By Douglas W.  Smith

Every year I sit alone with a wolf. The wolf doesn’t agree to this, as I catch it as part of a research program on wolves in Yellowstone National Park.

The wolf is sedated, but we still sit together, alone, looking out at the great park.I cherish these moments. The quiet beauty all around and the wolf’s presence; it almost seems as if the wolf is talking to me. A look into wolf eyes will make you think deeply about life. The incessant, drowning-out noise of humanity gets turned off. I strain to understand what this life might be like. One time, when others were boarding the helicopter to fly out, leaving me alone with a wolf, I said: “If you don’t come back it’s okay. Leave me here forever with the wolf.”

Source: My time with ‘male 911’: This Yellowstone wolf was safe from people, but not from nature

A new paper explores the genetic signatures of a pair of wolves isolated on Isle Royale, a remote national park in Lake Superior. The pair are father-daughter and share the same mother. Such close inbreeding leads to genetic anomalies, which likely are the main driver behind the wolf population crash over the past decade.

Source: Genomics of Isle Royale wolves reveal impacts of inbreeding

ISLE ROYALE, MI – A wolf that was net-trapped in Canada in late February and relocated to Michigan’s Isle Royale was found dead recently in the middle of a large swamp area in the island’s Siskiwit Bay, the National Park Service said.The death of this black male wolf from Ontario is the second on-island death of a wolf involved in the long-term relocation effort being overseen by the NPS. Its goal is to boost the number of predators on the remote wilderness island that is now teeming with moose. They hope to introduce up to 30 new wolves onto Isle Royale in the next few years.

Source: New Isle Royale black wolf found dead in middle of swamp – mlive.com

It’s the latest iteration of a war that’s been playing out for several decades around the wolf and that touches on much deeper questions about how active a role humans should play in nature. Where some feel an obligation to help restore a keystone species that was previously hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states, others say that humans have meddled enough and should let nature take its own course.In Colorado, many ranchers and sportsmen are already gearing up to oppose the measure, which they see as both harmful and unnecessary: Wolves, they say, are likely to come back to Colorado on their own. Advocates, meanwhile, see it as the most direct route to restoring a species they say is key to a healthy and balanced ecosystem, in a location that serves a critical role.

Source: Wolf wars: Coloradans debate reintroduction of keystone species – CSMonitor.com

Federal wildlife managers are gearing up to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List. But some environmentalists say the species isn’t ready and that the government is basing its decision on outdated science. A group of biologists in four western national parks are looking at the impacts of wolf deaths on their packs and how this could affect the greater population.

Source: National Parks Study Wolf Deaths As Agency Plans Delisting Endangered Species | MTPR

HOUGHTON, MICH- Immediately following the end of the government shutdown, National Park Service (NPS) personnel went to Isle Royale to prepare for a potential translocation of wolves from Canada and the 61st annual wolf/moose population monitoring. The extreme cold and weather conditions prevented any successful translocation of wolves from Ontario last week.

Source: Wolf Departs Isle Royale on Ice Bridge – Keweenaw Report