longtime leaders of the study, are among scientists favoring the idea. Others oppose it, saying nature should take its course.

The National Park Service is weighing its options. Green said most experts she has consulted believe the wolves will hang on for at least five years.

"So we don't need to rush to a decision, but we need to proceed," she said. The park service hosted several public meetings on the issue last year and has received more than 1,000 comments, illustrating the widespread interest in the wolves' fate, Green said. This winter's prolonged deep freeze has caused most of Lake Superior's surface to freeze at times. Peterson and Vucetich had hoped that one or more wolves might use the opportunity to migrate from the mainland to the island, about 15 miles away, just as the park's first wolves are believed to have done in the late 1940s.

None appear to have done so this year, although Green said that wouldn't be certain until scientists conduct genetic analyses of recently collected feces samples, which would reveal if any newcomers have slipped onto the island undetected.

But the scientists had acknowledged there was also a chance that some of the Isle Royale wolves might head in the opposite direction.

"There's a tendency for people to think an ice bridge is a one-way street and will solve everything," Peterson said in a phone call from the island. "We've been telling people it's more likely that wolves will leave Isle Royale rather than come to Isle Royale."

Wolves are wanderers by nature and can cover many miles in a single day, he said. Despite their low numbers, their density on Isle Royale is actually high for their species.

"On the mainland their density is lower, they have a lot more directions they can disperse to," Peterson said. "Isle Royale wolves have a lot of reasons to leave ... and just one way to go."

  Photos via: Google