The latest survey revealed that wolves re-introduced on Isle Royale in 2019, have organized themselves into four packs and established their territory.
John Vucetich is a researcher with Michigan Technological University, which runs the study. He says wolves have complicated group dynamics, but the survey indicates the island population has finally settled in socially.
"It's that they've figured out their neighbors. And so they get the landscape figured out pretty quick, but it's about who's in charge of this corner of the island and who's going to duke it out over this part, and those kinds of things."
Moose numbers have been steadily decreasing over limited resources on the island, but Vucetich says this is the first in several years their decline is due to being hunted by wolves, and not from starvation.
