In this book, Nate Blakeslee takes a look at the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park and the culture surrounding it. There's the "wolf groupies", who are obviously very pro-wolf, but there's also the hunters, who view the wolves as pests that take away their elk.
One wolf in particular whose journey is highlighted is O-Six, a grey female who became alpha of her own pack and a famous wolf in the park. We see the ups of the pack's existence, but also the woes. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows in real life, after all.
The book had a nice slow pace that allowed one to get attached to these wolves and learn about all the people surrounding them, most notably Rick McIntyre, one of whose books I've also taken a look at before.
The wolves were generally easy to distinguish, but after a while there were a lot of numbered wolves (each wolf with a collar gets assigned a number rather than a name), so maybe an overview of all numbered wolves would've been nice. This wasn't a problem in the early half of the book, where there were relatively few numbered wolves and a lot of them had nicknames (e.g. "Limpy", "Middle gray", "Shy Male"), but later on in the book as more packs/wolves came into the picture more and more of them had a number and less and less of them had a name, which made it a bit difficult to remember who was who exactly. Not a huge issue and there is a family tree in the book that does help, but not every numbered wolf is listed on there, so it'd have been nice if we had a complete list with each listed wolf and some details (appearance, gender, what pack they belong to, possible relations to other mentioned wolves) for the reader's sake.
Another thing I liked is how the author highlighted different points of view regarding wolves. Yes, I am very much a pro-wolf person, and this is very much a pro-wolf book, but Blakeslee didn't stick to only writing about only pro-wolf people. The politics are highlighted, but in particular a hunter named "Turnbull" (it's a fake name) is highlighted several times.
He doesn't like wolves and very much believes in his right to hunt elk. I didn't like him based on his dialogue and, spoilers, of course the fact that he was the one who killed O-Six, but Blakeslee didn't needlessly vilify him or portray him as some horrible person. The book still very clearly takes a pro-wolf stance, but it's neat that at least other people's stories were heard to an extent. You don't have to agree with him but I think it's important to highlight the different sides of issues like (wolf)hunting. I do think that multiple POVs should be explored here (pro-wolves people, ranchers, hunters, etc.).
Overall this is a book I definitely recommend. Not only does it show the culture and politics surrounding the Yellowstone wolves, but it also has the awe-inspiring life story of O-Six and some neat information on wolves as a species.
Rating: 4/5
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