For Immediate Release: August 13, 2009

Dr. Michael Soulé –Father of Conservation Biology –
Joins Project Coyote Advisory Board

Larkspur, CA — Dr. Michael Soulé — lauded as the father of conservation biology — has joined Project Coyote’s scientific advisory board. Known internationally for his work in conservation biology and carnivore conservation, Dr. Soulé has brought much attention to the important role coyotes and other top predators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems and species diversity.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Dr. Soulé join our growing professional team of conservation biologists and carnivore experts on our advisory board,” said Camilla Fox, Project Coyote Founding Director. “Among other significant research findings, Dr. Soulé and his graduate students showed that the absence or extirpation of coyotes can lead to ‘mesopredator release’ which can in turn have significant negative effects on avian and small vertebrate species.”

Dr. Soulé is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. He was born, raised, and educated in California. After spending much of his youth in the canyons, deserts, and intertidal of San Diego and Baja California, and after graduating from San Diego State, he went to Stanford to study population biology and evolution under Paul Ehrlich. Upon receiving his Ph.D. at Stanford, Dr. Soulé went to Africa to help found the first university in Malawi. He has also taught in Samoa, the Universities of California at both San Diego and Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan. He was Chair of the Environmental Studies Department at UCSC. He has done field work on insects, lizards, birds, and mammals in Africa, Mexico, the Adriatic, the West Indies, and in California and Colorado.

Dr. Soulé was a founder and first President of the Society for Conservation Biology and The Wildlands Project (also the current President). He has written and edited 9 books on biology, conservation biology, and the social and policy context of conservation. He has published more than 170 articles on population and evolutionary biology, fluctuating asymmetry, population genetics, island biogeography, environmental studies, biodiversity policy, nature conservation, and ethics. He continues to do research on ecosystem regulation by highly interactive species. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, is the sixth recipient of the Archie Carr Medal, was named by Audubon Magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century, is a recipient of the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award for science, the recipient of the Conservation Medal for 2007 from the Zoological Society of San Diego and in the first class of recipients of The Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award.

Now living in Colorado, Michael speaks and writes on ethics and conservation, and serves on the boards of several conservation organizations, including the Wildlands Network, and consults internationally on nature protection. He is completing a book about the origins and evolution of sin and how it can inform our understanding of human nature and guide conservation and related life-affirming movements.

To read more about Dr. Soulé’s work and publications, visit: www.michaelsoule.com.

Project Coyote seeks to create fundamental and systemic change in how coyotes and other native carnivores are viewed and treated in North America and is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute a, 501(c)3 organization. All donations to Project Coyote are tax deductible. Visit us online: www.ProjectCoyote.org