The International Wolf Center is excited to announce the first two winners of the Dr. L. David Mech Fellowships. They are Lily Heinzel and Cameron Ho.
Both students will receive a $6,000 stipend and up to $4,000 in support for field research expenses. The International Wolf Center, which Mech founded in 1985, funds the fellowships.
Heinzel is a senior at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Ho graduated from the University of Washington in June 2021.
“We were thrilled at the quality of applicants,” said the Center’s Executive Director, Grant Spickelmier. “With this being the first year for the fellowships, we didn’t know what to expect. It was hard for the selection committee to narrow down the field and choose just two candidates, but we felt like Lily and Cameron both stood out. We are excited to be able to support their development as biologists.”
“It is so satisfying to know that these fellowships will help well-deserving students supplement their academic training with valuable field work on wolves and thus foster the preparations for their careers,” stated Mech.
Heinzel isn’t her first family member to have a tie to wolf research and Dr. Mech. Her grandfather, Richard Reichle, worked with Dr. Mech at the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve on one of his early telemetry projects.
“I feel so honored to represent my family, women, and inspired young scientists with the research this Fellowship will fund,” she said. “I have been working towards this point since high school when I read my grandfather Richard’s copy of The Arctic Wolf: Living with the Pack by Dave Mech.”
Heinzel said she will use the funding to study conservation genetics research on wolves in the Great Lakes region (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan).
“I will be working in Dr. Kristin Brzeski’s lab at Michigan Technological University using genetic sequencing to estimate baseline genetic variation, ancestry, relatedness, inbreeding, and gene flow of gray wolves,” she said. “My statistics degree will come in handy when the genotyping is complete and RStudio is used to analyze the data for peer-reviewed publication. It is important to establish a baseline of regional gray wolf population structure and genetic health prior to any new management action in the state of Michigan.”
The mission of the International Wolf Center is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. Since the Center’s founding in 1985 by Dr. Mech and others, it has sought to provide the latest scientific information about wolves to our members, visitors, program participants and the general public.
Mech is a Senior Research Scientist with the Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He has studied wolves and their prey since 1958, as well as several other species of wildlife.
Wolves force California ranchers into deadly compromises
From SFGate.com in California:
It’s night in the rugged hills of northeastern California. A herd of cows, many with young calves at their sides, begin shifting nervously. The October winds have brought news of danger nearby: A lone gray wolf, eyes glowing yellow in the moonlight. Known as OR-103, the young male has gone days, perhaps weeks, without a kill. And he’s hungry.
If you’ve never seen a gray wolf up close, you may be imagining a husky or a large coyote. Instead, think of a mastiff. Males weigh up to 150 pounds, with paw prints the size of human hands and fangs as long as your thumbs. Most American wolves prefer deer and elk, but OR-103 has a crippled front paw, and no way to catch such lightning-quick prey.
Click here for the full story.
For Wolves, the Culture War Is Extremely Deadly
From Rolling Stone:
In February 2021, a black wolf wandered across the border of Yellowstone National Park in Montana. Called 1155, he wore a radio collar that park biologists fit him with three years before. When he left the safety of the park, 1155 was what biologists call a “dispersed male,” leaving his pack to travel alone in search of a mate. As a descendant of wolves reintroduced in 1995 to Yellowstone and Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness, he was playing out a role in a success story three decades in the making: to ultimately restore wolves to their former range from which they’d been exterminated.
Click here for the full story.
Chernobyl Was a Wildlife Haven. Then Russian Troops Arrived
From Wired.com:
GERMÁN ORIZAOLA was standing in the shadow of Chernobyl Power Plant’s reactor Number Four—the epicenter of the worst nuclear accident ever.
Click here for the full story.
As lobo genetic diversity declines, ranchers say male wolf once again killed a cow
From NMPoliticalReport.com:
When Bob Daugherty headed up the canyon behind his house to check on his cows, he said he was not surprised to find two of them dead and to discover they had been killed by wolves.
He knew that a wolf that had allegedly killed livestock in another area was relocated to a private ranch known as Ladder Ranch last summer and his grazing allotment is not far from that property.
Click here for the full story.
Michigan DNR reacts to wolf attack on training dog in Marquette County
From NBC TV6 in Michigan:
MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) – The Department of Natural Resources is responding to a wolf attack on a dog earlier this week.
The DNR says a man was training his hunting dogs near the Forestville Trailhead Tuesday when it occurred. His dog was baying at a rabbit when a wolf approached and carried the dog further into the woods.
Click here for the full story.
Wolves as endangered as tigers in India; only 3,100 left
From The Times of India:
DEHRADUN: The first scientific population estimate of Indian peninsular wolves (canis lupus pallipes), known to be more to be more than a million years older than all other wolf species in the world, has revealed that only 3,100 members of the species are left in the country. This makes them almost as endangered as tigers, whose estimated population in the country is around 2,967.
Click here for the full story.
The International Wolf Center is excited to announce the first two winners of the Dr. L. David Mech Fellowships
The International Wolf Center is excited to announce the first two winners of the Dr. L. David Mech Fellowships. They are Lily Heinzel and Cameron Ho.
Both students will receive a $6,000 stipend and up to $4,000 in support for field research expenses. The International Wolf Center, which Mech founded in 1985, funds the fellowships.
Heinzel is a senior at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Ho graduated from the University of Washington in June 2021.
“We were thrilled at the quality of applicants,” said the Center’s Executive Director, Grant Spickelmier. “With this being the first year for the fellowships, we didn’t know what to expect. It was hard for the selection committee to narrow down the field and choose just two candidates, but we felt like Lily and Cameron both stood out. We are excited to be able to support their development as biologists.”
“It is so satisfying to know that these fellowships will help well-deserving students supplement their academic training with valuable field work on wolves and thus foster the preparations for their careers,” stated Mech.
Heinzel isn’t her first family member to have a tie to wolf research and Dr. Mech. Her grandfather, Richard Reichle, worked with Dr. Mech at the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve on one of his early telemetry projects.
“I feel so honored to represent my family, women, and inspired young scientists with the research this Fellowship will fund,” she said. “I have been working towards this point since high school when I read my grandfather Richard’s copy of The Arctic Wolf: Living with the Pack by Dave Mech.”
Heinzel said she will use the funding to study conservation genetics research on wolves in the Great Lakes region (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan).
“I will be working in Dr. Kristin Brzeski’s lab at Michigan Technological University using genetic sequencing to estimate baseline genetic variation, ancestry, relatedness, inbreeding, and gene flow of gray wolves,” she said. “My statistics degree will come in handy when the genotyping is complete and RStudio is used to analyze the data for peer-reviewed publication. It is important to establish a baseline of regional gray wolf population structure and genetic health prior to any new management action in the state of Michigan.”
The mission of the International Wolf Center is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. Since the Center’s founding in 1985 by Dr. Mech and others, it has sought to provide the latest scientific information about wolves to our members, visitors, program participants and the general public.
Mech is a Senior Research Scientist with the Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He has studied wolves and their prey since 1958, as well as several other species of wildlife.
Grizzer, an ambassador wolf at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, was euthanized Thursday, Jan. 27.
Contact: Grant Spickelmier, Executive Director
Office: 763-233-7132
[email protected]
New officers elected on International Wolf Center Board of Directors
There are new faces leading the International Wolf Center’s Board of Directors. At its meeting in December, the Center’s board elected two new officers.
The new chair of the Board of Directors is Judy Hunter.
Hunter is a retired CEO of a Girl Scout Council. She became involved with the International Wolf Center after moving to Minnesota and started volunteering in several areas, including its Alpha Legacy donor program. After she joined the Board of Directors in 2012, those opportunities expanded to include participation on the Development Committee and chairing the 2013 Symposium Task Force. She was co-chair of the 2018 International Wolf Symposium and is serving in the same capacity for the event in October 2022.
“I believe in our work providing education about wolves and believe we must help the next generation understand the environment and the role we play in its balance,” she said. “The Center has a staff, both professional and volunteer, who are dedicated to our mission. It is exciting to be an active part of the team.”
The board’s vice chair is now Rick Duncan, a Minneapolis-based attorney.
Duncan practices in the fields of environmental law, federal Indian law, and commercial litigation. He has extensive experience in the Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act, statutes critical to wolf conservation, and received the Sierra Club’s William O. Douglas Award in 2007. Duncan attended Yale Law School, and has been an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Hunter and Duncan replace two longtime officers for the International Wolf Center. Nancy Jo Tubbs served as the board chair since the 1990’s while Dr. L. David Mech, the founder of the Center, served as vice chair. Both remain on the Board of Directors and will serve as ex-officio members of the Executive Committee for the next year to aid in the transition.
New board member welcomed
The Center also welcomed a new board member, Madan Menon.
Menon, who lives in Milpitas, California, is the COO and a board member at Innovative International Acquisition Corp, (NASDAQ: IOAC), with a 17-year career in technology startups spanning multiple countries. He specializes in building companies from the ground up, having successfully built over six companies across India, Singapore and the United States.
His love for animals from an early age had him build an interest in wildlife and conservation efforts. Outside of his work, Madan loves spending time with his family and enjoys trail running along with biking and swimming.
The International Wolf Center was founded in 1985. Its mission is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.
Spain: Cantabria government authorizes wolf cull
From Spanish News Today:
The shooting of 34 wolves is permitted in Cantabria after attacks cause the loss of over 1,000 head of livestock
The regional government of Cantabria in the north of Spain has passed a resolution to allow the culling by hunters of 34 wolves in the mountains in the north-west of the region, upsetting conservationists but pleasing cattle farmers as the eternal debate between the two points of view continues.
Click here for the full story.