The rise of wolf 8, p.1
The Rise of Wolf 8, page 1
Praise for The Rise of Wolf 8
“[McIntyre] spins the best stories about wolves that anyone will ever tell, ever.”
DOUGLAS W. SMITH, senior wildlife biologist and project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project
“Rick McIntyre’s book, The Rise of Wolf 8, has no match in literature. He presents the personal lives of wild wolves in a riveting narrative without equal for its detail and insight. This work took decades of devotion and consumed most of his life. We are so fortunate that we can, through this book, share the ride.”
ROLF PETERSON, Michigan Technological University, author of The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance
“Rick McIntyre knows more about Yellowstone’s wolves than anyone living or dead. This book is a must-read and a treasure for anyone who loves the places where wolves howl.”
THOMAS D. MANGELSEN, nature photographer and conservationist
“To follow the ever-changing destinies of the Yellowstone wolves is to witness a real-life drama, complete with acts of bravery, tragedy, sacrifice, and heroism.”
JIM AND JAMIE DUTCHER, founders of Living with Wolves
“The stories of the different pack members are reminiscent of Ernest Thompson Seton’s animal characters, but these wolves were and are from real life, and what they reveal will become a classic study in animal behavior.”
BERND HEINRICH, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Vermont and author of Mind of the Raven
“Rick McIntyre is a fabulous researcher. He dedicated his life to documenting the histories of generations of wolves in Yellowstone. I envy the hours he has spent in the field talking to people about wolves and tracking the wolves’ movements in the most beautiful country in the world.”
SCOTT FRAZIER, director of Project Indigenous, Crow/Santee
“Yellowstone’s resident wolf guru Rick McIntyre has been many things to many people: an expert tracker for the park’s biologists, an indefatigable roadside interpreter for visitors, and an invaluable consultant to countless chronicles of the park’s wolves—including my own. But he is first and foremost a storyteller whose encyclopedic knowledge of Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction project—now in its 25th year—is unparalleled.”
NATE BLAKESLEE, author of American Wolf
“This book clearly demonstrates that these apex predators are an essential ingredient for maintaining the integrity of the diverse ecosystems in which they live. The Rise of Wolf 8 is a must-read—one to which I will return many times—for anyone interested in wolves and the natural world. Wolves (and humans) are lucky to have Rick McIntyre.”
MARC BEKOFF, PhD, University of Colorado (Boulder), author of Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence and Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do.
“Rick McIntyre knows and understands the wolves in much the same way that a traditional Native would. He knows their birthdates and birthplaces, their family and their family history, their personalities, preferences, strengths and weaknesses, their character or lack thereof. In other words, he knows them as individuals—and not just as subjects for scientific study. He KNOWS them.”
JOHN POTTER, wildlife artist, Anishinabe
“This book’s contribution to wolf biology is immense, for scientists as well as for wolf lovers.”
LUIGI BOITANI, honorary professor, Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Rome
“No one I know of has watched wild wolves longer or more closely than Rick McIntyre.”
ED BANGS, former US Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator for the Northern Rockies
RICK MCINTYRE
Foreword by ROBERT REDFORD
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties. . . . Animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies . . . when playing together, like our own children.”
CHARLES DARWIN, THE DESCENT OF MAN (1871)
“[Your studies of] chimpanzees made us see them as individuals and have empathy for them.”
STEPHEN COLBERT TO JANE GOODALL (2014)
CONTENTS
Principal Wolves
Map of Northeast Yellowstone National Park
Foreword by Robert Redford
Prologue
1.Wolf Interpreter
2.Wolves Arrive in Yellowstone
3.My First Wolf Sighting
4.The Little Wolf and the Big Grizzly Bear
5.The Rose Creek and Crystal Creek Pens
6.The Rose Creek Wolves Get a New Alpha Male
7.The Arrival of the Druids
8.A New Pack Is Formed
9.Getting to Know 8’s Family
10.The Battle of Slough Creek
11.The Games Pups Play
12.Den Troubles for the Rose Creek Wolves
13.Druid and Leopold Pups
14.Romeo and Juliet in Yellowstone
15.When 21 Met 42
16.A New Era for the Druids
17.The Character of a Wolf
18.The Chief Joseph Pack
19.Family Life with the Druids
20.The Spring of 1999
21.Life at the Druid Den
22.Moving On to the Rendezvous Site
23.The Stubborn Pup
24.The Druid Yearling Comes into His Own
25.My First Yellowstone Winter
26.December in Yellowstone
27.The Battle of Specimen Ridge
Epilogue: Nemesis
Afterword by Douglas W. Smith
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
References and Suggested Resources
Index
PRINCIPAL WOLVES
THESE FAMILY TREES cover the numbered wolves in the packs that feature most prominently in this book: Crystal Creek, Rose Creek, and Druid Peak. Numbers in triangles indicate male wolves and numbers in circles indicate female wolves.
Crystal Creek Pack
The alpha pair, alpha male 4 and alpha female 5, arrived in Yellowstone in January 1994, along with their four male pups. The family was from Alberta.
Rose Creek Pack
A mother and daughter, 9 and 7, arrived in Yellowstone in January 1995, and were introduced to lone male wolf 10. The three wolves were all from Alberta. 9 and 10 formed a pair bond, and 7 dispersed to become the alpha female of the first new pack to be formed in Yellowstone: the Leopold pack. Wolf 2 from the Crystal Creek pack joined her to become the Leopold pack’s first alpha male.
In addition to the five pups identified by number in the family tree above, the litter of 1995 included three more male pups.
Druid Peak Pack
A mother, 39, and her three daughters, 40, 41, and 42, arrived in Yellowstone in January 1996 and were introduced to lone male wolf 38. All five wolves were from British Columbia. Later that year, the five Druids were joined by a young male, wolf 31, who is thought to have come from the same pack in British Columbia as their alpha male, 38. Although 38 and 39 were the alpha pair, they did not produce any pups together. Wolf 38 did produce pups with two of 39’s daughters, 41 and 42.
Wolf 163 was born into this pack in 1998. His mother was likely 40. To find out who his father was, you will need to read on.
FOREWORD
AMERICA’S WILDNESS HAS always fed our souls and inspired our dreams. For many, wolves are the undisputed icons of nature, independence, and freedom. For others, wolves are considered a threat to livestock, their families, and their future.
Writer and biologist Rick McIntyre has a compelling story to tell. It begins in 1926, when park rangers shot the last of these apex predators in Yellowstone. Few people at the time mourned the loss.
Yet as wolves continued a sharp decline throughout the US (eventually landing them on the threatened and endangered species list), a movement took hold, and thirty-one wolves were eventually reintroduced back into the park in the mid-1990s. Decades later this bold wildlife restoration is considered the most successful ever undertaken.
McIntyre picks up the tale from there, sharing his journey of passion and dedication, adventure and perseverance, as he observed these packs returning to their native lands. He has spent those years hiking into the backcountry, filling thousands of pages with meticulous notes, and setting up roadside scopes for travelers from all over the world who have come to see and learn more about these creatures.
In particular wolf 8, one of the very first to roam free, captures his attention and his heart, and grows into the main character in this narrative.
Through McIntyre’s eyes, we witness and learn about wolves as unique individuals living with breathtaking intensity—and it’s impossible not to be awed by their loyalties to each other, keen intelligence, and will to survive.
Given this intimate portrait, and the controversy that continues to surround wolves, we’re left to wonder how to balance their important role in the ecosystem with the interests of people whose lives they cross when they step beyond the protection of the park.
There are no easy answers, but I believe also that there is no limit to human ingenuity if we are truly seeking solutions. Information and data are vital, but so are stories that help us empathize with wolves. Both can inspire and inform decisions for the future. This terrific book presents them side by side and gives us the chance to decide for ourselves . . . itself a sacred act of American freedom.
ROBERT REDFORD
Sundanc
PROLOGUE
THE STORY TOLD in this book is an epic one, filled with heroes and heroines who struggle to survive and defend their families. A story that includes all the elements of a great tale: warfare, betrayal, murder, bravery, compassion, empathy, loyalty—and an unexpected hero. It is a story that deserves to be told by a literary genius such as Shakespeare, Homer, or Dickens. None of those writers was available.
If Shakespeare had written a play about these characters and their lives, he might have invented a prologue set at a wolf den, deep within a forest. The scene might have looked something like this. Three male pups, all jet black, run out of the den and begin playing in a meadow. Each of the black pups looks robust and strong. Then a fourth pup tumbles out, the smallest of the litter. This pup looks totally different from his brothers for he is a dull gray color, more like a coyote than a wolf.
Then a huge black wolf strides onto the scene. This is the pack’s alpha male, the father of the four pups. The black coats of the three larger brothers indicate that they are going to look just like their father, and their stoutness implies they will someday equal or even surpass him in size and strength. The gray pup, it is clear, will never look anything like his father and will never be as impressive.
Shakespeare might then have had a narrator voice a prophecy:
Three of these young sons will become mighty alpha males, control vast territories, and have many sons and daughters.
Looking at the three husky black pups, it is easy to imagine which of the four sons will become successful alpha males. Then the narrator adds:
But one son will die young and in great disgrace.
At that point the undersized gray pup trips over his own legs and falls on his face in the dust.
Finally, the narrator makes one final, cryptic pronouncement:
One of these sons is destined to be considered greater than the greatest wolf who ever lived.
This book will tell the story of two wolves: the greatest wolf who ever lived and the one that was greater than him.
1
Wolf Interpreter
THE FOUR MALE pups described in the prologue were born in the spring of 1994 in Alberta, Canada, east of Jasper National Park. Their family was known locally as the Petite Lake pack. At that time, I was in the extreme southern part of the United States, working as a seasonal naturalist for the National Park Service at Big Bend National Park in west Texas, the most remote national park in the lower forty-eight states. As I drove toward an abandoned Depression-era ranch near the Rio Grande river, where I was to lead a tour for park visitors on local history, I tried to figure out how to get around a major setback in my life.
The previous day I had received a call from Tom Tankersley, the assistant chief naturalist at Yellowstone National Park. We had an understanding that I would have a job that spring at Yellowstone as the park’s wolf interpreter, and I would specialize in giving talks about the possibility of reintroducing wolves into the park. I would be the world’s only official wolf interpreter. But Tom had called to tell me that government funding had not come through for this new position, and the offer would have to be rescinded. He was sorry, but it could not be helped.
As I continued driving through the desert landscape, I tried to come up with a plan to save that position. I passionately supported reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone, and I felt with my previous experience with wolves while working for the National Park Service in Alaska that I could help win acceptance for the proposal. Beyond that, I had a gut feeling that I just had to be there. A door had been closed, and I had to find another way through.
An inspiration suddenly came to me. I led the walk, then rushed home and called Tom. I had a proposition: What if the position could be privately funded? After a few moments of silence, Tom said he would check. He called back the next day to say there did not seem to be any regulations prohibiting private funding, so my idea might work. He gave me an estimate of how much would be needed for the four-month position and a deadline for having the money in an account managed by the Yellowstone Association, the nonprofit that handled donations for the park.
After thanking Tom and finishing the call, the reality of my situation set in. How were we going to get that much funding? By my standards at the time, it was a lot. Fortunately, I was about to leave on a lecture tour to publicize my recent book, A Society of Wolves, and I would be speaking to several large groups in California. The timing was ideal.
It turned out that I was lousy at explaining the situation. I had trouble clearly stating why Yellowstone needed funding for the wolf interpreter position. In my first talk, in a Southern California community, I mumbled a few words about how people could support Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction proposal. If anyone wanted to help, they could speak to me after the program. No one did. Then I drove north to San Francisco to give a talk at the California Academy of Sciences. The deadline Tom had given me was a few days away. I knew this would be my largest audience, and if my plan was going to work, it had to happen there or I would have to give up on going to Yellowstone.
Four hundred and fifty people showed up. I managed to make a slightly more coherent explanation of the Yellowstone wolf story and how people could help. After the program, a crowd gathered around me, and several people asked about funding the position. A few made small pledges. I was grateful for their contributions, but as I added them up in my head, I knew that I was nowhere near the goal I needed to reach.
A young couple stood there quietly, listening to what I was saying. I sensed they had to leave. The man stepped forward, handed me his business card, and said that they would like to help. He told me to look at the back of the card. I did and saw that he had pledged $12.50. I thanked him and said I would let him know when I reached my goal. Other people asked me wolf questions. As the couple walked off, I took another look at the back of that card and saw my mistake. The pledge was not for $12.50. It was for $1,250. With previous pledges, that amount would bring me close to the figure Tom needed.
That was the moment I knew the Yellowstone job was going to happen. I excused myself from the people gathered around me and ran off to find that couple. They were still nearby. Feeling somewhat awkward, I asked if I had read the back of the card correctly. The man, Gary, modestly told me I had. He introduced me to his companion, Trish. We talked about wolves and Yellowstone, and I thanked them for their generosity. The next day I called Tom and told him we had enough funding for the job. We set a starting date and began to plan how the new position would be structured.
I packed up, left Big Bend the first week of May, and started to drive north toward Yellowstone. It would be a trip of about fifteen hundred miles, and I planned on doing it in three days. As I drove through hundreds of miles of barren west Texas countryside toward New Mexico, I had plenty of time to think about how events in my life had led to this new assignment.
I WAS BORN in Lowell, Massachusetts, and spent my first ten years in the nearby small rural town of Billerica. We lived in a renovated schoolhouse on Concord Road. A farm was across the street and the surrounding land was full of woods, ponds, brooks, and fields. It was wild country, the perfect place for a kid like me. Looking back, I feel I had an idyllic childhood there.
It was the 1950s and, to use a modern term, we were free-range kids. On summer days and weekends during the school year I would go wherever I wanted in the outdoors, either alone or with other guys in the neighborhood. Some days it was fishing in one of the local ponds, other days it was just walking in the woods. Sometimes it was biking along the endless back roads in our town. The common thread was being outdoors, and as I spent more and more time out there, I became increasingly fascinated with wildlife. I was drawn to the small fish in the brook behind our house and would occasionally catch some of them and keep them in a small aquarium. I found turtles even more intriguing, and I put a lot of thought and experimentation into figuring out how to catch them. After examining one, I always released it.
I recently heard astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson say, “All kids are scientists.” That triggered a memory of something I did back then. The farm across the street had two dogs: Rex and Shepy. Like all farm dogs, they were never tied up and did whatever they wanted. I noticed that most mornings Shepy would walk off into the woods and come back late in the day, just like I often did. I wondered what he was doing out there, so one morning when I saw him set out, I followed him and watched as he wandered through the woods and fields, investigating various scent trails. He was exploring the country, much as I had been doing. We were kindred spirits. That day was a preview of how I would eventually study wolves in Alaska and Yellowstone many decades later.
