Project.

01/13/19 21:24, by Cole

I used data from the National Park Service's study of Wolves and Moose on Isle Royale to create a graph showing the relationship between the two species populations on the island. Isle Royale is a large island located in the northeastern part of Lake Superior. The island's detachedness makes it the perfect place to study predator-prey dynamics. The only large animals on the Island are wolves and moose. In recent years however, the wolf population has dropped significantly, leading to an explosion in moose numbers. This decline in wolves is mainly due to excessive inbreeding. The number of wolves on the mainland has also fallen greatly due to land loss and over hunting, and coupled with the fact that the Lake no longer freezes across, no new wolves are able to travel to the island. My graph shows the numbers of each species on the island from the past 16 years. The Park service plans to introduce a new wolf, as there are now only two on Isle Royale.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pI0fQxNDi-1qyDtdGlheTHc8WzwVdpk6G0XNfgVCouI/edit?usp=sharing

15 comments

Comment from: [Member]

Fascinating but something other than the diminishing number of wolves must be at work here – the wolf population all these years is remarkably small – essentially zero – but the last ten years the moose population has exploded (300 - 500 per cent)

Perhaps – in your experience – you could cite another example of wolf/moose ratio that has been studied – to lend a “normal” ratio between these two species?

01/13/19 @ 21:35

Comment from: [Member]