Admissions at Northland
Northland College Wolf Research Team
The
Wolf Research Team is a course at Northland College led by Psychology
Professor Jack Stewart. This class allows students to gain valuable
research experience, as well as knowledge of wolf biology and
behavior. The students are divided into small groups that work
together in the field. Each group of researchers is assigned a
wolf pack from northern Wisconsin whose movements they study and
report weekly. Students learn how to perform tracking and howling
surveys, as well as how to use radio-telemetry to locate and monitor
the pack they are studying.
Read below for one student’s experience on the Northland College wolf Research Team:
Senior Jenn Rykowski came for the wolves. The South Beloit, Wisconsin, native remembers her first exposure to Northland College back when she was in high school. “I had always been interested in animal behavior,” she says. “In high school, I got tons of recruiting information from lots of colleges, but I never saw anything as in-depth and hands-on as the Wolf Research Team at Northland. It caught my eye right away, and I knew then that's what I wanted to do.”
Since winter term her freshman year, Rykowski has been active in the Psychology Program's Wolf Research Team, a two-credit course offered each term that requires six hours of fieldwork per week, plus team meetings, lab work, and data analysis. Team members are divided into pack study groups, each learning the health, behavior, and social structure of certain wolf packs in the nearby Chequamegon National Forest. Their tools: ground tracking, howling surveys, scat sampling, radio telemetry, and GPS technology.
Rykowski has worked with the Rainbow Lake pack, one of the over 90 wolf packs in the state, for the past three and a half years, and now knows the animals and their habits well. Even after all these years on the Wolf Research Team, she still relishes the chance to get out tracking, though there are never any guaranteed rewards for her labor.
She laughs when thinking back to her first year as a Northland College student. “I used to be so shy,” she says. “I'm still a quiet person, but I've definitely grown and gained a lot of confidence, both on the Wolf Research Team and through many other classes and experiences at Northland College.”
As a Wolf Research Team veteran, she now finds herself in a leadership role for younger and less experienced students. “There are many types of leaders, but my philosophy is to set an example by stepping up and getting things done,” she says. “It's also important to me that there be camaraderie and fellowship in the work that we're doing. We're all here for the same reason, and sharing that mission is wonderful. Jack has set a great example, and has been amazing to work with. He's not the type of professor to sit in his office and give orders—he goes out in the field with us and celebrates the work we do. I consider him a supporter, mentor and friend.”
Go to Northland College Wolf Research Team homepage