American Wolf

by Nate Blakeslee

  Some argue that feeding elk in winter has essentially turned them into something akin to cattle, but most hunters and ranchers consider the refuges a win-win. Fewer starving elk in the winter means a larger herd when hunting season comes around in the fall, which makes hunters happy. The refuges keep elk out of cattle pastures, and they also happen to buy a lot of feed from local ranchers, which makes them doubly popular in that community. For more on ranchers’ resentment of elk, see Michael Milstein, “ ‘Good’ Rancher Goes Berserk with an Assault Rifle,” High Country News, March 3, 1997.

  Chapter 5: The King of Currumpaw

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes from the spring of 2010, supplemented by Rick’s notes from May 9, and by my interviews with them.

  O-Six’s growing popularity kept Rick busy. He kept careful track of each talk he performed for visitors, whether scheduled or impromptu. During this period, he was averaging 180 per year. Among the thousands of visitors who watched O-Six and her pups at the den that spring, I discovered during my research for this book, were my own aunt and uncle, Alison Blakeslee and Rick Fisher.

  For an engaging account of Ernest Thompson Seton’s story “Lobo, the King of Currumpaw” and its impact on how wolves were perceived by Americans, see the documentary “The Wolf That Changed America,” featured on the PBS show Nature, November 22, 2008.

  For Rick’s tribute to Rags the Digger, see Rick McIntyre, A Society of Wolves: National Parks and the Battle over the Wolf (Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1993), p. 115. Details from Gordon Haber’s career are from Gordon Haber and Marybeth Holleman, Among Wolves: Gordon Haber’s Insights into Alaska’s Most Misunderstood Animal (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2013). Haber died in 2009 when his research plane crashed in the mountains in Denali National Park.

  The history of wolf eradication in the United States is from Lopez, Of Wolves and Men, which, although published in 1978, is still the definitive take on the fraught history between the two species. The quote on Americans’ motivation to kill every last remaining wolf is on p. 166.

  Chapter 6: Rebels in the Sage

  My account of the hearing is based on the official transcript (Defenders of Wildlife vs. Ken Salazar, CV 09-77-M-DWM and CV 09-82-M-DWM), briefs submitted by each side (along with various intervenors), and my interviews with Doug Honnold, Tim Preso, and Ed Bangs. The hearing was extensively covered in the press—for example, Matt Volz, “Today in Missoula: Wolf Case a Test for Endangered Species Nationwide,” Associated Press/Missoulian, June 15, 2010, which is the source for the “yank that wolf tie” quote.

  For background on Judge Molloy, see Ray Ring, “How Green Is Judge Molloy?” High Country News, August 25, 2010. Ring and his colleagues at High Country News have been following the legal and political fight over wolves for years; see, for example, Hal Herring, “How the Gray Wolf Lost Its Endangered Status—and How Enviros Helped,” High Country News, June 6, 2011.

  On the politics of delisting, see Douglas H. Chadwick, “Wolf Wars,” National Geographic, March 2010. For a concise scientific argument on why many wolf researchers considered delisting to be premature, see Bradley J. Bergstrom et al., “The Northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf Is Not Yet Recovered,” BioScience 59 (2009): 991–99.

  On the Sagebrush Rebellion, see the recently published collection from High Country News on antigovernment actions in the West, Sagebrush Rebellion: Evolution of a Movement (Kindle ed., 2016). For a more scholarly account, see R. McGreggor Cawley, Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993).

  The account of the bomb left at a ranger station is from Todd Wilkinson, “The Forest Service Sets Off into Uncharted Territory,” High Country News, November 8, 1999. The detail about the message written on the bomb appeared in the Jackson Hole News on October 21, 1998.

  Perhaps no single incident better reflected the continued tensions over land management in the West than the armed standoff between Cliven Bundy and federal authorities in Nevada in 2014. Bundy stopped paying fees he owed for grazing his livestock on federal land after the government restricted his access in an effort to protect desert tortoise habitat. Bundy, whose family had homesteaded in the area since the 1870s, was faced with forcible eviction until dozens of armed antigovernment activists came to his defense. See Adam Nagourney, “A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side,” New York Times, April 23, 2014.

  On the broader issue of antigovernment violence in the West, see Ray Ring and Marshall Swearingen, “BLM, Forest Service Workers Under Attack in the West,” High Country News, November 1, 2014; Kirk Johnson and Jack Healy, “Protesters in Oregon Seek to End Policy That Shaped West,” New York Times, January, 5, 2016; and Nancy Langston, “In Oregon, Myth Mixes with Anger,” New York Times, January 6, 2016.

  On the impact of grazing on public lands, see Christine Glaser, Chuck Romaniello, and Karyn Moskowitz, Costs and Consequences: The Real Cost of Grazing on Public Lands (Center for Biological Diversity, 2015). The federal government has long been a friend to western ranchers. Unknown to many taxpayers in other parts of the country, cattle are a familiar sight on publicly owned lands in the West. In the big picture, the number of livestock involved is small; less than 3 percent of the nation’s beef comes from cattle grazed on public lands. But the grazing allotments are still an essential part of the western livestock business, with around one in five cattle operations using public lands for at least part of the year.

  The U.S. Forest Service leases about eight million acres of land for grazing in the Northern Rockies. Grazing fees in the area are cut rate, as they are throughout public lands in the West; the federal government generally charges around 6 to 7 percent of the going rate for comparable privately owned rangeland. It amounts to an enormous subsidy to ranchers, on the order of some $120 million per year. Various efforts over the years to raise the rates, even modestly, have been quietly defeated by western members of Congress.

  In the Northern Rockies, most of the operations are in southern Idaho or the vast plains of eastern Montana and Wyoming, not in the mountainous areas where wildlife is most plentiful. Yet the government still spends millions per year to control predators in grazing areas, a service it provides free of charge to ranchers.

  Population trends for wolves in the Northern Rockies can be found in the Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Interagency Annual Report (archived on the website of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), which also reports annual wolf mortality numbers, along with confirmed livestock depredations. Beginning in 2012, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department began publishing an annual report as well, titled Wyoming Gray Wolf Population Monitoring and Management Annual Report. The annual reports of the Yellowstone Wolf Project are also a useful reference.

  For an opposing view on the notion that legal hunting builds social tolerance for wolves, see Erica Goode, “Study Casts Doubt on Theory That Legal Hunting Reduces Poaching,” New York Times, May 10, 2016. The account of Carter Niemeyer shooting the Whitehawk Pack is from Ray Ring, “Wolf at the Door,” High Country News, May 27, 2002.

  Chapter 7: Iron Man

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes for the summer of 2010, supplemented by Rick McIntyre’s notes from June 15 and by my interviews with them.

  Rick’s favorite quote comes from Carveth Read, The Origin of Man and His Superstitions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920), p. 50. The quote from Smith and Ferguson’s Of Wolves and Men is on p. 86. Rick drove a pair of donated Nissans over the years. His peculiar driving habits took their toll; it seems that never driving above forty-five miles per hour (the park speed limit) is not good for a Nissan’s transmission. The account of how Rick came to own a Swarovski is from my interviews with Doug McLaughlin. My account of Rick’s career as a photographer and his decision to end it came from my interviews with him.

  The speed of the pronghorn—which wolf pups chase but can never catch—is an evolutionary riddle: Why a
re they so much faster than any predator in North America, far faster than they have any need to be? The answer is no longer with us: the American cheetah, which once preyed on antelope but, unlike the pronghorn, did not survive the Pleistocene. Pronghorns don’t need the speed anymore, but they still flaunt it.

  Rick’s books include two photo collections, Denali National Park: An Island in Time (Legacy, 1986) and Grizzly Cub: Five Years in the Life of a Bear (Alaska Northwest Books, 1990); the previously cited 1993 book about reintroduction, A Society of Wolves; and a collection of historical documents and articles, War Against the Wolf: America’s Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf (Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1995).

  Chapter 8: Return to the Lamar Valley

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes for the fall and winter of 2010, supplemented by Rick McIntyre’s notes from October 20 and 27, and December 9, as well as by my interviews.

  The quote from Judge Molloy comes from his official ruling. The New York Times quote is from an editorial that ran on August 7, 2010. For local reaction to the ruling, see Rocky Barker, “Decision to Relist Wolf Undercuts Moderates,” Idaho Statesman, August 9, 2010, and Kathy Hedberg, “Idaho County Wants to Join Wolf Fight,” Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho), August 18, 2010.

  My account of Tester’s conversation with Mike Phillips is from an interview with Phillips. (Tester did not make himself available for interviews for this book.) On Senator Tester’s campaign and Congressman Rehberg’s challenge, see Susan Davis, “Montana Race Could Tip Balance of Power in U.S. Senate,” USA Today, April 5, 2012; “About $100 spent for every Montana Senate vote,” USA Today, December 10, 2012; and Eric Lipton, “Mining Companies Back Friend’s Bid for Senate,” New York Times, December 23, 2011. For Rehberg’s take on wolves, see Denny Rehberg, “Listening Is First Step in Crafting Wolf Legislation,” Bozeman Daily Chronicle, September 13, 2010. For background on Tester, see Timothy Egan, “Fresh Off the Farm in Montana, a Senator-to-Be,” New York Times, November 13, 2006.

  The bill Rehberg signed on to was authored by Texas congressman Chet Edwards. Of course, Edwards had no wolves anywhere near his district, but he told reporters he was acting on behalf of requests from hunters in general. One of a handful of Texas Democrats remaining in Washington, he was in a tough reelection race and needed to shore up his conservative bona fides.

  On the wolf’s instinctive response to pups soliciting regurgitation, see James Gorman, “The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars,” New York Times, April 18, 2016. To test the idea that regurgitation is involuntary, researchers working with captive wolves placed unrelated pups with adults who had just been fed. Though the adult wolves presumably had no stake in the pups’ well-being, they still regurgitated on cue when the pups solicited food, then stood back and allowed the strange pups to eat what was essentially their own dinner.

  How cold does it get in Yellowstone? On February 9, 1933, the temperature at the ranger station near West Yellowstone hit sixty-six below zero, the second-coldest reading in the history of the Lower 48. (The coldest—seventy below—was also recorded in the Greater Yellowstone area, at Rogers Pass, Montana.)

  Chapter 9: Betrayal

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes between April and December 2011, supplemented by Rick’s notes for May 8, August 30, and October 4 and 5. An amateur video of the incident described on October 6, in which the Lamars chased off a grizzly, is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=oNa3DLJqiYE.

  For the controversy over Tester’s rider, see Julie Mianecki, “Gray Wolves, Abortion Funding and Other Policy Changes in the Budget Bill,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2011; Kim Murphy, “Idaho and Montana Prepare for Wolf Hunts,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2011; and Robert Pear, “With a Spending Deal in Hand, Lawmakers Now Turn to the Details,” New York Times, April 10, 2011. On the significance of the rider for the coming election, see Glenn Hurowitz, “Endangered Wolves Sacrificed in Budget Deal,” Huffington Post, April 11, 2011. On wolf quotas for the coming fall hunt, see Erin Madison, “Wolf Harvest Down Slightly from Last Year,” Great Falls Tribune, March 18, 2015.

  Numerous studies on the subject of Yellowstone’s wolves and trophic cascades were published during this period. See, for example, William J. Ripple and Robert L. Beschta, “Trophic Cascades in Yellowstone: The First 15 Years After Wolf Reintroduction,” Biological Conservation 145, no. 1 (2011): 205–13. Data on coyotes and wolves is summarized in Smith and Ferguson, Decade of the Wolf, p. 133. On pronghorns, see K. M. Berger, E. M. Gese, and J. Berger, “Indirect Effects and Traditional Trophic Cascades: A Test Involving Wolves, Coyotes, and Pronghorn,” Ecology 89, no. 3 (March 2008): 818–28. Trophic cascade research began receiving media attention during this period; see Mary Ellen Hannibal, “Why the Beaver Should Thank the Wolf,” New York Times, September 28, 2012.

  Smith’s comments on the 2009 hunt appeared in Kim Murphy, “Montana Wolf Hunt Is Stalked by Controversy,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2009. On Dan Ashe’s visit to Wyoming governor Matt Mead, see Jeremy Pelzer, “Mead, Top Federal Officials Agree ‘In Principle’ to Wolf Deal,” Casper Star-Tribune, July 7, 2011.

  Chapter 10: Rampage of the Mollies

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes between September 2011 and August 2012, supplemented by Rick McIntyre’s notes from February 9, April 5, and August 3.

  The video of the Mollies attacking a bison was taken by Wolf Project biologist Dan McNulty. It is described in Smith and Ferguson, Decade of the Wolf, pp. 74–75.

  Chapter 11: “The Worst Possible Thing I Could Tell You”

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes between August and November 2012.

  On Mike Hirsch’s successful wolf hunt, see Gib Mathers, “Protected Again: Officials, Hunters Unhappy with Wolf Decision,” Powell Tribune, September 25, 2014. On the death of 754, see Nate Schweber, “Research Animals Lost in Wolf Hunts Near Yellowstone,” New York Times, November 28, 2012; it is accompanied by a photo of 754 taken by Doug McLaughlin. My account of the hunter who shot 754 is based on my interviews with Mark Bruscino, Steven Turnbull, Louie Cary, and others in Crandall.

  Chapter 12: A Good Day in the Park

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes between December 2012 and May 2013, and on my interviews with Laurie, Rick, Doug McLaughlin, Doug Smith, Steven Turnbull, and others.

  After Nate Schweber’s “ ‘Famous’ Wolf Is Killed Outside Yellowstone,” New York Times, December 8, 2012, dozens of reports followed, such as Jeff Hull, “Out of Bounds: The Death of 832F, Yellowstone’s Most Famous Wolf,” Outside, February 13, 2013; Christina Ng, “Yellowstone’s ‘Famous’ Alpha Wolf Shot and Killed,” ABC News, December 10, 2012; “Wolf Shooting, Trapping near Yellowstone Park Face New Scrutiny,” Associated Press, December 9, 2012; and Matt Williams, “Yellowstone’s Popular Alpha Female Wolf Shot Dead by Hunters Outside Park,” Guardian, December 9, 2012.

  Dan Stahler was interviewed on NPR’s Here and Now on December 11. Doug Smith was interviewed on both NPR’s Morning Edition and The World on December 12. For the report in Science, see Virginia Morrell, “Hunters Kill Another Radio-Collared Yellowstone National Park Wolf,” Science, December 11, 2012.

  My account of Doug McLaughlin’s guerrilla campaign is from my interview with him. He stressed that he did not coordinate his actions with park service employees.

  On the death of 831, see Laura Lundquist, “Gardiner Man Kills Yellowstone Park Wolf,” Bozeman Daily Chronicle, May 8, 2013, and Laura Lundquist, “Gardiner Man to Turn in Wolf Permit,” Bozeman Daily Chronicle, May 15, 2013. Hoppe denied baiting 831, and Montana game officials ultimately concluded that he had not done so; see Kathryn Haake and Matthew Brown, “FWP Dismisses Wolf Baiting Claims,” Associated Press/Bozeman Daily Chronicle, May 14, 2013.

  Rick’s remarks are from Martin Kidston, “Alpha Male, New Female Partner Likely Come from Rival Yellowstone Wolf Packs,” Missoulian, February 14, 2013. Rick wrote about O-Six in Richard
P. Thiel, Alison C. Thiel, and Marianne Strozewski, eds., Wild Wolves We Have Known: Stories of Wolf Biologists’ Favorite Wolves (Minneapolis: International Wolf Center, 2013).

  Chapter 13: Enough Is Enough

  This chapter draws on Laurie Lyman’s notes between February 2014 and June 2015, supplemented by Rick McIntyre’s notes from July 19 and 21 and September 23.

  Rick visited Crandall, a place he generally avoided, during the government shutdown in October 2013, caused by a standoff over a spending bill between President Obama and congressional Republicans. Yellowstone was closed, prompting Rick and other watchers to head east, looking for wolves.

  Media coverage continued during this period. Highlights included Nathan Rott, “Wolves at the Door: Can Two Top Predators Coexist in the American West?” NPR, February 3, 2014, and Elliott D. Woods, “Wolflandia: The Fight over the Most Polarizing Animal in the West,” Outside, January 2015.

  On the impact of the 2013 hunting season, see “Protected No Longer, More Than 550 Gray Wolves Killed This Season by Hunters and Trappers,” NBC News, March 6, 2013.

  There were dozens of media reports on wolves and trophic cascades in Yellowstone during this period (not to mention a TED Talk). Some researchers, notably David Mech, cautioned against the rush to credit wolves for Yellowstone’s rebound, or observed that the habitat remained “broken” in important ways. See Warren Cornwall, “Have Returning Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone?” High Country News, December 8, 2014.