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Survery points to increase in wolf population in Upper Peninsula

"Wolves 654" by Drumsara is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

A new survey finds the number of wolves in the Upper Peninsula has risen slightly in the past two years.

Cody Norton is a large carnivore specialist with the Department of Natural Resources.

He says the survey conducted between December and March estimates there are at least 695 wolves.

“Basically this number has been consistent," said Norton. "We’ve been kind of between 600 and 700 wolves in the UP for the last nine years.  It shows us that the population is healthy and stable.”

Wolves have endangered status under federal law despite past efforts to remove them from the endangered list. 

Steve Carmody has been a reporter for Michigan Public since 2005.