Doing the Work Americans Won't: Canadian Wolves Helicoptered To Isle Royale To Kill Moose

From The Mining Journal:
4 Canadian wolves relocated to Isle Royale National Park

TRAVERSE CITY — Four Canadian wolves have been relocated to Isle Royale National Park in Michigan as part of an ongoing effort to restore the predator species on the Lake Superior island chain, officials said Monday.

Helicopter crews fired net guns last week to capture a female and a male near the mainland city of Wawa, Ontario, and two males on Michipicoten Island Provincial Park in Lake Superior. All four were sedated and examined by veterinarians before being flown to snowbound Isle Royale, where they were given another checkup and released, the National Park Service said.
Like others brought to the island last fall, they were fitted with radio transmission collars enabling scientists to track their movements. Each wolf arrived separately over several days.

“I am … blown away by the resilience of these wolves, who within hours after undergoing capture and handling and arriving on Isle Royale, immediately got on the trail of their pack mates,” said Mark Romanski, the park’s natural resources division chief. “These large males, all around 90 pounds, will almost certainly know what to do when they encounter a moose.”

The translocation boosted the park’s wolf total to eight — four males and four females — including the last two survivors of a dwindling population that had occupied the park for about 70 years. Four were moved from tribal land in Minnesota to the park last fall. Of those, one died and another made its way back to the mainland across an ice bridge in February.

The National Park Service hopes to take 20 to 30 wolves to Isle Royale over several years. They prey on moose, which have boomed in the decade since wolves began their steep decline, now totaling around 1,500. Scientists say if the moose aren’t kept in check, they’ll over-eat the island’s trees and shrubs, harming the environment and setting themselves up for mass starvation.

Plans call for selecting wolves from numerous packs in Minnesota, Canada and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to provide genetic diversity and prevent the inbreeding that was primarily responsible for the population slump....MORE 

As noted above, one of the last  wolves known to be on the island got tired of the other wolves and when Lake Superior froze this year said screw it, I'm outta here, and walked to Minnesota:

Wolf moved to Isle Royale returns to mainland on ice bridge
Wed, 02/06/2019 - 11:05am

A track of the wolf that left Isle Royale in 2019 on ice bridge. Submitted image

One of the three wolves transferred from Grand Portage to Isle Royale last fall recently crossed Lake Superior on a natural ice bridge and returned to the mainland.

Immediately following the end of the government shutdown, National Park Service personnel went to Isle Royale to prepare for a potential translocation of wolves from Canada and to conduct the annual wolf/moose population monitoring.

Mark Romanski, Isle Royale National Park’s Division Chief for Natural Resources and project lead for the wolf reintroduction efforts, had been monitoring GPS data from each of the translocated wolves in preparation for the Canadian wolves....

Another report said the park ecologists checking the feces of the wolves determined the American wolves were eating berries and beaver but not moose.