American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Absorbing, Illuminating, Devastating American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West (2017) by Nate Blakeslee begins in December 2012 with Wyoming hunter “Steven Turnbull” (not his real name) about to shoot a magnificent gray wolf or her big black mate. Blakeslee reveals the mindset of such a hunter, who blames the 1995 reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park for the decrease in the elk he loves to hunt, possesses a license to kill a wolf, uses a dying rabbit call to summon predators, and is generally a capable, efficient, law-abiding guy who loves hunting (and who supported Obama Care so he could finally get health care). Blakeslee’s book then goes on to relate how wolves were returned after nearly seventy years to Yellowstone, to set forth the controversy surrounding it (anti-wolf hunters and ranchers vs. pro-wolf biologists and wolf-watchers, with state and federal governments in between), and best of all to describe the seasonal and daily lives of the wolves of Yellowstone, focusing on a few “star” packs and individuals, especially the capable, charismatic, intelligent alpha-female 0-Six. We learn much about gray wolves, their physical attributes, their personalities, their hunting, their howling (warning, communicating, threatening, morale raising, celebrating, mourning, bonding, etc.), as well as their mate-finding, pup-raising, pack-making, turf warring, environment enriching, and history in the US. We also learn about the obsessions of people who love wolves and of people who hate them. Although Blakeslee refrains from demonizing (or even really criticizing) wolf hunters, his heart is in the wolf camp, and he spends most time with figures like the Park’s interpretive ranger Rick Macintyre (an “ironman” wolf watcher who for over a decade rarely missed a day in the park watching wolves and then writing meticulous notes about his observations) and his friends. The stories they tell of 0-Six and her forbears and pack-mates and rivals are riveting and moving and express how individual and collective wolves are, how adaptive and intelligent, how perfectly suited to a wild environment, and finally, yes, how they must feel joy and grief. The Epilogue (read by Blakeslee) picks up where the prologue left off and depicts the aftermath of the killing of the most famous wolf in Yellowstone (and in the world). The book gives us a glimpse of what it must be like to watch these beautiful and formidable creatures in nature and to come to love them as individuals and then to mourn them when they die, whether from natural causes in their environments or, especially painfully, when they are killed by hunters. It is thus at times a devastating book, especially the last chapters, but also the parts detailing the politics behind wolf policy, such that, for example, the democrats’ desire to hold onto the senate in the 2012 elections led to a sneaky rider being inserted into a vital budget bill that enabled wolves to be hunted at the discretion of certain states, the matter boiling down to protecting Obama Care or wolves. Blakeslee also explores how wolf policy at the state level and even at the federal level tends to ignore inconvenient science and is often guided by emotion, namely hatred for or envy of the super predators. Reading the book made me hate hunting even more than I already did, but also made me hate hunters less, because Blakeslee does present their human situations and world views. The book of course increased my already big love for wolves (a high point of my life was seeing wolves playing and howling in a sudden summer snow in Denali National Park). I suspect that people who hate wolves will not be able to read this book; but they should know that it does not shrilly condemn them. Rather, it celebrates the intelligence and beauty and fierceness and playfulness and loyalty of wolves, and the wonder and mortality of life and the natural world. The audiobook is well read by Mark Bramhall and closes with fifteen seconds of uncanny and beautiful howling that raised bumps on my skin and brought tears to my eyes (I would have liked it to go on much longer and wished I could hear it in person). View all my reviews
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Jefferson Peters
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