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Insights from Voyageurs Wolf Project set to debut on May 24
A new exhibit at the International Wolf Center offers a unique look and perspective about wolves.
Starvation, Adaptation and Survival— Insights from the Voyageurs Wolf Project - will debut on May 24 at the museum just outside of Ely.
The exhibit, which runs through October, unveils significant findings from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, highlighting how wolves both struggle and adapt in the summer months and showing their impact on ecosystems in northern Minnesota.
The exhibit combines research with artistic representations and is interactive, allowing visitors to scan QR codes to find additional information.
“One of the key elements with stories, is each has a QR code that leads you to photos and video content,” said Grant Spickelmier, executive director of the International Wolf Center.
Spickelmier offered a sneak preview of the exhibit earlier this week and was joined by Joseph Bump, a researcher with the University of Minnesota and part of the Voyageurs Wolf Project team.
A former storage room at the IWC was converted into an exhibit area that showcases an array of panels, including a wolf silhouette that Bump said “shows what they’re made of and what they eat,” and another that “communicates how wolves shape forests.”
Other panels include artistic representations of wolves and information about the activities of specific wolves who were studied during the course of the project.
The project sprung from discussion at an international wolf symposium in 2022 and challenges some of the stereotypes people have about wolves, according to both Bump and Spickelmier.
Research shows the struggles wolves face, particularly during the summer months.
“We think about wolves being these consummate predators,” said Bump.
Yet the study showed that summer can be a difficult time for wolves and the project shows images of starving wolves.
“It’s not the image of wolves that most people probably have in their heads,” said Spickelmier.
The impact of wolves on the ecology and surrounding areas is also part of the research.
“We have excellent evidence about the way wolves change forests around beaver ponds,” said Bump. “It’s possible for wolves to influence the mosaic of wetlands. It really is categorically different than the mountain west.”
The exhibit debuts later in the week in conjunction with the start of the Wolf Center’s summer season and is part of an ongoing effort to attract both new and previous visitors to the local attraction.
In a room just off of the center’s ongoing wolf exhibits, Spickelmier said “this space was always envisioned as temporary exhibit space and this is the first time it is fully being realized.”
The exhibit will also live on past October and its time at the IWC.
“It doesn’t end,” said Bump. “It was launched in collaboration with the Wolf Center but will have a life beyond here.”
That includes likely displays both in Duluth and the Twin Cities after its stint in Ely.
Bump touted the multifaceted components of the project and the ties with the International Wolf Center.
“I think both the project an the Wolf Center appreciate unique things about wolves,” he said. “We have commonalities with our research, that we’re trying to provide science and reliable information about wolves, and also communicating that science can be interpreted in creative ways.”
