Two Years of Large Carnivores in Northern Minnesota

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Voyageurs Wolf Project (@voyageurswolfproject)

The amazing people at Voyageurs Wolf Project compiled almost two years of footage that showcases the incredible number of large carnivores who crossed through the protected land of Voyageurs National Park in Northern Minnesota.

This camera was out in the woods for almost 2 years (2021-2023) and here is the “highlight reel”! What makes this video particularly neat is that we got footage of virtually every large carnivore in northern Minnesota aside from the “black cougar” that some locals claimed to have seen and the famed but elusive ’squatch.

This “highlight reel” also shows the growth of individual animals over the two years.

The video is also a great comparison between the size difference of wolves and coyotes at different points in the year. Basically, while the wolves we study are generally on the smaller size (55-67 lbs), they are still much larger than coyotes.

The project which is part of the University of Minnesota, started out a cooperative project between Voyageurs National Park and Northern Michigan University that was formed to study the summer feeding habits and conservation of wild wolves. The project’s funding comes from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund and through crowdsourcing.