The only way to know what would happen next would be to continue observing. With only 14 wolves, extinction was a real concern. Canine parvovirus, a disease inadvertently introduced by humans, was largely to blame for the decline. No one had ever observed wolves and their prey long enough to know. Would it be possible that wolves could drive their prey to extinction? No one knew. In particular, wolves in 1980 were abundant and moose had been on the decline for the better part of a decade. Rather than wondering how long scientists would keep observing Isle Royale’s wolves and moose, people began to ask thoughtful questions that could only be answered by continuing to observe. Rich, dynamic variation, not ‘balance of nature’ seems to be the force that guides nature. During that time, wolves more than doubled to fifty. Durward found greater merit in continuing to lead these observations.īy 1980, the study in its 22nd year, the moose population had tripled from its original size and then declined to half its maximum size. Administrators of the day suggested that the project end. The wolf-moose project was originally designed to continue for ten years. He continued observing.īy 1969 the moose population had doubled, and one now had to admit there had been a major shift in the balance. ĭurward Allen, who initiated the Isle Royale wolf-moose project in 1958, was a pioneer among ecologists for having the foresight to understand the value of continuing to observe where others would have drawn conclusions and moved on to study something different. With wolf and moose abundances having not changed much, ecologists concluded that they seemed to exhibit some kind of “balance of nature” – an idea as elusive as it is compelling, and pursued by scientists and philosophers for millennia. Scientists did so after observing the wolves and moose of Isle Royale for a few years. Afterward, ecologists naturally draw conclusions about the nature of our environment. Most studies in ecology last for a few years or less. The hope had been that knowledge about wolves would replace hateful myths and form the basis for a wiser relationship with wolves. The project began during the darkest hours for wolves in North America-humans had driven wolves to extinction in large portions of their former range. Researchers began annual observations of wolves and moose on Isle Royale in 1958. The lives of Isle Royale moose would never be the same. Wolves first arrived in the late 1940s by crossing an ice bridge from Canada. Moose first came to Isle Royale in the early 20th century, and for fifty years, their numbers fluctuated with weather conditions and food abundance.
These insights and discoveries are all presented here for you.īuilding on the graph above and to develop a deeper understanding, here is more on the history of wolves and moose on Isle Royale. If we pay attention, they all tell us something important about our relationship with nature. The wolves and moose of Isle Royale also frequently reveal intimate details of their daily life experiences and they have inspired numerous artistic expressions. Isle Royale has offered many discoveries… how wolves affect populations of their prey, how population health is affected by inbreeding and genetics, what moose teeth can tell us about long-term trends in air pollution, how ravens give wolves a reason to live in packs, why wolves don’t always eat all the food that they kill, and more. Much of what we have learned is associated with having been patient enough to observe and study the fluctuations in wolf and moose abundances summarized above. The purposes of this project are to better understand the ecology of predation and what that knowledge can teach us about our relationship with nature.
The wolf population eventually stumbles as the moose continue to be kept low by high rates of predation, ticks, and hot summers. In 1997, a wolf immigrates from Canada, bringing an infusion of new genes. They all conspired against the moose population which collapsed in 1996. Intense competition for a declining forage, an outbreak of winter ticks, and the severe winter. We begin to think, but cannot yet prove, that inbreeding among wolves explains why they languor in low abundance for over a decade. With a reprieve from wolf predation, the moose population explodes. Humans inadvertently introduce canine parvovirus, a wolf disease.
Moose predators series#
Then a series of severe winters, increased wolf predation, and moose abundance was cut in half. There’d been a major shift in the balance. But, after a series of mild winters moose abundance doubled. Over time wolf abundance fluctuated a bit. FIVE DECADES OF FLUCTUATING WOLF AND MOOSE POPULATIONSĪfter observing relatively constant abundances for five years, it seemed that the wolves and moose of Isle Royale had struck some kind of a balance of nature.
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