Researcher explains beginnings of Isle Royale wolf-moose study "Wolf Island," a new book by renowned wolf researcher L. David Mech, highlights the start of the now famous Isle Royale predator/prey study back in 1958. 7:00 am, Dec. 15, 2020 × Wolf researcher Dave Mech poses with 18 of the moose jawbones he collected in the winter of 1960 as part of early research on Isle Royale into the predator/prey relationship between wolves and moose. (Photo courtesy University of Minnesota Press) DULUTH -- Dave Mech wrote the book on wolf research, literally, back in 1970, and has just kept going ever since. Renowned as among the most influential wolf biologists worldwide, Mech, set the bar 50 years ago with the book “The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species” that became the bible for wolf researchers everywhere. Wolf research was picking up in earnest as more attention was being paid to a newly protected species that had been hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in the Lower 48 states.