Isle Royale wolves inbred but likely to survive, study says

Researchers found Isle Royale wolves brought to the island in 2018 are likely to survive but are inbred and increasingly isolated.

In 2016, the island had only a pair of inbred wolves not having babies. So, between 2018 and 2019, Isle Royale National Park officials, with the help of researchers, brought 19 wolves onto the island in hopes of reestablishing the population.

A team of international researchers, including park officials, studied the transported wolves the first five years after their relocation to estimate their likelihood of survival and recently published the results in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.

They found the wolf population has a greater than 80% chance of lasting 20 years but will face complications from inbreeding and an island increasingly cut off from the mainland because of global warming.

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