MARQUETTE, MI-- Whether or not wolves should be brought to Isle Royale to supplement the remaining nine wolves is a complicated question.
That’s according to John Vucetich, Michigan Tech associate professor and director of the island’s decades-old study of the predator-prey relationship between wolf and moose. He says the predation rate over the past three years is the lowest it’s ever been, which is in some ways more important than the number of wolves on the island.
“Predation rate represents wolves’ ecosystem function,” he says. “It’s what they do in an ecosystem, it’s why they’re important. And the predation rate also is a very important indicator of what kind of influence wolves will have on the moose population.”
Vucetich attributes the low predation rate to “inbreeding depression”, or the reduced ability to survive and reproduce because of inbreeding. So, he says, the question about Isle Royale might better be, what’s the purpose of a protected area?
“And if the purpose of a protected area is to maintain ecosystem health, then you might come to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to bring a few wolves from the mainland to Isle Royale,” he says. “And the purpose of that would be to mitigate the negative effects of inbreeding depression.”
Island officials say they’ll take no action in the short-term, but intend to start a decision-making process about the wolves that might last two to three years.