Adolph Murie

Adolph Murie (September 6, 1899 – August 16, 1974), the first scientist to study wolves in their natural habitat,

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.^[6] 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.^[4] In 1939, the National Park Service assigned Murie to assess the relationship between the Dall sheep and the wolf in the Mount 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 to 1941, including the discovery that wolves ate mice.^[7] The publication of these two works led directly to the termination of the predator eradication programs in Yellowstone and Mount McKinley national parks.^[4] He based himself in 1939 at Sanctuary River Cabin No. 31, in Denali park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Service, research and wildlife organizations

Along with his brother, Olaus, Murie helped to enlarge existing national park boundaries and to create additional new units, notably the Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943 (it was upgraded to national park status several years later, then incorporated into the Grand Teton National Park).

Murie's book, A Naturalist in Alaska, won the John Burroughs Medal in 1963. In addition to his books, Murie published numerous articles against predator control programs and excessive human intrusion on wilderness areas. He wrote letters and submitted testimony to Congress regarding Isle Royale, Jackson Hole, Mount McKinley, and other wilderness areas threatened by development or predator control programs, including an article against pesticide use in Grand Teton National Park in 1966.

Legacy

Adolph Murie suffered from epilepsy and died from a seizure on August 16, 1974, at the STS Ranch,^[8] now part of the Murie Ranch Historic District in Moose, Wyoming. The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998,^[9] and the house and grounds are the headquarters for the Murie Center, a non-profit organization which, in partnership with Grand Teton National Park, engages people to understand and commit to conserving wildlife and wild places—the same values to which the Muries dedicated their lives.^[10]

In 1976 the

The Murie Science and Learning Center in

• Birds of Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska
  LCCN 64-7158
• The ecological relationship of two subspecies of Peromyscys in the Glacier park region (Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1933)
  LCCN a430-3482
• Fauna of the national parks of the United States. Ecology of the coyote in the Yellowstone (Washington, U.S. Govt. print office, 1940)
  LCCN 41-50357
• Following fox trails (Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan press, 1936)
  LCCN 37-27580
• The Wolves of Mount McKinley (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985)
  ISBN 0-295-96203-8
• The Grizzlies of Mount McKinley (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985)
  ISBN 0-295-96204-6
• Mammals from Guatemala and British Honduras (Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan press, 1935)
  LCCN 35-28361
• Mammals of Denali (Alaska Natural History Association, 1994)
  ISBN 0-930931-12-2
• The moose of Isle Royale (Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan press, 1934)
  LCCN 34-27764
• A naturalist in Alaska (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990)
  ISBN 0-8165-1168-3