The Rise of Wolf 8

Review

I really disliked this book. It was such a drag.

First problem: the way the author refers to the wolves. They’re all named and referred to by numbers like “8” and “21” and “163”. Apart from a handful I forgot most of the cast of characters. There’s a reason we don’t name our children numbers - it’s really hard to remember! Even non-living things like hurricanes and ships get names rather than numbers so we can keep track of them better. Imagine talking about Hurricane 20050830 instead of Hurricane Katrina. Or HMS 3150 instead of HMS Bounty.

He could have chosen any names for the wolves - Hiroshi, Muhammad, McLovin - whatever. Anything was better than 40, 42 etc.

Next - the author pushed his agenda hard. He really likes wolf 21, which is fair enough. But he acts like 21’s personal propagandist. Anything good 21 does is trumpeted and any time he fucks up the author performs mental gymnastics to justify it. And this isn’t 21 forgetting to put away the groceries or leaving the toilet seat up. He isn’t doing the absolute minimum expected of a pack leader. At one point (spoilers) he’s mated with two sisters. The more dominant one gets jealous and murders her infant nieces and nephews. 21 watches his children get murdered and does nothing. Fuck 21, and fuck the author for writing this propaganda. He wants you, the reader, to root for a wolf that lacks the courage to stand up to a child murderer.

Last one - his writing is really repetitive. Often I caught myself wondering if I was re-reading a chapter. But no, it’s just the same incidents, described using the same words.

The one really at fault is me. I should have DNF-ed this awful book a month and a half ago instead of slogging through it.

Highlights

Page 316

As death threats had been made against the wolves, armed law-enforcement rangers guarded the packs twenty-four hours a day while they were in the pens. Those rangers, who trudged through deep snow in subzero temperatures throughout the long Wyoming winter nights, were the unsung heroes of the story. Thanks to their dedicated work, no wolves were harmed while in their pens.

Page 374

The female continued in the lead and the other five followed. As I was soon to learn, it is the alpha female who makes most of the decisions for the pack, such as choosing the direction of travel, and the rest of the wolves, including the alpha male, follow.

Page 671

That day 8 and 9 started to form a long-term pair bond, something only 3 to 5 percent of the roughly five thousand mammal species in the world do, something humans and wolves have in common.

Page 689

That was the first time we documented a case of an unrelated male joining an existing pack after the death of its alpha male and adopting and raising the pups as if they were his own. For most predator species, the normal behavior for a new male would be to kill the young of the prior male, breed the female, then help raise the young he sired. That is the custom in African lion prides, for instance, but male wolves are different. In all the cases I later witnessed, new alpha males helped raise the pups born to the previous male. That behavior was likely a key reason for the successful domestication of wolves by early humans. Nearly everyone knows of a family with a big male dog who is gentle with toddlers and young children, even when they tug on the dog’s ears and tail. That tolerance, along with dogs’ desire to play with kids and protect them, comes directly from their wolf ancestors.

Page 885

I did not see it that day, but when wolf parents return to the den after feeding, the pups run over and greet them by jumping up and licking the sides of their jaws. That triggers the adults to regurgitate meat they are carrying in their stomachs. The wolf lowers its head and brings up chunks of freshly swallowed meat. Each pup grabs a piece, runs off with it, and gulps it down. If the mother wolf stays back at the den to tend to the pups while the father goes out to hunt, he feeds her the same way. That face licking by wolf pups is the reason pet dogs lick the faces of their human friends when they return home. For dogs, it is a greeting, but the behavior originated with their wolf ancestors and had a different purpose: begging for food.

Page 042

That day I saw 8 and five of the yearlings. One carried a stick in its mouth. The yearling tossed it in the air and caught it. When it threw the stick up a second time, it arced over the wolf’s back. Leaning backwards to catch it, the yearling tripped and fell, then instantly jumped up and caught the stick before it hit the ground. It was a display of physical grace and agility worthy of basketball player Michael Jordan.

Note: This book is so old he needs to tell us what sport Michael Jordan played.

Page 053

A yearling joined 8 as he dropped the calf and lay down beside it. The two wolves fed for a while side by side until another yearling came over, and all three jointly fed on the carcass. Finally, the gray yearling arrived and 8 allowed her to eat as well. He could have kept the calf to himself or taken it up to the den and given it to his own pups, but he willingly shared with the yearlings he had adopted the previous fall. I later learned that not all wolves are as generous and sharing as he was. Like people, wolves have different personalities. Some are selfish and unnecessarily violent with family members and rival packs, and others are not. In studies of human behavior, the traditional big question is: Nature or nurture? Is a baby born with a personality that will stay the same for his or her life or does the child’s parental care and upbringing determine that personality? I did not know it at that time, but I would have a wolf case history to study in the coming years. I was destined to follow and document the entire life story of 21, one of 8’s adopted sons. As he lived out his long life, I studied his behavior to see how it might mirror what he learned from watching his father. Would his personality and character be like 8’s or would it be totally different?

Note: Going to guess he was influenced by his adopted father, unsurprisingly. And in fact, how would he even know 8 was his step-dad and not his real dad?

Page 079

After feeding, all eight Rose Creek wolves were bedded down by the calf carcass. Suddenly 8 jumped up and looked uphill to the west. I swung my spotting scope that way, expecting to see more elk with calves, but instead saw four Druid Peak wolves charging down directly at 8 and his family. That was my first view of the Druids, the wolves that had attacked 8’s original family, the Crystal Creek pack. The big alpha male, 38, who had torn apart his metal cage, the one who likely had killed 8’s father, was leading the charge. Behind 38 were three of the pack’s adult females. I looked back at the Rose Creek wolves and saw 8 charging uphill, straight toward the much bigger wolf. That put 8 between the enemy wolves and the yearlings. I thought of the stories I had heard about how his brothers had constantly picked on little 8 in the acclimation pen. Due to his size, he had probably never won a fight against any of his bigger siblings. But now, to protect the yearlings he had adopted and bonded with, he was willing to fight what looked like an invincible opponent. To reach the formidable Druid alpha male, 8 had to run uphill. That meant he would be tired and possibly out of breath when he met his opponent, who was running down the slope. 38 would have all the advantages in the fight: he was much bigger and stronger, he was older and more experienced in battle, and he had already proven his combat skills by defeating and killing 8’s father. Now he was running down the ridge straight at 8. What chance would 8, his father’s smallest son, have against such a wolf? Several thoughts flashed through my mind. Would 8 be exposed as an inadequate alpha male, one who could not fulfill the basic responsibility of protecting his family? Had 9 made a fatal mistake when she chose him to be her mate? As I watched 8 valiantly running uphill to confront the enemy, I thought of how some Native American warriors, facing impossible odds in battle, would charge forward yelling, “Today is a good day to die!” This was probably going to be the day of 8’s death. The two alphas slammed into each other and moments later were rolling around on the ground as they fought. Both were gray, so I could not tell which wolf was winning. Then the fight was over. Do you believe in miracles? I saw one gray standing in the dominant position over the other male, who was on his back. The upper gray bit the other wolf at will. It took me a few more moments to realize that the victor was 8.

Page 156

After her mother’s departure, that domineering daughter took over as the new alpha female. The pack now numbered four: the alpha male, the new gray alpha female, and her two black sisters. 40 ruled the pack ruthlessly, like Queen Cersei from Game of Thrones.

Note: When was this written?

Page 280

There had been a third den site, located just east of the Slough Creek Campground road, three miles from the other dens. Another female, wolf 19, from the original Rose Creek litter, also pregnant by 8, had given birth to four pups there. Soon after their birth, her collar sent out a mortality signal.

Note: He’s had children with 2 of his mates daughters. Is this normal?!

Page 313

Six pups ran out of the forest to greet 21, who had also come out from the trees. The seventh pup, the one with the tan shading, hung back as he had done before. I thought he might be sick or injured, and later I saw he had trouble walking and fell frequently. Because his movements were limited, the pup stayed alone uphill by the boulder, watching the other pups and 21, like a sick child looking at other kids playing. A few minutes later, 21 walked off from the six pups and trotted up to the seventh one. He sat beside the pup for some time, a big brother with his little brother, then returned to the others. That was a profound moment to witness. 21 would have been tired from the nighttime hunt and from carrying the big piece of meat to the den. He needed to rest for the next hunt. Despite that, he had noticed the last pup alone uphill and had gone up there to hang out with him. I have told thousands of people that story in my talks over the years. I then ask if they ever had a time when they were a kid when they came home sad or depressed, then had their dog run over, seem to understand their mood, and want to hang out with them. Nearly everyone said yes to that question and nodded when I asked if that had cheered them up. Dogs know what it is like to feel sad, lonely, neglected, or sick, can sense those feelings in humans through our body language and facial expressions, and can help us feel better just by choosing to be with us. They want to be our friend when we most need one.

Page 506

In her thesis, Linda writes extensively about members of the pack, other than the parents, who help to care for pups at dens and rendezvous sites. These could be older siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or unrelated wolves who have been allowed to join the pack. That communal effort by a multigenerational extended family is known as cooperative breeding and, according to researchers Dieter Lukas and Tim Clutton-Brock at the University of Cambridge in England, it occurs in less than 1 percent of mammal species.

Page 527

Since wolves normally reach sexual maturity at twenty-two months, helping their parents with pups when they are yearlings is perfectly timed to get young wolves prepared for adult life. Yearling male and female wolves who care for pups benefit in the long run by applying what they have learned when they later have pups of their own. In that sense they serve an apprenticeship with their parents, gaining practical experience in pup care and feeding so they know what to do when they have their first litter.

Page 586

The Wolf Project figured out that the average life span of a Yellowstone wolf is only about five to six years. 21 needed to get going on pairing off with a female and fathering pups.

Note: 5-6 years is not a lot, compared to domestic dogs.

Page 588

THE SEASON progressed, I noticed increased aggression among the Druid females. Grandmother 39 often bedded down apart from the others. One day I saw a bloody bite mark on her hip that was probably inflicted by her aggressive daughter 40. An ear was also wounded. When one of the black subordinate sisters moved toward her, 39 ran off in a fearful manner. The pack had a fresh kill in the area. The old white female waited for the pack to leave the site before she fed. In the following days, she continued to be very subordinate to the other females. Whenever 40 approached, she would go into a low crouch, tuck in her tail, and put her ears back, acting like a bullied kid who thinks she is about to be hit. One day I saw her bedded down apart from the pack at the rendezvous site. The other adults left on a hunt and passed by her without any greeting or acknowledgment. She stayed back with the pups. Later 41, the third-ranking female out of the four, came back and joined them. She still tolerated the old female.

Note: I dislike this pack based on what I’m reading but obviously I don’t know the whole story. Leaders are supposed to protect, but the leader bullies everyone, who in turn bully each other. And the pups all learn this behaviour.

Page 656

IN LATE NOVEMBER 1997, tragedy struck the Druid pack. By that time, the aggressive 40 had driven the two lowest-ranking females, 39 and 41, from the pack. The four remaining adults, along with the five pups, had traveled out of the park to the east. Both adult males were illegally shot there. The young male, wolf 31, soon died of his wounds, but the big alpha male, wolf 38, lingered on, unable to move because of his injuries. Doug Smith repeatedly flew over his location and even dropped meat for him, but he never ate it. After eleven days, the male died. His normal weight at that time was 125 pounds, but he was down to just 88 at the time of his death.

Note: I wonder if illegal hunting is what made the lifespan of the Yellowstone wolves 5-6 years.

Page 720

How would 8 and 9 view their son’s joining an enemy pack? From their point of view, he could be considered a traitor. If the Rose Creek and Druid wolves had another battle, what would happen if 8 and 21 came face to face? The two alpha males would not back down from protecting their families. If they fought, it would be father versus his adopted son.

Note: Drama!

Page 741

As I drove back up to the park, I thought about one wolf I never would see again. Grandmother 39 left Lamar Valley shortly after 21 joined the Druids and was later seen with wolf 52, one of 8’s sons who had dispersed from the Rose Creek pack. In early March 1998, she had been spotted east of the park, traveling through a ranch. 39 ignored the livestock there but was shot and killed anyway. The man who killed her said he mistook her for a coyote. At the time she was big for a female wolf, about 125 pounds. Most local coyotes range between 25 and 35 pounds. The shooter reported the incident, pleaded guilty to killing her, and was fined $500.

Note: Damn, I had grown attached to 39.

Page 781

Just moments before, 107 had been watching a large herd of elk cows and sniffing the air as though he was evaluating their scent. I thought about how many dogs naturally detect health problems such as cancer in their human companions, while other dogs learn how to do so when trained. That skill comes from their wolf ancestors. That yearling had probably learned to sniff the air to analyze the various scents for hints of infections, disease, and injury. If he detected something, he could circle the elk herd, try to determine which animal was emitting that scent, approach it, and test its vigor. It was an efficient method of sorting out healthy animals from sick ones, a way to work smarter, rather than just harder.

Note: Wow I never thought of this. It’s obvious how this skill is useful for hunting.

Page 805

Twice a week, rotating pairs of Wolf Project staff and volunteers monitored four dens (Druid, Rose Creek, Leopold, and Chief Joseph) for twenty-four hours, split into three eight-hour shifts.

Note: Would be easier now with gps collars and motion sensing HD cameras.

Page 823

Yellowstone is home of the grizzly bear and wolf and free-ranging herds of bison and elk… . The National Park Service preserves, unimpaired, these and other natural and cultural resources and values for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.

Page 842

Once the sisters got bored with that game, they wrestled each other. I got the sense 105 was letting her little sister pin her. After seeing that behavior and other examples of pups and yearlings playing and bigger wolves letting smaller ones win, I came to think that larger siblings will sometimes pretend to lose wrestling matches to keep play sessions going. Otherwise, smaller wolves would eventually avoid playing with siblings that always beat them.

Page 902

Because they spent a lot of time watching the Rose Creek dens in 1996 and 1997, I also talked with Wolf Project volunteers Debbie Lineweaver and Jason Wilson about their impressions of the relationship between 8 and 21. Debbie told me the two males seemed to have an understanding that they needed to cooperate to get things done for the pack, especially hunting and bringing food back to the den. She said they divided up the responsibilities of feeding and protecting the family and used the term “co-leadership.” Jason told me he never saw the older wolf dominate 21 or witnessed the younger wolf challenge the wolf who had adopted him in any way. “They had an easy relationship,” he told me, “with no dominance or class distinction.” He added that it “was a partnership of equals.”

Page 958

A moment later, I saw 42 running off with the dead fawn in her mouth. 40 wagged her tail at her sister, as though she now wanted to be friends and get a share of the fawn. But 42 ignored her, ran farther away, then bedded down. She kept the fawn to herself and ate it. 40 respected her sister’s right to the food and did not bother her. From that incident I learned that low-ranking pack members have a right of ownership to food they possess, even if a higher-ranking wolf might want to take it from them. It was like seeing a big dog respecting a much smaller dog’s right to the food in its bowl. 21 also killed a pronghorn fawn, but he shared it with some of the yearlings, something he regularly did. I remembered the time at Slough Creek when 8 had killed an elk calf and shared it with three of his adopted yearlings. This was another case of 21 modeling his behavior after 8.

Page 217

I was reminded of how dangerous elk hunting is for wolves. Closing in on one cow, 106 got right behind her. The cow kicked back and knocked her down. She rolled and tumbled but got back up. The wolf did not renew the chase, probably due to the pain from the blow. Over the years I saw many park wolves with bad limps or broken legs, injuries probably inflicted when elk kicked them. One alpha male broke his right front leg three times. It fused on its own after each break but ended up crooked. After each broken bone he soldiered on, walking and running on three legs until the bone fused. Sometimes, as with the Crystal Creek alpha male, wolf 6, the encounters with elk were fatal. Late in October that year, we got a mortality signal from one of the Rose Creek male yearlings up the Lamar River. Several of us hiked out and found him. He had a single puncture wound in the center of his chest, the diameter of an elk antler point. Hunting is not the only way wolves get injured or even killed. The Wolf Project has documented that the most common cause of death for adult wolves in the park is to be killed by a rival pack. Wolves fight over territories and kill each other during those battles, just like people fight and kill each other over land and possessions. As I wrote earlier, that aggressive territorial behavior works to limit wolf numbers in the park. Even though the park spans 2.2 million acres, an area nearly half the size of Massachusetts, there are only ten or eleven good-quality wolf territories with sufficient prey numbers to support a pack. Wolf packs in Yellowstone tend to be about ten animals. In recent years, the wolf population has averaged just one hundred, about the same number that originally lived in the area before it became a park.

Page 615

I later saw that pups naturally know how to swim, but some are fearful when they first encounter a river or wide creek. 42 was a master at taking control of that type of situation. I once saw her swim back to pups who refused to enter the water, pick up a stick, show it to those pups, and run off. As they chased her, she waded into the creek, still holding the stick, and the pups followed, not understanding she was tricking them. When it got deeper, they started to dog paddle and were halfway across before they realized they were swimming. 42 seemed to be gifted at figuring out how to help pups overcome problems in ways that gave them confidence. She could have picked up the pups one by one in her mouth and carried them across, but that plan would have never taught them the swimming lesson.

Note: That’s actually incredibly intelligent

Page 672

On another day, I spotted 163 returning to the rendezvous site with a strip of meat. Four of the pups ran after him. One tried to snatch it out of his mouth, but he blocked it with his shoulder. He laid the five-inch piece of meat on the ground in front of them, like he was daring them to pick it up. One pup crouched down and tried to reach it, but the yearling lunged at it and the pup backed off. 163 picked up the meat, walked off a short distance, then put it down again. The pups came to him, but did not try to get it. After grabbing it and walking away a second time, the yearling once more laid it on the ground. The pups joined him. Two made attempts to steal it but he blocked them. All four pups bedded and watched him, looking like schoolkids waiting for their teacher to give them permission to eat a snack. Their situation reminded me of how some dog owners put a treat on their pet’s nose and train the dog to stay motionless until they give it permission to eat it. Dogs must hate that trick.

Page 846

The Rose Creek pack had spent the summer in the high country to the north, and I had not seen them for nearly four months. The founding alpha female was no longer in the pack. Her daughter, wolf 18, had driven her out, just as 40 had driven out her mother. As of 2019, I know of no cases in Yellowstone where a son has driven his father out of the pack. Since I had followed 9 for so many years and knew the tragedies and difficult times she had endured, especially the loss of her original mate, it was depressing to learn that her adult daughter had exiled her and taken over the top position. But 9 was not a wolf who let setbacks derail her life. She traveled east of the park, settled down in the Shoshone National Forest, and started a new group there known as the Beartooth pack. One of her grandsons, wolf 164, who had been born into the Sheep Mountain pack, joined her. One, then another Rose Creek female also became part of the group. I was amazed at how those other Rose Creek wolves had managed to find their former alpha female so far from the pack’s territory, but I later learned that wolves are very good at finding each other over vast distances. The dispersing Rose females had, it seemed, decided to remain loyal to the alpha they had always known rather than switch their allegiance to the daughter who had usurped her. All those wolves were black. Through early 2018, all Beartooth adults and pups have been black. As far as we know, the current members of the Beartooth pack are all descended from 9.

Page 863

Meanwhile in the Druid pack, 8’s adopted son 21 was obviously much closer to 42 than he was to 40. He played with her far more often than he played with her sister. I saw them take turns licking each other’s faces. 21 often did play bows to 42 and romped around her. One of his favorite games was getting her to chase him. When he was leading the pack, he repeatedly looked back to check on her. He was more reserved with 40, and they seemed to have what might be called a professional relationship, rather than the playful and flirty one he had with 42. The problem was 40 was the alpha female and that made her the boss of the pack. It did occur to me that the lives of 21 and 42 would be so much easier if something happened to 40.

Note: The author is so annoying. He wants us to like 21 so badly but it’s abundantly clear to me that 21 is a fucking loser. He does absolutely nothing while 40 actually murdered his own children by 42. He doesn’t stand up for anyone in his pack getting bullied. An alpha that doesn’t protect his pack is useless. Meanwhile the author is trying to build him up as the greatest wolf that ever was. Give it a fucking rest dude.

This shitty attitude from the author is one of the reasons this book has been a slog for me.

Page 895

Years later Kira Cassidy, a Wolf Project biologist, analyzed our records of encounters between wolf packs. The three most important factors in determining the winning side were the total count of wolves in each pack, the number of adult males, and the number of pack members over six years old. Having two adult males that both scent marked was significantly better than having just one. Kira found that having one more adult male than their opponents increased that pack’s chances of defeating the rival group by 65 percent.

Page 944

Over many years of collecting data, we found that an adult wolf needs 1.4 to 2.2 adult elk carcasses per month in the winter to stay in good health. Those elk could be a combination of ones the wolf killed and ones that died of natural causes. One adult bison could substitute for perhaps three elk.

Page 974

I later saw that pup invent a new game. After catching a vole, he repeatedly tossed it in the air, then leaped up and tried to bat it with a front paw as it dropped to the ground. I added baseball to the list of games pups play.

Note: Animals play with their food too

Page 980

40 and the black pup lagged behind the other Druids as the Crystal wolves raced after them. 21 was ahead of them, staying close to the two gray pups, acting as their bodyguard. He led them down into the Yellowstone River corridor, and the other Druids followed his route. The Crystal pack also ran into that area. Three days later, we spotted the Druids and noticed the black pup was missing. We never saw him again and concluded the Crystal wolves had probably caught up with the pup and killed him.

Note: Not 21 being a lousy alpha yet again Jesus Christ.

Page 987

That meant that with the year about over, only two of the six Druid pups were still alive, a survival rate of 33 percent. The Wolf Project keeps records of pup survival from birth in April to the end of the year, and from 1995 to 2017 the average survival rate was 73 percent. The previous year, 1998, one of two Druid pups had survived. The pack was not doing well in raising their pups.

Note: 21 sucks doesn’t he? Fucking useless.

Page 033

While writing this book, I spoke to Jim Halfpenny about 8’s skull. Sue Ware of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Jim had examined it after 8’s death. Jim told me two canine teeth were missing, one was broken off, and the fourth one was worn. A wolf’s four canines are the long, sharp front teeth used to bite and kill prey. Several other teeth were missing or broken. There were a lot of abscesses, meaning infections, in his jaws. Jim said that there would have been a bad smell from those areas. 8 would have learned how to detect the scent of sickness and infection in prey animals and would know that he was now giving off that scent himself. Jim loaned me two photos of 8’s skull, and I saw that his jawbones were honeycombed with gaping holes from those infections. The front of his lower jaw looked more like a sponge than bone. The pain he must have endured from those abscesses would be unimaginable.

Note: I know people who say that natural living prevents infections.

Page 040

The spacing between the two broken teeth on his right side, the upper canine and upper premolar, was about the same width as an elk hoof. Based on that, Jim felt there was a good chance 8 had been kicked squarely on the right side of the jaw by an elk. There were signs of healing, which indicated that injury had happened well before his death. On thinking about Jim’s comments, I realized that I might have witnessed that kick to his head during 8’s fight with the calf in the creek. Many years later, when I was reading about how so many NFL players suffered from brain damage after receiving repeated blows to their heads, I wondered if 8 had the same syndrome. A study of 111 brains of deceased professional football players found 110 had evidence of degenerative brain disease (chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE), due to those hits. All those players wore helmets. 8 had nothing protecting his brain. I tried to calculate how many successful hunts 8 had been on during his fifty-six-month tenure as alpha male and figured it easily had to be several hundred. Consider the impact of the punches Muhammad Ali took to his head during his sixty-one professional fights. 8 had way more fights, many of them fights to the death with animals far bigger and stronger than he was. All the blows he received made him old and disabled before his time, like they did Ali. Ali retired, but 8 did not have that option. Whatever injuries he endured, he had to continue to go out on hunts and expose himself to more blows. He soldiered on, fueled solely by willpower. But the reality was he could not continue like this much longer. I thought about a quote from Ali that poignantly summed up his life, as well as 8’s: “What I suffered physically was worth what I accomplished in life. A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything.”

Page 079

A few years later, I found the partial remains of one of 21’s granddaughters near a bull elk carcass close to the road. Her head, three legs, several ribs, and a lot of clumps of fur were at the site. The rest of her body was missing, apparently eaten. I investigated the incident and got a report that a wolf had been seen heading to the carcass three days earlier. That night, a Wolf Project volunteer had seen a big mountain lion running across the road toward the site. We went back to where we had found the wolf and spotted a lion track. We concluded that the lion had probably found the wolf at the carcass and then killed and eaten her. That incident helped me understand why the Druids had killed those four young lions. 21 regarded them as a threat to his family. The subsequent death of his granddaughter proved him right.

Note: I’m so tired of his 21 propaganda.

Page 108

The next moment he fell over on his side, the way a comedian might do a pratfall for laughs. There was only one word to describe the antics of this father wolf as he played with his family on that Christmas day: goofy. I have now watched and studied wolves for forty years in Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming, and I have never seen another alpha male behave like that. But when 21 stood up, anyone could see him as he really was: the toughest, most powerful wolf in the park. If a Marvel Comics artist were to draw an idealized superhero wolf, a new member of the Avengers, the portrait would look like 21 did at that moment.

Note: I see why he became a propagandist, but it’s still tiring to read.

Page 180

The next morning, I got the Druid signals from their den forest. I later saw the Rose wolves miles west of there, back in their territory. There were ten, the same total as I had yesterday: eight in the main group and the two blacks I had seen above them. I returned to Lamar Valley and spotted all eight Druids, including their two pups. None of the wolves from either pack was missing or appeared injured. After many hours of not knowing if any wolves had been killed or hurt, I could finally relax.

Note: He genuinely cares about them though.

Page 213

As the years went by, 21 never lost a real fight with another male. He was the undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion. I once saw him fight six rival wolves by himself and still win. All that proved that 21 had no fear of getting into fights and reinforced my thinking about why he ran past 8 that day. 21 continued the tradition he had learned from 8 when he saw his father defeat the original Druid alpha male, wolf 38, and let him go. As far as I know, 21 never killed a defeated rival.

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