Around 30 wolves currently roam Isle Royale, a remote island in Lake Superior, while the moose population is estimated at about 840. That's according to a 2023–2024 report from Michigan Technological University.
Those numbers are gathered with the help of volunteer citizen scientists.
Each spring and summer they trek around the island to assist researchers with the long-running Wolf-Moose Project, which focuses on the predator-prey dynamics between the two animal species.
Jeffrey Holden, a group leader with the project, said citizen scientists play a key role in reconstructing the moose population by finding and analyzing moose remains.
“The main thing is to go out and find as many dead moose as possible. We do kind of a back country CSI, take photos. We gather certain bones, take lots of data about the scenery and we bring that back to the scientists,” Holden said.
Holden is also the author of "Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf Moose Project," a new book detailing the volunteer experience and the rugged nature of the week-long field expeditions. The book will be released through MSU Press and Amazon.
Web exclusive interview highlights
On what makes Isle Royale a good spot to track moose and wolf populations:
It’s large enough so that animals have plenty of room to move around, and it's about 45 by eight miles, nine miles wide, and it's in the middle of Lake Superior, and it's a simplified environment. So consequently, there's not as many animals on the island. On Isle Royale there's one main predator, the wolves, and one main prey, the moose.
On what citizen scientists look for
The main thing is to go out and find as many dead moose as possible. We do kind of a back country CSI, take photos. We gather certain bones, take lots of data about the scenery and we bring that back to the scientists. And the main thing that they do with all the work that the citizen science volunteers is they reconstruct the moose population through the years.
On experiencing "type two fun" during his outings on the island
Type-two activity may not be fun while you're doing it, but once it's done, you look back on it fondly ... you've got kind of a unified mission with the group that you're with, looking for dead moose, etc. It really makes that week a little bit more memorable than usual.
Interview Transcript
Melorie Begay: A new book offers a look at the citizen scientists who help researchers study the wolf and moose populations on Michigan’s Isle Royale.
I’m joined by Jeffrey Holden, author of "Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf Moose-Project."
I want to talk a little bit about the Wolf-Moose Project because it's a decades-long initiative that uses citizen scientists who are volunteers to help researchers collect data on Isle Royale. What makes this such a good location to track these animals?
Jeffrey Holden: If you were a natural scientist, and you were thinking, how can I design a really good, or a perfect sort of laboratory to watch the interaction of species? You probably couldn't do much better than designing something like Isle Royale. It’s large enough so that animals have plenty of room to move around, and it's about 45 by eight miles, nine miles wide, and it's in the middle of Lake Superior, and it's a simplified environment.
So consequently, there's not as many animals on the island. On Isle Royale, there's one main predator, the wolves, and one main prey, the moose. And moose make up about 90% of the wolves diet. Also, humans don't have any interaction for the most part. There's no hunting on the island, so consequently, the predator and the prey have basically free reign to live their lives like they would if humans weren't around. So, that's an excellent sort of environment for scientists to observe the animal's behavior, and they've been doing it since 1958.
Begay: What are you all looking for when out searching for signs of moose and wolves?
Holden: The main thing with the summer study, so volunteers are on the island during the spring and summer. And during the summer study, the main thing is to go out and find as many dead moose as possible. We do kind of a back country CSI, take photos. We gather certain bones, take lots of data about the scenery, and we bring that back to the scientists. And the main thing that they do with all the work that the citizen science volunteers is they reconstruct the moose population through the years.
Begay: You mentioned in the book that the first time you volunteered, you weren't sure whether you were in good enough shape to get back into hiking, because it had been some time, right, since you'd done it. But then a week later, you were asked to be a group leader. How does that happen?
Holden: I'm still not entirely sure, and I haven't asked Rolf Peterson. Rolf Peterson is the main co-leader of the project that works with the volunteers. I had it in my head that the reason Rolf asked me is because that very first year, I helped the group leader, fella named Phil DeWitt, I helped him butcher two dead moose.
And one of the moose was covered with at least 100,000 ticks, and the other one was just it probably been dead for about a month, and it was totally intact, but it was putrescent, and I was the only volunteer in the group to help butcher those two moose. So, my theory is that Rolf decided, if he's dumb enough to help butcher putrescent moose like that, then he ought to be a leader. But I've never actually asked Rolf why he asked me so quickly to become a group leader.
Begay: Also, in the book, you give a thorough account of some of the challenges that come with backpacking around the island. You're sometimes going off trail and often trekking in less-than-ideal weather. What makes these trips worthwhile for you?
Holden: It's a fun challenge, and you know that you're out there doing something that you probably couldn't get paid enough to do on an hourly basis. So, I do have one chapter called Type Two Fun, and it's definitely a week that often has type two fun. Type one fun is you're doing an activity, or you're planning an activity you know is going to be fun. When you do it, it's fun, and when you think about it later on, it was fun.
Type two activity may not be fun while you're doing it, but once it's done, you look back on it fondly. And this is where I think the group dynamics and know that you've got kind of a unified mission with the group that you're with, looking for dead moose, etc. It really makes that week a little bit more memorable than usual.
So every year I go up there, in addition to just my love of being in nature, I like the group dynamics, and there's an awful lot of that type two fun so for instance, this year, we did have to tear down tents in the rain, and set them back up in the rain, and everything's wet, and you know, you have kind of shared misery. So that's, again, part of that type two fun. And I keep going back up there, so I must like that.
Begay: Jeffrey Holden is the author of "Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf Moose-Project." Thanks for joining me today. Jeffrey.
Holden: Yep, thank you. Melorie.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
