09/03/2026
Michigan DNR was intentionally misleading people on wolf numbers, and now their own new survey caught them. For years, Michigan told the public there were roughly 700 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. What they didn’t say was that this was a minimum estimate taken during winter, when the wolf population is at its lowest point of the entire year. They weren’t even surveying the entire U.P. every year, the winter track survey covered roughly 60% and estimated the rest. It depended on snow and tracks, and was specifically designed to produce a conservative minimum number. They even calculated 2% lone wolves knowing that the number is typically closer to 15%. Yet that minimum conservative estimate became the number everyone heard when Michigan talked about its “wolf population.”
Now Michigan has finally used more than 1,300 trail cameras across the U.P., and the numbers look very different. The new results released this year estimated as many as 1,198 wolves in 2024, compared with the 768-wolf number Michigan had been putting out for that same year. And hunters in the U.P. have been warning about this for years. Back in 2021, local sportsmen were already arguing that the population were closer to 1,400 wolves and that Michigan’s official numbers were far too low. Hunters up there are still saying the DNR is undercounting wolves. So who do you trust more? The hunters living with these wolves who have been saying the numbers were wrong for years, or the DNR that just got caught manipulating you?
— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Rack Junkies Podcast
