DULUTH, Minn. — Humans were the most frequent cause of death for research wolves that live in five of the nation's most highly protected places, national parks, and those deaths led to long-term consequences for wolf packs, a new study has discovered.
Some 36% of collared wolves in the five parks included in the study died at the hands of humans, usually when they ventured just outside the park boundaries and were shot.
The research shows that many wolves that spend most of their time in national parks, like Voyageurs in Minnesota and Yellowstone in Wyoming, still amble out of the park frequently, where they are vulnerable to human-caused deaths, often illegal poaching and, where allowed in some states, legal hunting.
