Posts by: Jeremy Bruskotter
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell received two letters today from conservation scientists criticizing a draft Rule that would remove protections for wolves across the lower 48 states. One letter came from the American Society of Mammalogists, the other from 16 conservation scientists. Signatories include several scientists who conducted the research the government relied upon [...]
Continue Reading →In an op-ed published in the New York Times yesterday, researchers from Michigan Technological University and Oregon State University advocated for the genetic rescue of the island’s wolf population:
As the lead researchers in the study of wolves and moose, we favor conservation or reintroduction. But more important than our view is the reasoning behind [...]
Continue Reading →On the 1st of May, Drs. John Vucetich and Rolf Peterson submitted written testimony in opposition to Michigan’s plan for a public harvest of gray wolves. I was asked to provide feedback on early versions of this text, and received permission to post the final version here. My hope is that it will generate some [...]
Continue Reading →Recent discussions about how wolves are portrayed in the news media got me thinking about public attention to this issue, generally. Is the wolf issue heating up or cooling down following their removal from federal protections? I used Google Trends, a tool for examining the content of web searches over time to see how issue [...]
Continue Reading →After the horrific tragedy in Newtown Connecticut, ecologist and animal advocate Marc Bekoff penned an essay in which he argued that “cruelty, violence and warlike behaviors in other animals are extremely rare” (Humanlike Violence is Not Seen in Other Animals). As evidence, Bekoff relies heavily on an essay by John Horgan critiquing [...]
Continue Reading →This past October, I helped organize a symposium entitled “Carnivore conservation in human-dominated systems: Ecological, ethical and social dimensions” at the EcoSummit conference here in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the symposium was to bring together international scholars from several disciplines to examine the ecological, ethical and social dimensions of carnivore conservation in [...]
Continue Reading →The idea that wolves and other large carnivores cause a “trophic cascade” through their impact on elk has been challenged by a number of recent publications. Last week another study was released that puts a dent in the notion– it suggests human activities, not large predators, are primarily responsible for elk vigilance in human-dominated landscapes.
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Continue Reading →The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park turned the nation’s most prominent national park into a laboratory of sorts, whereby scientists could document and measure the effect of wolves on a variety of other species. Since their return, dozens of studies have been published purporting to show some effect of wolves on some other [...]
Continue Reading →This past September my colleagues (S.A. Enzler & A. Treves) and I published an article arguing that the public trust doctrine could provide a legal means to force protection of wolves were state policies found lacking (Bruskotter et al., 30 Sept. 2011, p. 1828). This article prompted two recent replies published by Science last month [...]
Continue Reading →Researchers from Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University published a report this week detailing the results of a 2010 telephone survey of Michigan residents. In total, the study contacted 973 residents (95% confidence level +/- 3.2% margin of error). Eighty-two percent of residents agreed that wolves have value; only 16% disagreed with the statement, [...]
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