Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

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Koa
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Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by Koa » Thu Dec 22, 2016 4:27 pm

Update: I have removed the deadline, but I am still accepting questions! Again, I will be responsible for screening, so just post a question and I will figure out whether or not it has been asked before. I provided the guidelines to encourage users to ask unique questions, but it seems it may act as a deterrent. :frog:

Hello everyone. I have been wanting to do this for awhile, and now that exams are over, I have the time to set this up.
Basically, I'd like to send Dr. David Mech a few questions as a student since I don't exactly qualify as a member of the media (and my newspaper could care less about wolves, haha). I have included the guidelines for sending Dr. Mech questions below:
Interviews

Students

E-mail up to 5 numbered questions, along with date needed.

Media

I can grant interviews for up to 15 minutes; email first to see when I will be in, and if feasible, include numbered questions to minimize phone time. There may be some flexibility depending on various circumstances. It never does any harm to ask.
http://www.davemech.org/interviews.html

However, I'd like some help in figuring what questions to ask, so I decided this would be a good opportunity to include the community. Though this may not be as exciting as, let's say, a live Q&A, I thought this would be a decent alternative to get some answers from one of the world's most renowned wolf experts.

I do not know if, by students, he means those only at the University of Minnesota, but I am more than happy to use my college and status as a student to see if I can get some answers for you all. We shall see how this goes and I hope it is a success.

The objective of this thread is to use the community as a source for questions and get the community engaged. While all questions are welcomed, I'd like to set some guidelines of my own for posting questions to send to Dr. Mech.
Before posting on this thread, you need to ensure a few things:
I. the question you are going to ask is either related to wolves or to Dr. Mech
II. the question you are going to ask has not been answered in Wolf Q&A or any live chat with an expert before
III. the question you are going to ask cannot be answered by any current scientific study
IV the question you are going to ask, if related to Dr. Mech, has not been answered on his website, in any biographical works, or in any interviews
Each user is limited to asking two questions. If a few days pass and I find that I need more questions, I will waive that limitation.

I will do my best to screen all the questions that come in. Personally, I'd like the ratio of questions to be four questions related to wolves and one question related to Dr. Mech.

How do you think I should decide what questions to choose? I would like to do a poll and put questions that I have screened on the poll so the community has the final say , but I am not sure how well that would work.

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by La Striata » Wed Jan 04, 2017 7:06 am

If it is eventually found out that the red wolf is in fact a distinct species, wouldn't it still make more sense from a phylogenetic perspective to class it as a specialised large bodied form of coyote with some superficial wolf like traits due to convergent evolution?
I cannot see that wolves are in any way nobler in character than hyenas- Frederick Selous

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by Nor-easter Forecast » Wed Jan 04, 2017 11:02 am

What is your understanding of the stress levels wolves experience from low-flying research aircraft and, if they are significant, what efforts are being made to develop and use alternative methods in order to collect critical aerial data?

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by Koa » Wed Jan 04, 2017 1:46 pm

La Striata wrote:If it is eventually found out that the red wolf is in fact a distinct species, wouldn't it still make more sense from a phylogenetic perspective to class it as a specialised large bodied form of coyote with some superficial wolf like traits due to convergent evolution?
Good question. I am very curious to see what Dr. Mech has to say about red wolves and their coyote/wolf admixture.

Lobo Laughing wrote:What is your understanding of the stress levels wolves experience from low-flying research aircraft and, if they are significant, what efforts are being made to develop and use alternative methods in order to collect critical aerial data?
Great question, Lobo! I had never thought about that before.

Thank you both for your questions. I am still accepting more submissions, if other users are interested!

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by SolitaryHowl » Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:07 pm

I'm interested, I just can't think of any questions! Haha! The ones asked are great ones, I'm especially interested to hear how much aerial research stresses wolves (or not)
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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by Koa » Fri Jun 30, 2017 6:03 am

Does anyone else have any questions? I'd still like to do this.

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by La Striata » Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:28 am

Considering the tiger-wolf situation in Russia's far east, won't the natural expansion of Jaguars into the southeastern US pose problems for them expansion and increase of endangered Mexican wolf populations?
I cannot see that wolves are in any way nobler in character than hyenas- Frederick Selous

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Re: Interviewing Dr. David Mech [Deadline removed]

Post by Pepper » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:11 am

I would love to hear more about Dr. Mech's thoughts on the current status of wolves and what protections he thinks are necessary (or not) going forward. I know he supported removing wolves from the Endangered Species Act because they met the recovery goals.
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