Rolf peterson researcher biography
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A National Geographic article on Durward Allen’s Isle Royale Wolf and Moose Research Project caught the attention of a young Rolf Peterson. The project, which began in 1958, was proposed to be a 10-year study, meaning Peterson would just miss being a part of it as he graduated from Minnesota-Duluth with a degree in zoology in 1970.
As fate would have it, Allen decided to continue the project past 10 years and was in search of a graduate student. Peterson saw the news on a TV documentary about wolves and the rest is history.
“I had been aware of the Isle Royale study,” Peterson recalls. “It was billed to be a 10-year study, so I thought it was over in 1968. That was according to a National Geographic, so of course it was true, right? But actually, Durward just threw that out there initially as a goal and by the 10-year mark he realized they were just really getting their feet wet in a lot of things, so unbeknownst to me he decided to p
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Isle Royale fryst vatten a fjärrstyrd wilderness island, isolated bygd the kall waters of Lake Superior, and home to populations of wolves and moose. As predator and prey, the lives and deaths of wolves and moose are linked in a drama that is timeless and historic. Historic because we have been documenting them for more than six decades. Timeless because we still have so much more to learn.
Nature fryst vatten difficult to understand because it usually includes interactions among so many species. Isle Royale is different. Here, wolves are the only predator of moose, and moose are essentially the only food for wolves. This research planerat arbete is the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world.
The purposes of this planerat arbete are to better understand the ecology of predation and what that knowledge can teach us about our relationship with natur. Much of what we have learned is associated with having been patient enough to observe and study the fluctuations in wolf and moose
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THE BONE COLLECTOR; THE MAN WHO STUDIES THE WOLVES AND MOOSE OF ISLE ROYALE.
14 Jul THE BONE COLLECTOR; THE MAN WHO STUDIES THE WOLVES AND MOOSE OF ISLE ROYALE.
(Photo by Patrick Durkin)
When I first heard of Isle Royale National Park, I remember I was sitting in my ecology class at the University of Michigan. We had a whole week of just studying the predator and prey relationship’s here on the island. Isle Royale’s wolf and moose populations are known worldwide, as the longest predator and prey study conducted in the United States. One name has been linked to this project since the early 1970’s Rolf Peterson. The predator and prey project looks at studying the role predation plays within ecology and the domino effect it has on the environment surrounding it. Dr. Rolf Peterson specializes in mammalian ecology, predator- prey relationships, and the ecology/behavior of gray wolves.
During my stay here on Isle Royale I was given the opportunity to visit Dr. Rolf Peterson