February 22 @ 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale
Wednesday, February 22 | 6:30 – 8 pm | FREE
IN PERSON (Tickets Required: Register Here)
Part of the Naturalist Journeys 2023 Winter Presentation Series
Join wildlife biologists Ky and Lisa Koitzsch as they share their experiences studying wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park. Isle Royale is a remote island wilderness located 15 miles from the shores of Ontario and Minnesota in the frigid waters of Lake Superior. Since the 1940s, Isle Royale has been home to populations of both wolves and moose and beginning in 1958, researchers have been studying this wolf-moose predator-prey system. The longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world, this research project has contributed greatly to understanding the importance of apex predators for maintaining healthy ecosystems and has inspired many other similar studies worldwide, including the Yellowstone National Park wolf-elk study. The Isle Royale wolf population size has varied from a high of 50 wolves in 1980 to a low of 2 wolves in 2018. To maintain balance in this island ecosystem and to reduce the numbers of a rapidly growing moose population that was devastating the island’s vegetation, 19 wolves were reintroduced from surrounding states and Canadian provinces in 2018-2019. Ky and Lisa will talk about their winter field work and bring you up to date on the status of this predator-prey system.
The Koitzschs live in Fayston, Vermont on the eastern flanks of the Green Mountains. They worked for 10 years for the Yellowstone Wolf Project and conducted a non-invasive population study of moose in northern Yellowstone. During the warmer months, Ky is a timber framer constructing house and barn frames using traditional mortise and tenon joinery and Lisa works as an Assistant Town Clerk.
Original source can be found here.
