Wolf Island: Discovering the Secrets of a Mythic Animal

by L. David Mech, Greg Breining (Contribution by)

Overview

The world’s leading wolf expert describes the first years of a major study that transformed our understanding of one of nature’s most iconic creatures

In the late 1940s, a small pack of wolves crossed the ice of Lake Superior to the island wilderness of Isle Royale, creating a perfect “laboratory” for a long-term study of predators and prey. As the wolves hunted and killed the island’s moose, a young graduate student named Dave Mech began research that would unlock the mystery of one of nature’s most revered (and reviled) animals—and eventually became an internationally renowned and respected wolf expert. This is the story of those early years.

Wolf Island recounts three extraordinary summers and winters Mech spent on the isolated outpost of Isle Royale National Park, tracking and observing wolves and moose on foot and by airplane—and upending the common misperception of wolves as destructive killers of insatiable appetite. Mech sets the scene with one of his most thrilling encounters: witnessing an aerial view of a spectacular hunt, then venturing by snowshoe (against the pilot’s warning) to photograph the pack of hungry wolves at their kill. Wolf Island  owes as much to the spirit of adventure as to the impetus of scientific curiosity. Written with science and outdoor writer Greg Breining, who recorded hours of interviews with Mech and had access to his journals and field notes from those years, the book captures the immediacy of scientific fieldwork in all its triumphs and frustrations. It takes us back to the beginning of a classic environmental study that continues today, spanning nearly sixty years—research and experiences that would transform one of the most despised creatures on Earth into an icon of wilderness and ecological health.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452962092
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

L. David Mech is a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and adjunct professor in the departments of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. Among his many books are The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species and the coauthored The Wolves of Denali (both from Minnesota). He is founder of the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. 

Greg Breining has written for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Traveler, and Audubon, among many other publications. He has written more than a dozen books, including Wild Shore: Exploring Lake Superior by Kayak (Minnesota, 2000).

Rolf O. Peterson is research professor at Michigan Technological University, where he has led the wolf–moose study at Isle Royale since the early 1970s.

L. David Mech is a wildlife research biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a professor in the department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The Wolves of Isle Royale and The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species (available from Minnesota). Mech’s long experience as a radio-tracker dates back to the developmental work done at Minnesota in the early 1960s.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword

Rolf O. Peterson

Map of Isle Royale

We Didn’t Know

The Chance of a Lifetime

Discovery: Summer 1958

Eye in the Sky: Winter 1959

Island Life: Summer 1959

Finding Patterns: Winter 1960

Island of Change: Summer 1960

Putting Together the Pieces: Winter 1961

The Wolves of Isle Royale

The View from Afar

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

08/17/2020

In this enjoyable if somewhat slim scientific memoir, wildlife biologist and photographer Mech recalls his early efforts at “wolf-moose fieldwork” in Isle Royale National Park, a 45-mile-long island in northern Lake Superior. He recalls it as a fascinating place, “an isolated wilderness world” where as a “new, enthusiastic” Purdue University grad student he researched interactions between the park’s wolf populations and moose in order to understand the dynamics between predator and prey. He was also interested specifically in wolf packs, and researched “how far they traveled, how they hunted, whether they could live on a variety of foods.” Over the study’s three years, between 1958 and 1961, Mech made significant strides in understanding both species on their own and in relation to each other by “hiking hundreds of miles on trails in summer” and “flying hundreds of hours over the island in winter.” He observed a “rough equilibrium” between the two populations, and came to see the wolves as a positive contributor to the island’s ecosystem, helping transform the previous overwhelmingly negative views of wolves as rapacious predators and strengthening the case for their preservation. Nature lovers will enjoy Mech’s mix of reminiscence and zoological insight. 30 color photos. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"No scientist has done more to shape our understanding of wolves than L. David Mech, and no ecosystem has been more influential than Isle Royale. Wolf Island is a lively, well-told story that sheds new light on the early days of ecology’s most important long-term study, the formative years of a master biologist, and the complex lives of an iconic and misunderstood predator."—Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

 

"L. David Mech’s writing on wolves is foundational: every new study owes a debt to his scholarship, and any respectable stack of wolf books is anchored by The Wolf, his indispensable classic. With Wolf Island, we now have a volume to top the stack as well. Mech’s excellent and eminently readable account of the origins of his fieldwork in Isle Royale National Park is as inspirational as it is educational. Here’s hoping it sends another generation of students—and readers of all ages—into the wild."—Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

 

"For many of us fascinated with wolves, Adolph Murie and L. David Mech are the two scientist/field naturalists whose books first gave these animals life and breath. Now, in this unflinching and highly readable memoir, Mech lets readers experience the inside story of how, as a young graduate student, he illuminated the murky world of America’s iconic predator. And ended up writing a classic."—Dan Flores, New York Times best-selling author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History

 

"Fans of wolves, field biology, and good natural history writing will welcome Mech’s long-overdue reminiscences."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 

"Nature lovers will enjoy Mech’s mix of reminiscence and zoological insight."—Publishers Weekly

 

"An important read for budding wildlife biologists and anyone interested in the survival of species."—Wilderness News

 

"The book is enjoyable, informative, fascinating and will convince readers Isle Royale is unique."—Michigan In Books

 

"Filled with details of fascinating discoveries and engaging first-person stories... The book should be in all libraries."—CHOICE

 

"An interesting read for anyone who enjoys science and nature."—Northern Wilds

 

"A highly engaging account that wolf aficionados, lovers of wilderness and national parks, and people that enjoy wildlife biology and natural history stories will appreciate."—Canadian Field Naturalist

 

"Essential Reading for those who are interested in wold biology and their management."—Biological Conservation

 

"Drawing on journals, field notes, and extensive interviews, the book recounts three sumers and winters 60 years ago that Mech spent on the island observing wolves and moose."—Minnesota Alumni

 

"Wolf Island will please anyone with an interest in wilderness adventure, Lake Superior, or wildlife."—Ely Winter Times

 

From the Publisher

10/01/2020

This book recounts three seasons of field work on Isle Royale, MI, located in the northwest of Lake Superior, as told by Mech to science journalist Breining. As a Purdue graduate student with the task of studying wolves and their primary prey, moose, Mech went to the island in 1958. The area proved to be an "ideal outdoor laboratory," and Mech's project is still ongoing some 60 years later. Fans of wolfdom may be surprised to learn how little was known before Mech—working pre-GPS with boots on the ground (and in an airplane)—began. This is not a book for the squeamish. There's plenty of blood, gore, and scat, as the researcher seeks clues to an apex predator's hunting prowess and diet. Although the book's focus is on the animals, it has a strong human interest too: readers feel the physical challenges of fieldwork, share a young scientist's sense of discovery. And the story takes a surprising turn when Mech, on the verge of completing his thesis, has spiritual and professional doubts: "the world was going to pot and here I was counting wolves." VERDICT Recommended as an accessible, personable account of an esteemed scientist's foundational work on wolves.—Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Library Journal

★ 2020-07-08
A naturalist’s memoir of seasons spent over many decades studying the ways of wolves.

No one knows more about wolves than Mech, a Minnesota-based researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey. As he writes in this engaging narrative, he started off working with bears, but, “while I was interested in weasels and mink, their wilderness relative the fisher fascinated me even more. Among the dog family, I was fond of working with foxes, but I much preferred snowshoeing through the Adirondack Mountains in search of their larger, wilder cousin, the coyote, or brush wolf.” An almost-chance encounter with a scholar who would become a mentor took him to Purdue University for graduate study, and there he was posted to Isle Royale National Park, a remote outpost in Lake Superior closer to Canada than the U.S. Moose had swum to the island long before, and in pursuit came a small squad of wolves. “It had no roads, so visitors arrived by boat and traveled on foot on its trails, or by water along the shoreline,” writes Mech. “No one lived there for most of the year.” That was just fine by him. In time, a wife and child joined him, but the author had much of the island to himself, commanding great views from a granite ridgeline on one hand and getting down to ground level to study wolf scat on the other. It was wild country with no end of danger, but “I learned that patience was the most important ingredient of safety.” Apart from a few odd interludes, including nearly becoming a John Bircher, he kept his eye on wolf-moose interactions and the fluctuating populations of both species. Given that he started at Isle Royale in 1958, his project “is the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world,” a model for other studies that still raises fresh questions with every season.

Fans of wolves, field biology, and good natural history writing will welcome Mech’s long-overdue reminiscences.

Kirkus Reviews