The Wolves of Isle Royale

This activity explores images of wolves hunting a moose on Isle Royale, which serve as phenomena for learning about predator-prey population dynamics.

Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior, is the site of the longest continuous predator-prey study in the world. Since 1958, scientists have monitored the island’s wolf and moose populations. Each population responds to physical and biological factors, such as disease, severe weather, and climate change. The populations also influence each other, leading to cyclical patterns in their sizes. These images show one interaction between wolves and moose on the island.

The “Educator Materials” document includes background information and implementation suggestions for using the images as phenomena. The “Student Handout” includes the images and background information.

Images by Rolf O. Peterson, Michigan Tech University

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.