2022-2023 Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem Wolf Population Report

Abstract

During April 2022-April 2023, we studied the wolf population in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem (GVE), Minnesota in an effort to understand wolf population dynamics and how changes in population dynamics are connected to or influence predation behavior, wolf pup survival, and changes in prey density. We estimated the area of 8 wolf pack home ranges/territories and estimated the size of 20 wolf packs based on an average of 11.7 independent observations of each pack at the estimated size (i.e., the number of wolves we determined were in a given pack). In total, we recorded 606 observations of 2 or more wolves traveling together during the winter survey period. The 2022-2023 survey effort was the most intensive survey effort to date in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, Minnesota. We estimate that wolf population density in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem in 2022-2023 was 65.2 wolves/1000 km^2 (95% confidence interval: 53.7-87.8 wolves/1000 km^2), indicating that wolf density remained unchanged from 2021-2022 (65.7 wolves/1000 km^2). Although wolf density has varied annually in the GVE since 2015, there is no indication that wolf density has increased or decreased with time. In other words, the population has remained relatively stable and current population density (65.2 wolves/1000 km^2) is close to the average population density (60.4 wolves/1000 km^2) over the past 9 years (2015-2023) in the GVE.