Illegal killing of wolves on rise

SAGOLA, Mich.

When Brian Roell got word from an aerial surveillance crew that the gray wolf’s radio collar was indicating no movement, he knew what it probably meant.

A few hours later, the wolf program coordinator for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources was trudging through a swampy backwoods near this township in the Upper Peninsula with another wildlife biologist and a DNR conservation officer. Guided by a hand-held antenna that picked up the radio collar’s rapid beeps, the searchers made their way into a thick black cedar stand. There, in a slight depression, lay the dead wolf on its back, legs jutting skyward.

The 6-year-old male, his neck soaked with blood, appeared to have been dragged to this spot. The wound on the right side of his chest left no doubt about the cause of death: a bullet from a small-caliber rifle.

The wolf was among more than three dozen believed to have been killed deliberately and illegally in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula within the past five years, according to DNR data obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Officials in other north central and Rocky Mountain states report scores of wolf shootings despite legal protection for the animals, driven to near extinction in many areas.

Some residents of the sprawling, rural Upper Peninsula deeply resent the wolf’s presence. Among them are hunters who believe the wily predators are decimating the white-tailed deer herd and farmers who have lost livestock to wolf raids.

“They’re born killers,” said Al Clemens, a hunter from Ironwood who has lobbied state legislators to establish wolf hunting and trapping seasons. ” … People are just fed up.”

Yes, wolves eat deer, but not enough to put a serious dent in the total, Mr. Roell said.

“Wolves are an easy scapegoat,” he added.

The wolf isn’t universally despised in the region. The DNR says a 2005 survey indicated most residents were willing to coexist peacefully. In fact, tips from residents have been instrumental in nabbing poachers.

Still, most cases go unsolved, and many illegal kills undoubtedly never come to official attention. “Yoopers,” as Upper Peninsula residents call themselves, even have a catchphrase for dispatching a wolf and hiding the evidence: “Shoot, shovel and shut up.”

Now and then investigators catch a break, though.

As Mr. Roell and biologist Dean Beyer examined the Sagola Township wolf’s carcass, officer Chris Holmes spotted footprints beside a nearby stream. Not far away, he found fresh tire tracks from a sport utility vehicle.

The men set off, following the tracks.

Wolves once ranged widely across much of North America, but predator-control programs wiped them out in most of the lower 48 states.

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