ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK (MPRN)-- The federal government shutdown could stall wolf relocation efforts to Isle Royale National Park.
Park officials have brought four wolves to the island so far. The only male in that group died in November.
Rolf Peterson is a researcher at Michigan Technological University, which studies the wolves in the winter. He says the park had hoped to bring more wolves to the island this winter.
“Wolves only mate once a year and that’s only in February, so an entire year of potential reproduction could be lost if that effort doesn’t go ahead,” he says.
Peterson says the winter study, which he helps conduct, was supposed to be the first chance researchers would have to check on the wolves.
If the shutdown continues, he says, that study may not happen for the first time in sixty years.