My natural resources law professor discussed the problem of inbreeding within the wolf population on Isle Royale National Park (an island located in the northern portion of Lake Superior, which is part of Michigan) in class today. Originally, a very small group of wolves crossed over via an ice bridge to Isle Royale in the 1940s, but this group was too small to maintain long-term genetic viability; so inbreeding is causing genetic deformities—specifically deformed bones.

As a result, scientists are interested in introducing more wolves to supplement the current genetic pool on Isle Royale. However, introductions of fresh genetic material raise various ethical and philosophical issues.

I’m not a wolf specialist, but I imagine due to the complex social relationships established within wolf packs, introducing new wolves or fresh genetic material might be tricky—whether through actually introducing new animals to the current population or via in vitro fertilization. Someone in class questioned whether in vitro fertilization could actually work with wolves (whether the dominant male could perceive the resulting offspring weren’t of his genetic line or if the procedure had a high success rate in wolves).

The issue raises another question—should introductions even be permitted, so should we just let “nature” take its course. Another more philosophical problem is revealed as well: what is nature or wilderness and does it even exist today and can we ever know “first nature,” in order to recreate it. There is not doubt that humans—either for the benefit of maintaining natural landscapes and biodiversity or to exploit them—manage most natural landscapes to some degree. Furthermore, even the areas we think of as wilderness are influenced by human activity, especially when climate change and the movement of invasive species are considered.

Personally, I believe new genetic material should be introduced somehow to alleviate the problems associated with inbreeding—especially if historically wolves populated the island but were extirpated by humans. Certainly, there is a balance that must be maintained on the island—since moose live there as well (see graphic below). However, the moose on Isle Royale face another problem—a tick infestation fueled by warmer temperatures and probably anthropogenic climate change. From the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel:

Since 2002, the number of moose on the island has declined from 1,100 to 385, following a dramatic increase in winter ticks. The insects infest the moose, suck their blood and weaken them, making them easy prey for wolves.

If higher temperatures persist and the number of ticks continues to increase, the wolves could die out because there won’t be enough moose – their main food source, said John Vucetich, a biologist at Michigan Technological University. He spends nearly half the year on Isle Royale studying the creatures.

The island’s wolves – down to 21 from 30 in 2006 – have faced other challenges over the past quarter century, including parvovirus in the 1980s, which brought their numbers from dozens to 12 within a span of several years. But losing the species’ main meal ticket could be fatal.

“The changes are dramatic,” Vucetich said. “Humans have made temperatures increasingly hot, which exacerbates the number of ticks.”

And there’s nothing scientists can realistically do to curb the ticks.

Vucetich’s findings are the latest evidence in Michigan of global warming, which is already implicated in the disruption of other species in North America and the Great Lakes states.

From Scientific American:

A genetic defect now common in the Isle’s wolves causes bones in the spine, the vertebrae, to grow gnarled and crooked. Also found in domestic dogs – close wolf relatives – the bone malformations can pinch nerves in the spinal cord, causing pain that makes it tough to walk and can lead to paralysis of the back legs and tail in severe cases, according to research published in February’s issue of Biological Conservation.

Back in the 1960s, about a quarter of Isle Royale’s wolves appeared to have the anatomical abnormality, but now the percentage of afflicted wolves has risen to nearly 60 percent of the population. “In normal, healthy wolf populations without inbreeding, you are only supposed to see this kind of defect in about one out of a hundred animals,” says paper coauthor John Vucetich, an assistant professor of wildlife biology at Michigan Technological University (MTU) in Houghton. The deformity, discovered during autopsies of recovered, dead wolves, has grown so rampant, Vucetich says, “we haven’t found a normal wolf in the past decade.”

Vucetich is one of the project leaders of the ongoing Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study, along with Rolf Peterson, also a professor of wildlife biology at MTU. The project began in 1958 and has monitored the predator-prey relationship of the island’s wolf packs and moose herds ever since, celebrating 50 years of study last summer. Both species are more or less trapped on the 45-mile- (72-kilometer-) long isle; it is thought that some moose swam over from Minnesota around 1900, and that a few wolves reached the island via ice bridges that existed in the late 1940s. The captive populations have since developed an ecological balance: The small number of wolves (24 currently) subsists mainly on the moose that usually number around 1000. In turn, the moose rely on the wolves to help keep their population in check.

Image showing a pack of wolves attempting to bring down a moose is credited to Michigan Technological University, and it was found here: Fifty Years Of Wolf-Moose Research.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::