The area selected for the release of the translocated wolves was the
Huron Mountain area (Fig. 2) in northern Marquette County in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan (47 deg. N Latitude; 88 deg. W Longitude). This is
one of the largest roadless tracts in Michigan, and has one of the
lowest year-around densities of resident humans. Much of the area is
owned by the Huron Mountain Club, on which accessibility is restricted.
The Upper Peninsula is 16,491 square miles (42,693 km^{2}) in area,
bounded by Lake Superior to the north, and by Lakes Huron and Michigan
to the east and south. The Wisconsin border along the western portion of
the Upper Peninsula forms no distinctive ecological boundary. The Upper
Peninsula is in the Canadian biotic province (Dice 1952), characterized
by a northern hardwoods climax, interspersed with spruce-fir and pine
subclimaxes. The northwestern portion of the Upper Peninsula, including
Marquette, Baraga, Houghton, Ontonagon, and Iron Counties, contains
rugged highlands and rock outcroppings which rise to elevations
approaching 2,000 feet (610 m) in several locations.
The human population of the Upper Peninsula is 303,342, with a rural
density of about 9.0 persons per square mile or 3.5 persons per square
kilometer (Table 1). The population of the Upper Peninsula has remained
at about 300,000 for the past 50 years, and the rural human populations
of local areas have generally declined or remained stable. During those
50 years, the wolf population has declined from several hundred animals
to near extinction, with the population estimated by Hendrickson et al.
(1975) at 6 to 10 remaining wolves. These authors concluded that the
bounty on wolves between 1935 and 1960 was largely responsible for the
demise of the species in the Upper Peninsula. The bounty was removed
in 1960, after only one wolf was taken in 1959. Legal protection was
granted by Michigan in 1965. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 added
federal protection in 1974.
[Illustration: _Fig. 2.--Range of the wolf in Upper Michigan in 1973,
and the release point (from Hendrickson et al. 1975)_]
_Table 1. Density of Rural Human Populations in Four Wolf Ranges in the
Great Lakes Region_
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rural[4]
Area in Population
Square Miles Density Per
(Square Percent Rural Square Mile
Location Kilometers) Urban[3] Population (Square Kilometer)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ontario[5] 412,582 3.3
(1,068,125) 80.4 1,364,33 (1.27)
Northern[6] 12,627 6.4
Minnesota (32,690) 68.0 81,246 (2.5)
Upper 16,491 9.0
Michigan[7] (42,693) 51.4 147,841 (3.5)
Iron and Oneida
Co.[8] 1,859 12.3
Wisconsin (4,812) 26.0 22,899 (4.7)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[3] Towns or cities of more than 2,500 people
[4] Including towns with a population less than 2,500
[5] 1966 Census, 1970-71 Canada Yearbook
[6] Cook, Koochiching, Lake and St. Louis Counties
[7] All 15 Upper Peninsula counties
[8] Last described wolf range in Wisconsin (Thompson 1952)
The white-tailed deer (_Odocoileus virginianus_) would be the major prey
for wolves in Michigan, and there appear to be sufficient numbers to
support wolves. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources pellet
count estimates for the spring deer population in the Upper Peninsula in
1973 was 10 +/- 21.9% deer per square mile (3.9 +/- 21.9% per km^{2}). Deer
densities of 10 to 15 per square mile (3.9 to 5.8 per km^{2}) supported
wolf densities of one wolf per 10 square miles (26 km^{2}) in Algonquin
Provincial Park, Ontario (Pimlott 1967).
The population of deer wintering on the 14 square-mile (36 km^{2}) Huron
Mountain deer yard in winter 1973-74 was estimated at 73.3 +/- 49.5% deer
per square mile (28.3 +/- 49.5% deer per km^{2}) by the pellet count
method (Laundre 1975). Thus total wintering population on the Huron
Mountain Club, the wolf release area, would be about 1,000 deer.
The utilization of available browse by deer in the Huron Mountain deer
yard reached 95% by March 8, 1969 and 92% by March 5, 1970 (Westover
1971). The minimum winter deer loss (actual number found) in 1969 was 40
animals, of which at least 12 had starved, and it was estimated that
perhaps up to 33% of the deer starved in the Huron Mountain Yard in
1968-69 (Westover 1971). The Huron Mountain yard continues to be
overbrowsed, with high deer mortality expected in severe winters. Many
other northern deer yards of the Upper Peninsula are also overbrowsed
and are dwindling in area. Thus we expected that numbers of vulnerable
deer (Pimlott et al. 1969; Mech and Frenzel 1971) would be available to
wolves.
Beavers (_Castor canadensis_) are an important food source for wolves in
many areas during summer (Mech 1970), and they are common throughout the
Upper Peninsula. The beaver population on the 26 square-mile (67 km^{2})
Huron Mountain Club was estimated at 46.9, or about 1.9 beavers per
square mile (0.7 per km^{2}) (Laundre 1975). Moose (_Alces alces_) are
rare on mainland Michigan.