January/February 2008

Gun Dog Forum
Wolves: A Threat to Our Dogs?
by Larry Brown

ast spring, as a result of significant growth in the region’s wolf population, wolves were “delisted” (removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act) in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan – which are quite likely the top three states for grouse and woodcock hunting in the country. Estimates by the respective DNRs are over 3,000 wolves in Minnesota and about 500 each in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP), and the UP wolf population is estimated to grow at a rate of about 12-15 percent per year.

The recovery of the timber wolf in the upper Midwest has taken place much more quickly than expected. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act, set a population goal of 1,251 to 1,400 wolves in Minnesota by the year 2000. That goal was likely reached by the early 1980s, and the goal of a combined population of 100 wolves in Wisconsin and the UP was confirmed by 1994. Meanwhile, the range occupied by wolves in Minnesota expanded from the extreme northeast and Canadian border area of the state in 1978 to within an hour’s drive of the northern suburbs of Minneapolis in 2007.

What does this mean for those of us who hunt grouse and woodcock in that region? So far, there has been only one documented attack of a bird dog during hunting season. That incident occurred several years ago in the UP. A setter was the victim. I happened to be in the UP at the time, where I saw the “after” photo in a local newspaper. The dog survived, but the attending veterinarian had to stitch it up from back to belly. Not a pretty sight.

One attack on a bird dog doesn’t sound like much, but Jim Hammill, retired district supervisor for the Michigan DNR in the UP and one of the agency’s wolf experts, sounds a word of warning. “It’s a question of when it will happen again rather than if it will happen. More bird dogs will be killed or injured by wolves,” he stated.

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