Past Webcasts

What the wolves of Isle Royale teach us about our relationship with nature

(11am CT, 10am MT, 9am PT)

Isle Royale is a wilderness island in Lake Superior (North America) inhabited by a population of wolves and their prey, moose. These populations have been studied for more than six decades – the longest study of any predator-prey system in the world. In this presentation, John Vucetich and Rolf Peterson share highlights from their decades of experiences observing the wolves of Isle Royale and discuss some of the broad lessons they’ve learned about the sometimes predictable, sometimes unpredictable dynamics of ecology. Is nature a machine, with rules to be discovered and even controlled by scientists, or do the wolves call for greater humility?

Guest

John Vucetich

Michigan Technological University

Professor

John A. Vucetich is a professor at Michigan Technological University, where he teaches population biology and environmental ethics. He co-leads the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Project. He has authored more than 100 scholarly publications, mostly focused on the biodiversity crisis, carnivore conservation, and environmental policy and philosophy. His writings have also appeared in The New York Times and Natural History. Vucetich is the author of two books, Restoring the Balance and The Biology and Conservation of Animal Populations. He has also testified before committees in the United States House and Senate about carnivore conservation and the Endangered Species Act. His ability to relate ecological science and environmental ethics has captured the attention of scholars, the general public, and governments around the world.

Rolf Peterson

Michigan Technological University

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Rolf O. Peterson is a professor emeritus at Michigan Technological University and has been leading research on the wolves and moose of Isle Royale since the 1970s. He has authored more than 100 papers on wolf ecology and The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance (2007). He is responsible for discoveries so basic that they are now considered common knowledge – discoveries such as wolves’ tendency to kill weakened prey and discoveries about the importance of winter severity on wolf predation.