Living with Wolves

Please check out this new website about wolves and mark it for future reference. I may quiz you on the contents sometime soon: http://livingwithwolves.org/

About these Photos: In the photo immediately above, wolf biologists Rick McIntyre and friends are watching the beginnings of an elk hunt, perhaps the first ever, by a newly-formed pack of young wolves from two older packs in Yellowstone. These youngsters came together into an open territory—the first time, according to the biologists, that such an event has occurred in Yellowstone since the U.S. government and the treaty tribes reintroduced wolves back in the day. On the far right in green is my friend, John Daniel, the author of a new book of essays (The Far Corner) who may come to visit us. He has his hands in his pockets and appears a bit bored because it's time for his walk, and I don't want to leave. I've been watching the wolves for over an hour. I've seen them running the elk to test the herd, and now I suspect they might try for a kill, and, of course, they do. What's more, they succeed, which makes me very happy. It makes the young pack happy, too. It's the week of Thanksgiving 2009, after all, about 4:00 p.m. and so I tell John to leave me and go for his walk and then watch the wolves romp and play and eat.

The photo at the top shows the scene the biologists were viewing through their very powerful scopes. These scientists study the Yellowstone wolves every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. What's more, they lend tourists like me their scopes so I can see what's going on over there across the valley more than a mile away. Even better: they talk in code to each other and explain what I'm seeing. That's part of their jobs, too—educating a woefully ignorant American public about wolves.