YELLOWSTONE WOLVES

Wolves were long a key predator in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem before they were extirpated. In 1995, they were reintroduced in what the editors characterize as “a change of heart.” That change of heart is “the single most important fact of wolf recovery everywhere.” With the eminent wolf biologist L. David Mech, they raise the governing question of this book: Why are wolves important? Mech answers that in just the last 25 years, the Yellowstone population, which numbers about 500 individuals spread out over 19 million acres, have afforded scientists a greater understanding of wolf genetics, mortality, movement, diseases, “and several other topics difficult to study elsewhere.” Among the findings raised in this collection are that, unlike wolf populations generally, in which a single male and a single female found a new pack, in Yellowstone, “packs more commonly start from groups of individuals that leave their natal packs and find other wolves.” Another is that the wolves, their first generation raised in captivity and reintroduced, have figured out how to hunt and raise families in the wild. They have even evolved a complex geographical understanding by which they know “how to avoid dangerous geothermal areas, or where it is safest to cross the Yellowstone River, or where to find elk migrating over the Washburn Range after the first snows each winter.” Still another is that the Yellowstone wolf population hunt “eight large ungulate species,” seemingly selecting the ones that are most abundant in any specific season, given population dynamics. Overall, the contributors provide solid evidence for the editors’ hopeful conclusion that the wolves of Yellowstone represent “a chance to create communities of coexistence with the full suite of America’s wildlife.” Along with figures, maps, photos, and an appendix, “Species Names Used in the Text,” the book includes a foreword by Jane Goodall.

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