This is a great narrative of the wolf and moose ecosystem on Isle Royale from someone that has seen the long view of it. Fascinating.

David Mech is so knowledgeable about wolves. And it’s fascinating to read his accounts of the research he did on Isle Royale. I’ve always been interested in people telling their stories like this.

My criticism is that the beginning could’ve been edited down a bit. I was 25% into it before he really started describing his actual wolf research.

As a young man growing up in Wisconsin in the 1960's, I loved being in the outdoors. Hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping; it was I lived for. And one of my dreams was to go to Isle Royale, and witness the wolf population myself. In fact, it was one of the dreams that led me to pursue my degree in Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As happens, life intervenes, and I never made it to Isle Royale. But I kept my fascination with it, reading up on it in various publications.
Then, as luck would have it, I discovered this absolutely wonderful book by Dr. Mech! Mech was the first person to actually do scientific research on the interactions between wolves and moose on the island. He went there as a young graduate student in 1958. He spent three years in his graduate study, and became one of the foremost wolf scientists in the world. Thankfully, he has continued his research for 60 years, and is still going!
This is the story of his first three years on the island. Of his trekking across the island for days at a time, with very primitive gear. Of the aerial surveys undertaken in the winter, to locate and observe wolf packs and moose. Of the hunting of the moose by the wolves. Their behaviors, successes, and failures. All told in easy to read language, flowing along so well as to make you feel that you are there with him!
I really liked the perspective he gave towards the end of the book. Of the current debate on whether or not wolves should be taken off the protected status they currently have. I won't spoil it for you, but he provides an opinion that should be given a great deal of weight.
Finally, I would like to quote from the end of his book,....."to me it doesn't really seem that long ago when it all began, and I took my first steps as a budding wolf biologist. That was June 30, 1958, my first day on Isle Royale. I hiked 7 miles from Rock Harbor to the Daisy Farm campground, and along the trail, my field notes recorded, I found a fresh wolf track and 2 old droppings. Now, six decades and untold miles, wolf tracks, and droppings later, I am a mature wolf biologist. Instead of hiking 7 miles to catch a glimpse of wolf sign, I can look at a smartphone and check a GPS trail of a wolf online. I have changed a bit, research technology has changed quite a bit, and even the climate has changed".
And absolutely wonderful book! One that I have been waiting to read for decades.
Highly recommend!!!!

I had never heard of Isle Royale until now, which surprises me given the enormous contribution of the work done there to the field of wolf research.

The book is fascinating, and despite the repetitive nature of some of the narrative, I raced through it. Until now, I had not appreciated the luxury of being born in a time when we already "know" so much about species like wolves (even though, of course, there will always be so much more to learn). 'Wolf Island' begins at a time when, actually, hardly anything was known about wolves, and much of what was known proved to be totally wrong. The book also provides a valuable insight into biology fieldwork in the 1950s-60s, and in its own quiet way, it's a love letter to science.

Isle Royale itself sounds like a magical place, the kind of place I can only dream of living in. Although wolves and their main prey, the moose, are of course the main focus, the book finds time to dwell on the island's other denizens - beavers, foxes, ravens (there's a wonderful if short passage on ravens and wolves playing together) and people themselves. A window is given into a particular time in American history, and Mech even recounts his brief flirtation with anti-communist campaigning.

The afterword was as educational as the rest of the book - Mech gives a whistle-stop tour of wolf research and conservation since his time on Isle Royale (by himself and others), and he was even involved in the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction (which, contrary to widely-touted claims, apparently did not lead to a trophic cascade change with forest returning, rivers shifting course, etc. - Mech says that cougars may have had more of an impact in that regard. Very interesting).

Finally, I was happy to read that Mech finally did get to find a den and watch pups growing up.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review)

living in Minnesota I have know about the wolves and moose on the island, interesting though to learn about how the study started. Highly recommend this book. Informative and descriptive of their studies on a great topic.

Not an expert in this field of science but I do love wolves! What a fascinating memoir from a biologist's POV. I confess I didn't always understand the scientific discussion but this was overall very accessible to the average reader.

This was a fun little book about an island in the Great Lakes that presented a unique opportunity for biologists to study wolves.  I'm not really into biology, or wolves, but the account was well-written, and the subject matter ended up being interesting.

In 1958, the young graduate student Dave Mech and Dr. Durwood Allen visited Isle Royale to begin planning research on the wolves and moose on the island. They were accompanied by a group of wildlife experts, including one experienced wolf biologist, who formed an advisory committee. The Isle Royale was unique in that while it was a National Park, there were no roads, no year-round residents, the island was isolated from other land masses, and it was a perfect chance to study distinct groups of wolves and moose. It wasn’t likely that the population would be affected by loosing or gaining members through migration.

Over a period of three years, Dave Mech did field research for a few weeks each summer, and a few weeks each winter. The book is full of detailed experiences of viewing the wolves, sometimes getting very close to them. Watching them hunt and play, seeing how hard it is for even a pack of wolves to bring down a moose, doing aerial counts of the wolves and moose, and always collecting wolf scat.

What I enjoyed the most was the personal stories of Dave and the others who worked and lived on the island. Dave and his wife lived in a guest cabin that was like something the pioneers in the 1800s would live in. The photo with Betty Ann Mech washing clothes in an ancient, gas powered washer was priceless.

While learning so much about the wolves and moose, it was also a story of a lifestyle that no longer existed; the small-scale commercial fishing on the island collapsed when an invasive species entered Lake Ontario and decimated the trout population. An interesting group of people had lived and fished commercially during summers, many who had been there so long they remembered before the wolves and moose arrived. One couple had been there since 1916 and told Dave of the changes in fauna and flora over the years. It was fascinating. Dave’s relationships with other people on the island that helped balance the scientific research with more of a memoir. And the photos! Wow, just wow.

In 1970, while in high school, I wanted to study wolves and bought a book published by the U.S, Government Printing Office, published in 1966, The Wolves of Isle Royale, from a series on the Fauna of the National Parks. It was basically Dave’s doctorial thesis. Being able to read of Dave’s adventures on the island as a memoir was a special treat.

I received an ARC of Wolf Island from NetGalley and this is my honest review.

This book was a departure from my realm of reading, and I am so glad I took the opportunity to go on the journey it offers. This was truly a delight. Who knew that studying the relationship between wolves and moose on an obscure island in the 1940s could be so enthralling? The writing is crisp and descriptive, and goes along at a rapid pace that kept me turning pages. Highly recommend if you're looking for an escape read, especially if you are curious about how predator/prey relationships play out in the wild.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.