VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK— The wolf population in and around Minnesota’s only national park has fallen for the third year in a row, according to the annual population report issued by the Voyageur Wolf Project, declining by 19 percent over the previous year and by 31 percent over the past two years.
The study, now in its eleventh year, is spearheaded by University of Minnesota biologists and overseen by project lead Tom Gable. It’s study area includes the national park and surrounding territory, encompassing approximately 900 square miles.
Wolf numbers have been on the decline in the study area since back-to-back heavy snow winters led to significant losses in the region’s white-tailed deer population and that trend did not show any sign of slowing during the 2024-25 season, which ran from April 1, 2024- March 31, 2025. This year’s report puts the wolf population density within the study area at 44.7 wolves per 1,000 square kilometers. That’s effectively tied with the 2020-21 study season for the lowest wolf density during the now more-than-decade-long study and it’s just over half the density experienced in 2017-18 when the wolf density peaked at nearly 80 wolves per 1,000 square kilometers.
The decline is no sign of trouble within the state’s wolf population but is merely part of the natural ebb and flow of predator populations, which tend to be closely tied to populations of their primary prey. Wolf numbers in northern Minnesota tend to rise and fall in close correlation with the white-tailed deer population, although beaver also constitute a significant percentage of wolf diets in the Voyageurs study area.
While two severe winters played a major role in reducing the region’s deer population, back-to-back historically mild winters in 2023-24 and 2024-25 proved challenging for the wolves in the study. During mild winters, deer can move about freely and are far less vulnerable to starvation or wolf predation than in severe winters, particularly those with deep snow. During mild winters, it is wolves rather than deer that significantly deplete their fat reserves and that leaves them less able to raise pups the following spring.
Expanding pack territories
As the wolf population density declined, wolf pack territories increased in size within the study area, according to the latest report. According to the study, that’s typical when prey populations decline since wolves need to hunt in more territory to find sufficient prey to meet their nutritional needs. As a result of expanding pack territories, at least three of the wolf packs previously identified by the study appeared to disappear or moved outside the study area.
The limited food supply within the study area also impacted pup survival. According to the study, only about 20 percent of pups born in the spring of 2024 survived until the winter of 2024-25. Nearly a quarter of the packs in the study produced no pups at all. Of the 17 packs that did produce pups in the spring of 2024, only eight raised any to adulthood. Just over half of the packs lost all their pups before the winter.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project has used an extensive array of trail cameras throughout its research area, an approach that has allowed the study to gain insights into wolves that could not be achieved by previous research projects. It also maintains GPS collars on dozens of wolves that track the regular movements of individual wolves and their packs.
Minnesota maintains by far the largest wolf population in the U.S., outside Alaska.