Wolf Island

August 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.

Starred review from August 1, 2020
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.

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October 1, 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.

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