PUBLIC INVITED TO HEAR RENOWNED WOLF RESEARCHER IN LANDER AND CHEYENNE

4/2/2004

JACKSON – Renowned wolf researcher, L. David Mech, will be speaking May 4 at the Pronghorn Lodge in Lander and  vMay 5 at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne. The free lectures begin at 7 p.m. and are hosted by the Wyoming Chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Mech is an internationally recognized wolf expert who has conducted landmark research on the species. In addition to the many scientific papers, Mech has published nine books on wolves, including the newly released, “Wolves - Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation” published by the University of Chicago Press. 

As one of the wolf experts chosen to review Wyoming’s proposed wolf management plan, Mech supported the proposed plan and dual classification in the Cowboy State.

Mech has studied wolves as a wildlife research biologist for the U.S. Department of the Interior since 1970, specializing in wolf ecology and behavior, predator-prey relations and population regulation. Mech has also served as a wildlife professor at the University of Minnesota since 1979 and is currently a senior research scientist and team leader of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center’s wolf project. He is continuing his wolf research with current projects looking at relationships between wild prey nutrition and predation of livestock and the biology of restored wolf populations.  

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his doctorate from Purdue in 1962.

                Mech has received numerous Wildlife Society awards, including the “Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Service to Wildlife Conservation.” In addition, Mech was recently awarded “Natural Resources Researcher of the Year” by the National Park Service. 

(Editor: Photo of L. David Mech available by emailing  jeff.obrecht@wgf.state.wy.us.)

-WGFD-