Rare black wolves in northern Minnesota

Some neat footage of the few black wolves that spent time in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem (GVE) over the past year. Black wolves are very rare in the GVE and all these black wolves were lone wolves that were wandering around/through the GVE.

In other words, they weren’t part of a pack. We studied 24 packs this past winter and there was not a black wolf in any of those packs. And this was the same for last year and the year before.

In fact, the last time we had a black wolf in a pack we were studying was 2016. Some estimates indicate black wolves constitute 1-3% of all wolves in Minnesota. In our area, black wolves constitute less than 1% of the population.

However, we know in some areas of northern Minnesota, such as around the Ely/Tower area, black wolves can be a bit more common.

One other good way to look at this: we have observed and/or tagged 168 pups during our research so far and not a single one has been black.

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Written by Voyageurs Wolf Project