American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
A must read for anyone who enjoys watching the wolves in and around Yellowstone National Park, particularly if visiting the famous Lamar Valley or driving the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway just outside of Yellowstone’s Northeast entrance.
Suggested Readers: Wildlife Conservationists, Wolf Lovers, Hunters, National Park Enthusiasts, Activists
In an era when Americans seem divided over just about everything, author Nate Blakeslee examines one of the most polarized topics of American politics and conservation: the reintroduction, protection, and hunting of grey wolves. Perpetual targets of persecution throughout human history, government sponsored extermination programs nearly wiped out these predators from the lower 48 states in the 1900s. However, after the animal’s return to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, biologists witnessed a trophic cascade that produced one of the world’s healthiest ecosystems; decreased populations of beaver, grizzly bear, willow, fish, birds, and other plant and animal species rebounded. To this day, many regard the reintroduction of the gray wolf as one of the greatest success stories of wildlife conservation in history. The park also experienced a considerable uptick in visitors who now chased the opportunity to view one of the American West’s most iconic animals. However, as creatures of controversy, Blakeslee also provides an unbiased rendition of why so many view wolf reintroduction as a negative affair: smaller elk herds for subsistence and commercial hunters, livestock lost to wolf predation, and one more example of the federal government oppressing the self determination and spirit of the people making a living in the rural western America. Through the compelling testimonials of the hunter who shot and killed O-Six (Yellowstone’s most famous wolf), famed wolf biologists Rick McIntyre and Doug Smith, as well as avid Yellowstone wolf watchers Laurie Lyman and Doug McLaughlin, readers receive a firsthand account of how these dynamic predators instill such a strong passion within anyone that encounters them. By the book’s conclusion, the only remaining question is how you, the reader, views this symbolic species that unknowingly found itself as a centerpiece within America’s political theater.
Excerpt:
“Turnbull paused, uncertain. He had never seen an animal behave this way. The rifle’s deafening retort, the death of his comrade, the advancing hunter- the wolf should have been half a mile away by now. Then the black lifted his snout into the air and howled. It was a sound Turnbull had heard many times over the years but never like this, alone in the snow with the wolf a stone’s throw away. He stood still and listened, transfixed. The wolf howled again, longer and louder this time.
From the willows behind the black, more wolves began to emerge.
There had been no way of knowing for certain the size of the pack Turnbull was stalking. Now there seemed to be no end to them. They arrayed themselves in a loose semicircle around the black, all silently focused on the body of the gray, the snow beneath her torso now a bright red. Turnbull counted eleven in all. He instinctively dropped to one knee and raised the rifle. Wolves didn’t attack people; he knew that. But what did it matter what you knew or didn’t know when you were alone with eleven enormous predators? He’d seen what they could do to a five-hundred-pound elk. He glanced back at his truck. It was only 150 yards away, but it might as well have been a mile. If they came at him, he wouldn’t last sixty seconds.
The Black howled a third time, and suddenly they all joined in. Turnbull lowered the rifle and slowly rose to his feet. He stood there, agape, disarmed by the otherworldly sound, by the sheer overwhelming sadness of the cry. She was their leader, he thought. She wasn't just the black’s mate; she was the one they couldn’t do without, and that’s why they wouldn't leave.”
PUBLISHER: Crown/Archetype, 2017