Keynote speaker Rolf Peterson, head of the Isle Royale wolf/moose study, gave a presentation the other day on his work. I also got a free copy of his book :) Isle Royale is, for those who don't know, an island national park in the NW section of Lake superior and only about 100 miles from me.
IsleRoyaleWolf.org
Has some pretty interesting information on isolated predator-prey interactions. Because it's entirely on an island, wildlife experts have one of the most unique views of this relationship anywhere on earth. Galapagos come to mind... :)
http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/data/d.../womograph.jpg
Where else can you find this kind of predator-prey relationship without having to factor in migration, public land encroachment, etc?
An interesting topic came up during the presentation when an audience member asked if there were any new wolves or moose on the island since they migrated from Canada over 100 years ago (we assume the meese swam and the wolves came over on an ice bridge from a really cold winter). Dr. Peterson said that no new animals had been introduced, and if there were, they would've been killed in classic territorial fashion by the established packs. So this means all 50-something wolfs have been inbreeding for the past century as well as the 500-600 (current) meese. Cool thing is, no deformities or problems usually associated with inbreeding have occured. The wolves simply have an extra vertebrae which, as peterson explained, 1/4 of all humans do as well.
So check it out if you have some time.
NOTE: I know the plural of moose is not meese... it's moosen.. j/k :)
