Audubon Magazine – Rugged, remote Isle Royale National Park sits in northern Lake Superior, 18 miles off the coast of mainland Ontario. Because of its isolation and the icy waters that surround it, the island—it’s actually a main island and roughly 400 surrounding smaller islands, islets, and rocks—has a unique, and sometimes hard to figure, ecological history. For instance, a mere third or so of the mammals that live in surrounding mainland forests are also found on Isle Royale. Its animal denizens include beavers, foxes, red squirrels, and woodland deer mice, but even the scientists who know this place best can’t explain how they all go there …

Desort’s fascinating film features interviews with the biologists, including Dave Mech, the eminent wolf biologist who, as a graduate student, assisted Allen; Rolf Peterson, spent nearly four decades of his professional life doing groundbreaking work on Isle Royale’s wolves and moose; and John Vucetich, who, in 2000, became Peterson’s partner and eventual successor. Desort also interviewed the pilots who, winter after winter, took to the skies over the snowy island to enable the researchers to observe the wolves.

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More information:

• Film Website: Fortunate Wilderness and Trailer.
• National Park Service: Isle Royale National Park.
• Related Stories (Audubon): “Inherit the Wound” (on Park’s wolf population and inbreeding), “the Long View” (feature on Isle Royale National Park).