Wolf Roamed Over 4,000 Miles Through Three States Before Being Shot Dead

A wolf that roamed more than 4,000 miles through three states and two Canadian provinces has been shot dead.

The lone wolf, which was collared with a GPS tracker by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Summer 2021, was shot and killed in the Canadian province of Manitoba a few weeks ago after embarking on its lengthy journey.

Since it was collared, the wolf traveled over 4,000 miles all over the Midwest, through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, into Ontario, Canada, and then finally to Manitoba, where it died.

The Michigan Department of Natural resources reported that the wolf, which was found dead with a bullet in it, had traveled 4,200 miles in 18 months.

It's legal to shoot wolves in Manitoba under any big game license, or if they are proving a nuisance to domestic animals.

Lone wolves are animals that stray from their pack, and temporarily travel alone. This is more common during the summer months.

Thomas Gable, project lead of the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which studies wolves in the Voyageurs National park in Minnesota, told Newsweek that this wolf had traveled right through its study area.

Although wolves do have the capability to travel long distances, for them to embark upon such long journeys is rare.

"Long distance travels such as this are amazing and this wolf in particular made a very long journey. However, wolves making long distance dispersal is not something that is uncommon or surprising to wolf biologists," Gable said.

"Wolves have an ability to cover a lot of ground and so long-distance travels are not necessarily unusual. Granted, I do think this wolf from Michigan is a bit unique because of just how many states/provinces his travels took him to and through. I do not think this wolf's travels are the "norm" for most dispersing wolves in the Midwest. However, it is not unusual for dispersing wolves to travels many miles and we have had dispersing wolves travel from Minnesota to Wisconsin, northern Ontario, almost to North Dakota, and Manitoba."

The Voyageurs Wolf Project sets up camera traps in rural areas in order to study the wolf population in the national park. It isn't yet clear whether it caught the traveling wolf on camera, but it could have, the project said on Facebook.

What researchers do know is that it roamed through the territories of wolf packs that they study within the Voyageurs National park, including the Nashata and Cranberry Bay Packs.

Wolves have been know to wander from other states and territories. Already established wolf packs in areas such as the Voyageurs National park, may have been formed by wolves that traveled into the area from neighboring states.

"The travels of this Michigan wolf, along with many others that our project and other researchers have documented, show how wolves across the midwest states and Canadian provinces are connected," the Voyageurs Wolf Project said on a Facebook post.

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