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Field Notes

The High Arctic 2001

The High Arctic 2006

Aylmer Lake, Northwest Territories-2001

Aylmer Lake, Northwest Territories-2002

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park
Left: Map of Lamar Valley region of Yellowstone National Park

Journal Entries
   March 17th |  March 18th |  March 19th |  March 20th |  March 21st |  March 22nd |  March 23rd

Day 1 - Sunday, March 17, 2002
Cooke City, Montana Elevation 7,300 feet
Weather: Near zero morning temperatures and snow-laden cloud cover.

6:00 AM: Led by Nancy Gibson, International Wolf Center board member and naturalist, eight members of the Center's wolf observation party loaded up their gear along with a day's supply of trail mix and high expectations and headed into Yellowstone National Park. The plan for the day called for meeting naturalist and wolf field research specialist, Rick McIntyre. Accomplished wildlife photographer and author, Rick has logged countless hours observing and tracking the actions of Yellowstone's wolves.

bison Within minutes, the party paused to watch a variety of wildlife foraging through the deep snow of the Lamar Valley, including bison, mountain sheep and, rare to the north side of the park, a cow moose. By 6:45, however, the party had their spotting scopes and camera lenses focused on the alpha male and female of the Druid Pack. Along with two yearlings, the wolves were moving just within the tree line on the north slope of the Lamar Valley. Their route took them within yards of two bison that held their ground as the wolves passed by, apparently with no interest. (Bison, especially healthy bulls, are rare targets of wolf predation.)

By 7:10 this four-member subset of the main Druid pack had bedded down in the snow pack on the exposed north slope of the valley. As Rick McIntyre explained, the radio collared female, Wolf # 42, is pregnant with a litter of pups expected the first week of April. After a brief chorus of howls, the four wolves were up and moving again by 9:30AM. elkThey headed up the slope to the sparsely wooded ridgeline, drawing the fixed attention of a bull elk that stopped and pensively monitored the wolves' movements. Having now joined the party of observers, distinguished wolf biologist and International Wolf Center founder, Dave Mech, discussed some emerging theories of the forces that regulate the relationships of wolves and elk, relationships that have evolved over the thousands of years that the two have coexisted. Mech explained how difficult and dangerous it is for wolves to attack and kill large prey animals. Wolves will, therefore, endeavor to select prey that is compromised by age or weakened physical condition. How this weakness is advertised to the wolves is a subject of current investigation by biologists. Much work will be required to discover the mechanisms by which wolves select specific prey animals. Yellowstone, with its open Serengeti-like vistas, its abundant prey and its thriving wolf population is a living laboratory for this kind of research.

As it happens, in this instance the four wolves of the Druid pack passed up the elk on the ridgeline without incident. They bedded down again for the better part of the day but remained in view. In the hours just before sunset, they again got on the move, passing within 200 yards of the party of Wolf Center observers, before disappearing into the twilight. The Wolf Center observers were very encouraged by the day's activity and the start of their week in Yellowstone National Park.

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Day 2 - Monday, March 18, 2002
Cooke City, Montana Elevation 7,300 feet
Weather: Minus one with broken cloud cover in the east, clearing to the west.

5:50AM Trip leaders Nancy Gibson and Dave Mech led the International Wolf Center party back into the Yellowstone National Park, relocating to the Yellowstone Institute's educational facility in the Lamar Valley. After pausing briefly to observe a cow moose foraging through deep snow at Silver Lake, the team leaders received radio report about the four members of the Druid Pack involved in what appeared to stalking behavior, typically associated with a potential chase. The party proceeded to an observation point two miles east of Slough Creek and found the four Druids settled on a snow-covered knob before a thick stand of Douglas fir. From their vantage point an estimated ¾ of a mile away, the party observed a small herd of elk gathered just below the knob about 150 yards west of the wolves. Standing in a tight grouping, with their attention focused on the wolves just above them, the elk appeared restless, neither grazing nor bedding down. About the same distance to the east, five coyotes sat exposed on an open bench in full view of the wolves and set up a chorus of high-pitched vocalizing.

Four days earlier on March 14, the two Alpha wolves (#21 & #42) of the Druid pack and two of their yearlings, left the rest of the pack at Hellroaring in the western end of the Lamar Valley. They headed east to the vicinity of the den site, a distance of some 20 miles by air. (Pups are expected the first week of April.) The foursome appeared to have reversed course.

The situation now seemed ripe for a predation attempt by the wolves on the nearby elk herd. However, after two hours of inconsistent behavior, alternately bedding down, howling and rolling in the snow, the wolves left the elk herd behind them and continued heading west, out of sight.

The Wolf Center observers climbed in to the top of a rise on Slough Creek Flats, affectionately known as Dave's Hill in honor of our Fearless Leader. The radio signal signature of wolf #105 indicated the five-year-old female was somewhere before them on the north face of Specimen Ridge. 105 is a daughter of the Druid alphas. Having matured and left the pack, she had recently returned to their territory and been observed paired with a number of different males, without sustaining a bond with any of them. As April denning season approaches, field observers are monitoring her activity carefully. At 9:10 AM, visual confirmation of her radio signal was made from the hilltop, and once again, she appeared to be traveling alone. Glassing the area to the west, elk were observed bedded in the open, taking advantage of a full sun that warmed temperatures into the 20s, while a pair of bison foraged in the creek bottom below. Separate sightings of both bald and golden eagles were confirmed.

5:15PM The Druid foursome reappeared now farther west, having crossed the Lamar River and settled in near an apparent kill site just beyond Slough Creek Flats. The presence of ravens and magpies, along with several coyotes keeping a healthy distance from the wolves, backed up the impression of their hunting success, but the distance from the observation point did not allow a confirmation to be made.

5:40PM Nine members of the Druid pack were observed surrounding an elk in the lower Hellroaring area. These nine wolves were part of the group of 11 that the alphas of the Druid pack left behind when they left for the den site. They are a mix of 23-month-old yearlings and 11-month-old pups. The elk held its ground giving no impression of vulnerability. By 5:58 the young wolves abandoned the effort.

Femur joint 6:15PM Researchers examined the head of a femur joint and marrow sample taken from a wolf-killed bison. Party member and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Lewis "Pete" Nettrour conferred with Dave Mech and field researcher Erin Cleere, and found the joint free of any arthritic deterioration. Dr. Mech observed the fat reserves in the bone marrow, however, were depleted. Fat reserves in ungulate bone marrow constitute only 2 to 3 percent of the overall body fat the animals carry in reserve throughout the winter. Bone marrow fat is tapped only after the fat accumulated around internal organs and the haunches is completely exhausted. Consequently, it was concluded that this bison had been on its last legs when it fell prey to the wolves. Park predation surveys indicate bison rarely fall to wolves, in comparison with elk. Field observations assert that adult wolves rarely even bother to test bison vulnerability. This weakened animal fell to the young inexperienced members of the Druid pack that had been left without senior supervision of their alpha leaders on the evening of March 14.

11:00PM In the darkness as he retired to his cabin at the Yellowstone Institute, Dave Mech encountered a full-grown bison blocking his path. He gave it a wide berth and headed in to bed.

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Hellroaring Creek

Day 3 - March 19, 2002
Weather - 16 degrees -- a mix of sun and clouds, intermittent snow showers

The mournful hooting of a great horned owl greeted the wolf watchers as they emerged from their sleeping cabins in the pre-dawn darkness. A hearty ranch-style breakfast at 5:30 a.m. got everyone's energy up and running in spite of the early hour. After a radio call from the field biologist reporting strong signals from the Druid pack's alpha pair, the group headed west to a location along the road called Little America. Just as we were setting up spotting scopes and scanning snow-covered hillside with binoculars, the wolves treated us with a lupine wake-up call. A long moaning howl like a low voltage current shivered on the cold air and hung suspended for a moment before trailing off into silence. From the dense cluster of trees part way up the slope came an answering chorus of howls. In just moments we saw them, Wolf #21 and Wolf #42, the alpha male and female of the Druids along with two other members of the pack. After a few stretches and yawns, the wolves set off through the timber toward the top of the ridge.

Just as they disappeared, the radio crackled to life, and Erin reported 11 Druid yearlings and pups at Hellroaring, several miles farther west on the Lamar Valley Road. They were pursuing a bull elk in the rugged, boulder-strewn valley below the overlook. The chase ended before the group arrived, but what followed more than made up for he fact that we missed witnessing the chase. The young wolves alternately snoozed and played on the broad snowfields above a cluster of tall conifers. Elaborate tag games and wrestling matches turned the hillside into a giant playground. And then, as if in obedience to some signal, the wolves began to move in loose formation across the flank of the hillside. The pace was unhurried but steady, interspersed with more explosive sprints as two or three youngsters broke rank for another game of chase. Since most of the Druids are black or dark gray, the scene was reminiscent of an Ansel Adams photograph, a poem of black and white contrast in the pearly morning light.

This group of young wolves is the focus of intense interest among the researchers. The parents separated from the youngsters on March 14th, and the young wolves seem to be developing and honing their hunting skills by trial and error. Four of them are radio collared, and one of them, Wolf #253, is a black 23-month-old male who still has a severe limp from an injury to his left rear leg. He sustained the injury in a territorial pack conflict in October of 2001 with the Nez Perce pack. These pack conflicts appear to be a mechanism that helps to maintain an optimal distribution of wolves in relationship to the quantity of available prey in a given area. Wolves scent mark their territory to advertise ownership and may attack individual wolves or packs that infringe on it.

coyote Later in the morning, the group headed east once again to view a new kill site along the bank of the Lamar River. Six coyotes had killed an elk a few hours earlier and were busily feasting on the carcass while a gallery of squabbling ravens hovered nearby. The scene was closely monitored by a bald eagle perched high in a conifer snag. Ted Spaulding spent several hours observing the behavior of the coyotes that approached those already feeding on the elk. The intruding coyotes approached with their muzzles held low, their backs contorted in an exaggerated arch and their tails tucked between their legs. In wolves, some of these postures such as the low tail angle would signify submissiveness, but in coyotes, they seem to signal aggression.

(Editor's note: We hope to be able to post clearer images from scans of photographs shot on film with telephoto lenses when the team returns from Yellowstone.)

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Day 4 - Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Weather - 29 degrees at 6:20 a.m. Windy with drifting snow.

This extraordinary day of wolf watching began at 6:30 a.m. near Slough Creek Flats, a few miles west of the Buffalo Ranch. Strong radio-collar signals indicated the Druid pack breeders, Wolf # 21 and Wolf #42, were nearby. Although neither wolf was spotted, the wind carried the sound of deep resonant howls followed by the higher-pitched singing and staccato yipping of coyotes.

The riveting drama of the day began at 7:00 with a radio call from Rick McIntyre saying the group of 11 Druid yearlings (age 23 months) and pups (age 11 months) were following a bison herd at Lower Hellroaring west of the Lamar Valley. The group piled into the van and arrived 15 minutes later at the roadside pullout. A scan with binoculars revealed about 100 bison fanned out across the hillside, some alone or in pairs, others in clusters. A quick roll check revealed the presence of all 11 Druid youngsters. For nearly two hours, this exuberant subset of the main pack played, dug up what appeared to be some food, ran an elk through one of the bison groups and tested some other elk before disappearing from view to the west. During this time, our group of wolf watchers also moved a few miles west to Upper Hellroaring, a lookout from which a glorious panorama unfolds - thick conifer stands in the creek drainage below and glistening snow- fields that sweep to the ridge tops.

At 9:05, the wolves came back into view, a group of them moving up the hillside to resume their predatory roles by testing a single elk that held its ground. Nearby and just below, a scattered herd of 35-40 bison was grazing at the edge of a frozen kettle lake. Kettle lakes are water-filled depressions created ancient glacial remnants. At another pond close by and to the east, a few of the wolves scratched and dug vigorously at the snow-covered ice, seemingly curious about something beneath the surface. A lone bison lumbered over to the wolves, and they then trotted off east to the kettle lake, sniffing the ground as they went.

Minutes passed with some of the wolves still on the hillside above, others at the kettle lake. Suddenly Dave Mech called out, "Watch! Here they go!" An cow elk, running west to east, hurtled down the gentle slope and bolted among the bison with the wolves in pursuit. Suddenly two of them were on the elk's flanks, another at its throat. It was over in seconds. The elk went down, and the wolves converged on their fallen prey. But the drama was far from over.

Over the next 4 hours, the bison herd converged around the elk carcass, and the wolves were unable to feed on it. The YNP biologists had not seen such behavior before and will be reporting the details of this strange interaction in a scientific journal. Suffice it to say for now that it was not until after 1:00 p.m that the wolves managed to begin feeding on the carcass.

Wolf #253, having traveled up into the snowfield after the mid-lake rendezvous, circled far to the right of the bison, still not going immediately to the kill to eat. Eventually, however, he joined the other wolves.

During the afternoon hours between 1:30 and 3:30, the big raptors, the bald and golden eagles, soared in to scavenge the kill. The last wolf moved away to rest at 2:22, the others having peeled off singly or in pairs to lie down on the hillside. According to Dave Mech, the average wolf consumes as much as 22 pounds of meat in 18 minutes. "Meat drunk," the wolves usually rest, sometimes rousing themselves, as did these 11 Druids, to launch themselves at the opportunistic coyotes. Digestion is rapid, and the wolves return repeatedly to the carcass to consume meals or to cache food for future use. Meanwhile, smaller carnivores, birds and insects all have their turn at the carcass until nothing is left but scattered bones.

At 3:30, a report came in that Wolf #42, the breeding female, had been sighted in Crystal Creek Basin, and it appeared the breeders had made their own kill. The wolf watchers folded their tripods and field notebooks and stowed scopes in backpacks as the 11 youngsters continued to visit the carcass and rest. Dave Mech, in calling this "an extremely unusual and never-recorded event," alluded to the fact that over the years of intensive research, not every behavior of either predator or prey has been observed and documented. This is what makes field work so exciting and rewarding despite the long hours of patient waiting. There are no ready explanations for what played out in front of the fortunate observers on Day 4. Perhaps that is just as well. Some mysteries are not meant to have easy solutions and obvious answers.

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Wolves 42 and 21 travel a snowy slope Day 5 Thursday, March 21, 2002
Weather, 6:30 a.m. - 2 ½ degrees - Dense cloud cover, heavy wet snow

In spite of the snow and deep cold, spring is not far off, and with it will come the birth of Wolf #42's pups. She has been making periodic visits to a traditional Druid den site. Rick McIntyre noted that last year, #42 traveled alone to the den most of the time; this year, the breeding male, Wolf #21, always accompanies her, and sometimes one or two other Druids travel with the breeding pair.

On this snowy morning, the wolf watchers traveled east of the Buffalo Ranch where they could clearly see #21 and #42, her belly growing heavy with the unborn pups, heading east on the north side of the Lamar Valley Road. Interesting to note was the travel pattern. Wolf #21 would sometimes lead. Then he would stop, lie down and wait for #42 to catch up. She would not linger with him but would forge steadily on in the direction of the den. After a few minutes, #21 would get up and follow her.

Just after the Druid pair disappeared into a draw, a call came in at 8:10 from one of the technicians reporting that the "Druid Eleven," as they had come to be called, had just taken down their third elk in the past 90 minutes. The group's actions resembled a fire drill! Driving as fast as they dared on the snow-covered road, the wolf watchers arrived at Upper Hellroaring at 8:55 to discover the Eleven had made a fourth kill! They arrived just in time to see several of the wolves knock down the struggling elk as it attempted to rise. Other wolves were feeding on the third kill.

Suddenly all 11 wolves headed up the snowy slope to the ridgeline along the creek. One of the grays led a foray into an elk herd, singled out its quarry and spearheaded a charge down the slope and into the trees. The symmetry of the splitting elk herd as it broke into two waves drew expressions of awe from the watchers. It was like watching a beautifully choreographed dance with the hillside a huge stage. Though intent on chasing the elk, the wolves did not succeed in killing a fifth elk. Perhaps they were not as serious as they would have been had they not eaten in several days; perhaps they were heavy with meat from the other kills. In any event, they returned to the carcasses and finally made their way to the ridgeline where they lay down to sleep.

By noon, the carcasses were providing food for ravens, golden eagles and coyotes. One participant brought up the subject of food requirements for wolves. Can four kills in 2 ½ hours be described as "excessive killing?" Dave Mech and Nancy Gibson pointed out that it takes a great deal of meat to feed 11 wolves. The overall success rate does not change even though the wolves kill 4 elk in a short period of time. Human observers might perceive this as a "good day" of hunting. However, in the overall scheme of things, a good day must stand with other days, sometimes several in a row, when the wolves are unsuccessful. In addition, scavengers consume, on average, 50 percent of each carcass. The "carrion crews," the technicians who examine the kills, use bone marrow samples to demonstrate that most prey animals killed by wolves are, as Dave Mech puts it, the "walking dead." Their marrow, the last reserve of fat in the body, is depleted or the animal may no longer be sound enough to run efficiently due to arthritis or an unhealed injury.

The wolves slept throughout the afternoon, but they began to stir and move about in the early evening twilight. As the light faded and the wolf watchers packed up their gear, the Druid Eleven mounted another chase.

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Yellowstone Wolf Watching Team

Day 6 - Friday, March 22, 2002
Weather - 9 ½ degrees, clear

At 4:45 a.m., under a canopy of bright stars, a coyote chorus swelled in the hills behind the cabins. It seemed a fitting beginning to the last day, a bittersweet song to accompany the awareness that time was short. The heavy clouds had dispersed in the night, and a silver mist layered the valley across the road as the sun came up.

By 6:05, the group was packed in the van and heading west to find Rick McIntyre. Rounding a curve, the wolf watchers came upon an independent European film crew stopped in the road. A cameraman was sprawled at the edge filming two bison lying in the snow. The group watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as the bull scrambled to his feet and approached, stopping within 10 yards of the filmmaker and his camera. The bison began exhibiting the classic signs of stress - licking his mouth, rubbing the scent glands on his legs, raising his tail and lifting a foot. The cameraman was oblivious to it all. Nancy Gibson pulled up beside him and warned him to get immediately into his vehicle. The man reluctantly did as he was told, though it was clear he had no inkling of the danger.

Just a little farther down the road a snowman stood in a turnout. Someone had decorated it with food, another clear violation of common sense and good practice around wildlife. "Fed is dead" the cliché says, and there is tragic accuracy in those words. Park officials and wolf recovery personnel are concerned about the wolves living along the Lamar Valley Road. It is wonderful they are providing so many people with insights into their pack behavior and impressing visitors with the power of their beauty as they hunt and sleep and stretch and travel along the hillsides. But people need to be responsible wildlife watchers, and the food-laden snowman is testimony to a frightening ignorance about wildlife viewing.

The sun was brilliant on the snow as we traveled down the road. Nancy Gibson observed that it might be a good day for grizzlies on the south-facing slopes. Three coyotes suddenly appeared on the left side of the road, beautiful animals, robust and graceful.

We arrived at Upper Hellroaring just in time to watch the Druid Eleven stir from their beds along the tree line by the creek. After a long stretch, they trotted down the slope where the 35 - 40 bison were grazing and began usher in the dawn with a long "ode to joy." On the kills were golden eagles and ravens. One of the observers counted 42 ravens on one kill! Many of the birds were so full, it seemed they could barely fly. At 9:00, a lone bison approached the wolves who had settled down for another nap. This happened several times; the wolves would bed down, and the bison would harass them until they got up and moved farther up the slope. Several times this bison would approach to within 6 feet of the wolves, stretch its head out and begin a chewing motion with its mouth. Dave Mech observed that it appeared to be vocalizing. Suddenly, it seemed the wolves had taken enough abuse. They surrounded the bison and began an energetic round of howling. The skirmish ended at 9:15 when the wolves headed out of the trough and up the hill. One gray wolf climbed up onto a rock and lay down, its profile presented to the wolf watchers. Then it raised its head and began to howl. Thirty yards away, the other wolves responded. Satisfied then, they curled up or stretched out and went to sleep.

At noon, after watching the bison and the wolves face each other off a few more times, the wolf watchers headed back to the Buffalo Ranch to pack. National Geographic was in the process of interviewing Dave Mech and several others for a sequel to the Society's recent film about the wolves of Yellowstone. When the group arrived back at Hellroaring around 2:00, the bison were once again harassing the wolves, moving them from their daybeds.

At 5:15, another series of chases began. This drama was played out on the snowy slope opposite the Hellroaring overlook. The hillside is perhaps a mile from bottom to top and three miles wide. On this slope the wolves made multiple attempts to catch elk, but their efforts seemed uncoordinated, and the elk either stood their ground or got away. Slowly the light dimmed, and the group headed to Cooke City to spend a final evening before leaving this magical place the following morning.

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March 23, 2002 - Day 7: Epilogue

Dawn rose into a tight cobweb of gray clouds over the eastern ridgeline sending a flat even light out across the Lamar Valley. The white peaks in the west were silhouetted against a retreating band of night sky, deep purple and withered blue. We would have one more trip across the valley on our way to the airport and one more chance to catch a glimpse of this week's favored quarry.

Once again the wolves did not disappoint. Radio signals led us to a low hill adjacent to Mother's Ridge, indicating the alpha pair was near at hand. A long, low modulating moan soon reinforced the signals and led our scopes up-slope to one of the most classically picturesque scenes of the week. On a large boulder, just under the boughs of a leaning conifer, a large black wolf sat up, its head raised in a morning tribute to the world spread out in the valley below. A silence fell over our group as we paused at our tripods. Some turned away to hide the great respect and appreciation they found welling in their eyes and swelling in their chests. This jet black member of the Druid pack was giving us one final image to take home beyond the park and these wild lands, as we would endeavor to make sense of all we had observed and tried to understand.

So many questions to ponder and explore. As an apex predator at the top of the food pyramid, how far reaching is the wolves' impact on the Yellowstone ecosystem? What are the forces that influence pack size, and the dominance hierarchy within? What role does the experience of the alpha's play in developing the instinctual skills of young wolves? How do the wolves select their prey and how does the prey animal's behavior influence the choices the wolves make? And just what were those bison doing, protecting an elk from the jaws of the wolves and how often does this happen? Was it a fluke?

The list goes on and on and will undoubtedly be the basis of great speculation and years of additional research as we strive to understand. At the International Wolf Center we are dedicated to spreading an understanding of wolves and their world. We see it as the key to helping people recognize the important role wolves play in a healthy ecosystem and hopefully, helping people retain a common interest in keeping them there.

As the sun broke through the retreating cloud cover the black wolf came down off the rock and settled into what would likely be a mid-day bed beneath the trees. We took it as a timely cue, packed up our gear and headed our separate ways out of the park.

For information on future trips to the Northwest Territories, contact our .

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General Information

The Wolf by L. David Mech
The Way of the Wolf by L. David Mech
The Company of Wolves by Peter Steinhart
Wolves by Nancy Gibson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
The Return of the Wolf by Steve Grooms
Wolf by Maureen Greeley
The Wolf Almanac by Robert Busch
Neither God nor Devil by Eva-Lena Rehnmark

Wolves in Specific Geographic Areas

The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass
The Wolves of Isle Royale - A Broken Balance by Rolf Peterson
The Arctic Wolf - Ten Years with the Pack by L. David Mech
Wolves of the High Arctic by L. David Mech
The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin by Richard P. Thiel
The Wolves of Denali by L. David Mech et al
Wolf Country by John B. Theberge with Mary Theberge
The Return of the Wolf - Reflections on the Future of the Wolf in the Northeast by Bill McKibben, John Theberge, Kristin DeBoer and Rick Bass
Another Country by Christopher Camuto
The Wolves of Minnesota - Howl in the Heartland by L. David Mech
Journey of the Red Wolf by Roland Smith
The New Wolves by Rick Bass

Wolves in Yellowstone
Learn more about the wolves of Yellowstone and about the recovery effort in the northern Rockies.

A Society of Wolves - National Parks and the Battle Over the Wolf by Rick McIntyre
The Wolves of Yellowstone by Michael K. Phillips and Douglas W. Smith
Wolf Wars by Hank Fischer
The Yellowstone Wolves - The First Year by Gary Ferguson
The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone by Thomas McNamee

Other books and educational materials are available at the Wolf Den Store.

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