Adolph Murie

Adolph Murie
Adolph Murie on Muldrow Glacier, 1939, Denali National Park
Born	September 6, 1899 Moorhead, Minnesota
Died	August 16, 1974 (1974-08-17) (aged 74) Moose, Wyoming
Occupation	author, ecologist, forester, wildlife biologist, and
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Subject	Conservation, Wilderness Preservation, Animal Behaviors
Notable works	Wolves of Mount McKinley, A Naturalist in Alaska
Spouse	Louise Murie

Adolph Murie (September 6, 1899 – August 16, 1974), the first scientist to study wolves in their natural habitat, was a naturalist, author, and Wildlife biologist who pioneered field research on wolves, bears, and other mammals and birds in Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska. He was also instrumental in protecting wolves from eradication and in preserving the biological integrity of the Denali National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Adolf Winstrom was born on September 6, 1899, in Moorhead, Minnesota, the child of Ed and Marie Winstrom. In 1922, prior to completing college, Adolph Murie joined his brother, Olaus Murie, on an expedition to Mt. McKinley National Park, the first of many trips he would make to Alaska to do biological research. Murie received a Bachelor’s Degree from Concordia College, and attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1929. He subsequently worked on projects for the university’s Zoology Museum, among other things doing research on mammals in Guatemala and British Honduras.

In 1934, Adolph Murie went to work for the Wildlife Division of the National Park Service. In total, he would spend the better part of thirty-two years working for the National Park Service and earned the National Park Service Distinguished Service Award. In 1937, Murie conducted a study of coyotes in Yellowstone National Park, published as Ecology of the Coyote in Yellowstone. This book set off a storm of controversy within the Service, and represents one of the first studies published that argued against the Service’s long tradition of predator eradication. In 1939, the National Park Service assigned Murie to assess the relationship between the Dall sheep and the wolf in the Mt. McKinley area. The resulting book, The Wolves of Mt. McKinley, is considered a classic, especially given the detailed field observations which Murie spent hours collecting from 1939-1941, including the discovery that wolves ate mice. The publication of these two works led directly to the termination of the predator eradication programs in Yellowstone and Mt. McKinley national parks. He based himself in 1939 at Sanctuary River Cabin No. 31, in Denali park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.