ISLE ROYALE – Multiple encounters at this remote national park on Lake Superior involving wolves taking interest in garbage led the Park Service to modify food storage policies this year on the island.

In response to wolves accessing human food and garbage in and around Rock Harbor and campgrounds located on the east end of the island, Isle Royale National Park set up new food storage guidelines this summer that remain in place heading into fall.

Mark Romanski, Isle Royale National Park’s division chief for natural resources, told Paddle and Portage Sept. 5 that wolves feeding on a moose carcass earlier this year near Rock Harbor brought them closer to people as the busy season arrived. Some of the wolves started exhibiting “bold behavior” that was “unsettling,” Romanski said. Examples of this behavior included wolves knocking over garbage cans at the Rock Harbor campground, which happens to be among Isle Royale’s busiest areas for human activity.

Electric fencing was installed around dumpsters in the Rock Harbor area to prevent wolves from accessing and scavenging food waste, Romanski said. Park staff also increased hazing efforts to discourage wolves from approaching populated areas. This includes the use of noise machines and lights. Culling (killing) wolves is also an option the Park Service has if bold wolf behavior near humans continues or gets worse, Romanski said, though that is not a preferred option.

“(Killing wolves) is something in our toolbox if we have to go there,” Romanski said, explaining that it’s not what the Park Service is currently intending to do.

In asking the public to help, the Park Service set up new food storage guidelines in July that will remain in place until the park slowly starts to shut down later this month. The Park Service ordered 52 food storage containers (bear boxes) that are, or will be, set up around the island at various campgrounds and campsites.

Wolves attacking humans is extremely rare, according to a comprehensive report published in 2021. The report studied worldwide data from 2002 to 2020, and determined the chances of a wolf attack are “above zero, but far too low to calculate.” That said, to reduce the risk of wolf attacks on humans, it’s essential to “exclude wolves from food sources that are directly associated with humans,” according to the report. Between 2002 and 2020, one person was killed by a wolf in Alaska and one in Canada, according to the report. In addition to cases where people were killed, there have been multiple locations where people have been injured by wolves, including a 2013 incident in Minnesota.

Wolves are an enticing animal for many visitors to Isle Royale, which earlier this year was ranked as the best national park in the nation by the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the gray wolf population on Isle Royale serves a crucial role as the island’s top predator. Other large predators are absent, Romanski said, including bears.

Biologists from places like Michigan Tech have been studying the relationship between wolves and moose since wolves crossed over on an ice bridge from Canada in the mid-1900s. Isle Royale predator-prey relationships have been continuously investigated since 1958, making it the longest of its kind in the world, according to the Park Service.

About 12 years ago, the wolf population at Isle Royale plummeted, partly due to inbreeding. A lack of ice cover on Lake Superior in recent years kept new wolves from migrating to the island during winter, the Park Service reports. To keep wolves present on the island, the Park Service relocated wolves from Minnesota, Michigan and Ontario in 2018 and 2019.

Romanski served as the project coordinator for the wolf translocation efforts at Isle Royale, which brought 19 wolves to the island. From a low of two wolves in 2018, the population bounced back to 14 in 2020, according to the Park Service. There are now approximately 30 wolves at Isle Royale, according to the most recent park estimates. These wolves are gathered in at least three distinct packs, Romanski told Paddle and Portage, and it’s possible there are now four packs at Isle Royale as of September. As the wolf population has recovered, the moose population has gone down at Isle Royale, which is “a good thing,” Romanski said. In the absence of wolves, the moose population increased in numbers to an unsustainable figure. Without predation, moose became so abundant there wasn’t enough food on the remote island to the sustain the population, and some animals were starting to starve or become malnourished from a lack of food, according to park officials.

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