By Adolph Murie - The Wolves of Mount McKinley (1985-04-16) [Paperback]

Originally published in 1944, The Wolves of Mount McKinley is the first serious ecological study of wolves and their relationships with other species in their natural environment.In the early 1930s the Dall Sheep population in McKinley National Park, now since renamed Denali National Park, underwent a serious decline in numbers. At the time predation by wolves was believed to be the cause, and in an era where predator control was a common practice by the National Park Service Murie was assigned to study the wolf-sheep relationship in order to gain the information needed to support any wildlife management decisions.The results of this study were initially not well received as they ran contrary to popular belief - it not only indicated that the decline in sheep numbers was not caused by wolf predation, but additionally highlighted the fact that predators play a valuable role in ecosystem management. It ultimately enabled park managers to eliminate predator control and come to embrace the wolf population within the park, and to this day it remains one of the most frequently cited references on wolf biology.