Nate Blakeslee

I was in Yellowstone in 2016 and saw wolf 755 and his new pups in the Hayden Valley. Learned about his story from our guide who used to work on the Wolf Project. I enjoyed reading this more detailed account of the wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone and hearing for the first time about the ugly political side to the whole thing. As an East coaster and a national park fan I had no idea that so many people hated wolves!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book, but I think this one probably has a somewhat limited audience.… (meer)

The only reason I'm not giving this book five stars is that the chapters on politics were irritating beyond belief. Because it seems all the attitudes, both pro and con, were based on optics and emotion, and not science or facts.

The book itself is well-written, well-researched, and very informative. The story of the Yellowstone wolves is a fascinating one. The author does a great job showing the animals and humans in all their individuality. There is no sentimentalizing here, just the portrayal of a complex species of apex predators in their natural environment, or as natural as it can be in a national park visited by millions of people.

I'm not anti-hunting, having lived for several years in Alaska where many people are subsistence hunters, and eat what they kill. I can understand, although don't always agree with, ranchers hunting to protect livestock. However, I do not understand trophy hunting. It is literally killing for the sake of killing, to have a head or a hide on the wall where someone else might hang art. This is not a thing to be proud of. Shooting an animal with a long distance weapon like a rifle is nothing close to 'fair chase,' no matter how much a hunter tries to justify it. Without need, without risk, there is no fair chase. So despite Blakeslee's attempt to portray the killer of wolf 0-six in a neutral light, I ended up despising him.

The concept of trophic cascade, how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone ended up improving the entire ecosystem, is fascinating, and I would have been interested to learn more about that.

I have seen wolves at a distance in Canada and Alaska. Once, in Katmai National Park, I happened to be alone on a short trail through the woods. The group of people ahead of me had turned a corner and were briefly out of sight. A gray wolf stepped out of the trees onto the trail ahead, between myself and the rest of the group. It wore a research collar and stood still, looking at me, perhaps twenty feet away. I stopped, not wanting to get closer, but also aware that the group was getting farther away. We looked at each other for several moments before the wolf disappeared back into the woods. Although the encounter wasn't frightening, I was definitely aware of being in the presence of an intelligent predator. It had a completely different feeling than one gets from a dog.… (meer)