SCI and a couple of wolf preservation groups underwrote the cost of most of the radio collars. Basically the UP consists of large boreal forest complexes with a scattering of agriculture pockets in the lower snowfall areas. Over fifty percent of the landmass is Public lands with a good chunk of the remainder held by large private timber companies, so it does contain adequate remote habitat.
Wildlife biologists coined the term Social Carrying capacity as the population level where human/critter conflicts reach a rate where push-back against expanding critter numbers begins to surge. We have blocks of residents whose perspectives run the full scope and range from wolves are sacred, regal beings to those who hold them responsible for traffic accidents and lost school assignments. Most of the former reside "below the Bridge" and a good chunk of the later are local residents who hunt deer. Even when I have stumbled into wolf denning sites while grouse hunting with my dogs, I have never felt at personal risk or felt the need to pull the dog back to heel, particularly since we were at these sites in Fall, not Spring.
One guy who is a pro staffer for a whitetail hunting site posted video a couple of years ago of a wolf "stalking" him as he walked down a railroad track after exiting a cedar swamp he had been scouting for deer travel corridors in the central UP. The accompanying audio had a very definate nervous tone as the wolf closed to within seventy yards and then paused, prior dropping back into the woods. I sent him an email informing him that the wolf was quite young and likely had never seen a human before, by its body language it was simply checking him out. I received a response informing me that I was not there, so I didn't truly understand the circumstances of their encounter. I reminded him that I was there vicariously and again stated that the wolf's body language did not indicate either stalking or aggressive postures, just curiosity as it trotted his way. I also reminded him that it is illegal in Michigan to use a railroad right-of-way as an access corridor for hunting!
Wildlife biologists coined the term Social Carrying capacity as the population level where human/critter conflicts reach a rate where push-back against expanding critter numbers begins to surge. We have blocks of residents whose perspectives run the full scope and range from wolves are sacred, regal beings to those who hold them responsible for traffic accidents and lost school assignments. Most of the former reside "below the Bridge" and a good chunk of the later are local residents who hunt deer. Even when I have stumbled into wolf denning sites while grouse hunting with my dogs, I have never felt at personal risk or felt the need to pull the dog back to heel, particularly since we were at these sites in Fall, not Spring.
One guy who is a pro staffer for a whitetail hunting site posted video a couple of years ago of a wolf "stalking" him as he walked down a railroad track after exiting a cedar swamp he had been scouting for deer travel corridors in the central UP. The accompanying audio had a very definate nervous tone as the wolf closed to within seventy yards and then paused, prior dropping back into the woods. I sent him an email informing him that the wolf was quite young and likely had never seen a human before, by its body language it was simply checking him out. I received a response informing me that I was not there, so I didn't truly understand the circumstances of their encounter. I reminded him that I was there vicariously and again stated that the wolf's body language did not indicate either stalking or aggressive postures, just curiosity as it trotted his way. I also reminded him that it is illegal in Michigan to use a railroad right-of-way as an access corridor for hunting!
