L. David Mech
| L. David Mech | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 January 1937 Syracuse, New York, United States |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Biology, Ecology |
| Institutions |
University of Minnesota, U.S. Geological Survey |
| Alma mater |
Cornell University, Purdue University |
| Known for | Wolf ecology and behavior research |
|
Website davemech.org |
|
Lucyan David "Dave" Mech (born January 18, 1937) is an American wolf expert, a senior research scientist for the U.S. Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (since 1970), and an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. He has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale.
Mech is the founder of the International Wolf Center and sits on its Board of Directors as Vice Chair. The project to create the facility, which he started in 1985, was a natural outgrowth of his wolf research as well as his ambition to educate people about the nature of wolves that they may come to respect the creature through understanding.
He has published ten books and numerous articles about wolves and other wildlife, the most famous of these being his books The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species (1970, University of Minnesota Press) and Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation which he co-edited with Luigi Boitani (2003, University of Chicago Press). The 1997 book The Arctic Wolf: Ten Years with the Pack received an Honorable Mention by the National Outdoor Book Award (Nature and the Environment category). His latest book is Wolves on the Hunt: the Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey.
In 1964 Mech was a graduate student at Purdue University studying the wolves of Isle Royale in Lake Superior. One of the first publications on the subject of the Wolves on the Island of Isle Royale was the book "The Wolves of Isle Royale" by Mech which led to the prominence of both the author and the topic. The book was published in 1966 by the Department of the Interior, having evolved from his doctoral thesis. Mech has been called one of the foremost wildlife biologists in the world. In 1968 he went to study wolves in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota.
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