5 New Greatest Wolf Books that Bring You Into the Pack. 2023 Edition
Five unforgettable books by two unusual authors, Rick McIntyre and John E. Marriott, bear witness to the family live of wolves. Prepare to be surprised. Image: ©Roberta Kravette
☞Editors Note: In the past we’ve added updates to our ongoing 9 Greatest Wolf Books list instead of producing a separate article. This year we decided to do something different. We think you will love these books - I do! But don’t forget these wonderful wolf editions.
Roberta Kravette, Editor and wolf lover!
Wolves.
They seem so familiar, as though we are connected, as though we know them, but then … Wolves are unknowable, unpredictable, and dangerous - aren't they? Isn’t that what we’ve traditionally been taught? I first began reading about wolves because I was curious. And what I discovered is that sometimes what we thought we knew, is wrong.
Thanks to the Yellowstone Project, started in the mid-1990’s the ability to daily observe generations of wolves in the wild has drastically changed our understanding of wolf behavior. Surprise! Wolves are not the gratuitously frightening animals of fairy tales and "histories."
A wolf pack's daily life is more complex - yet more familiar - than anyone imagined.
But, can anyone ever really know the wolf? These two authors come close.
Update! 5 New Greatest Wolf Books 2023 Edition, The Authors
The five books reviewed below by authors Rick McIntyre and John E Marriott, allow us to be as close to inside a wild wolf pack as any human will ever be. They offer surprising, delightful – and sometimes heartbreaking – insights into the everyday family life of these sentient creatures.
Rick McIntyre has spent a lifetime studying wild wolves. As Yellowstone's first Wolf Interpreter in 1994, through his unprecedented long-term study of daily wolf activity and his resulting thoughtful books, McIntyre has educated generations, helping to dispel the mystery and fear that colored our wolf perception for centuries. The four books of his Alpha Wolf Series, reviewed below, are not to be missed.
Photographer John E. Marriott is an Associate fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers, a Canon Ambassador, and the author of many books on Canadian wildlife. He co-founded, with Kim Odland, The Exposed Wildlife Conservancy (EWC), to effect change in the wildlife conservation landscape. John is based in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, on the outskirts of Banff National Park, and has a Bachelor of Sciences in Forestry and Wildlife.
Wildlife photographer and conservationist, John E. Marriott, followed a wolf pack in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada, alone for five years. Image: ©John E. Marriott
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A Chance Meeting in Yellowstone Opens a New Wolf World
The best time to observe Yellowstone’s wolves is in deep in the winter, when the temperature plunges to shiver-inducing lows and most of Park is closed to tourists. Recently, I was honored to bring a small group of (well bundled) women to watch and study Yellowstone’s wolves at exactly that time.
We found wolf expert, educator, and author, Rick McIntyre, tall and lean and layered to double his width. Rick stood on the side of the road behind his scope watching, and speaking softly into his recorder, as he documented another day in the life of Yellowstone’s wolves. Their family names are the stuff of legend, the Crystal Creek pack, the Leopold pack, the Mollies, and the most famous of all, the Druid Peak pack. Rick has studied them all. On that day, he - and we - were observing the Junction Butte pack.
Unlike us, the wolves didn’t seem to mind the cold; they looked, well, comfortable.
We were thrilled to meet Rick McIntyre - right (wearing wolf-spotting binoculars) in March 2022 in Yellowstone National Park, on the first Exploring Women’s Winter Wolf Trek. Rick was generous with his stories, told al fresco while the Junction Butte pack napped in the noon-day sun. It was an unforgettable highlight for Breda, Cheryl, Noreen, our guide, Brad, Jeanne and me (busy taking the picture) Image: ©Roberta Kravette
Outstanding Books That Bring Us Into the Pack
Rick McIntyre has been documenting the Yellowstone wolves since the very beginning of their reintroduction in 1995 and has spent more hours (in rain, snow, heat, and sub-zero weather,) chronicling their lives in the wild than any other human in history.
Lucky for us, McIntyre is not only passionate about wolves but equally passionate about sharing their stories. His Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series brings us into the packs, and is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn about wolves. Since I discovered them, they have taken their place among my very favorite books.
Rick McIntyre’s
The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone
The Rise of Wolf 8:
Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog
First of the series, The Rise of Wolf 8, tells the story of one of the original Yellowstone wolves. He was a comparatively small-sized male who became an unlikely Alpha, a patriarch notable for protecting his family against larger, stronger rivals while never resorting to killing an enemy. He and his long-time mate would raise one of the most famous males in Yellowstone’s story, wolf 21.
When I began this book, I didn't quite understand Rick’s approach. I have read – and loved – quite a few books on wolves, but most are at least equally about the writer as the wolves. McIntyre's books are biographies. Biographies of individual wolves and of the pack, and could only have been written by someone intimately familiar with them.
Like any compelling biography, the subjects are multidimensional, there are heroes and villains, bystanders and trusted allies, all with fascinating personal stories. Yes, McIntyre is on the page, but he is there as our eyes – our witness. Rick McIntyre's books bring you into the life of the pack.
The Reign of Wolf 21.
The Saga of Yellowstone's Legendary Druid Pack
The Druids were the largest wolf pack ever recorded with a huge defended territory - but their Alphas did not kill enemies. How is that possible?
McIntyre relates the Druids day-to-day family life in simple, matter-of-fact prose. Its Alpha pair, a big, powerful male, Wolf 21, who, raised by Wolf 8, learned and continued 8’s tradition of routinely allowing enemies to go free rather than kill them; and savvy, generous female, 42, who might have ended up as an abused and defeated footnote at the paws and jaws of her sister – but rose to change her life.
In the telling of 21 and 42’s story, danger and courage, tragedy and comedy, family responsibility and devotion are all themes. But there is also altruism, selflessness, and love, and, at last, a heartbreak that anyone who has lost a soul mate will understand. This is a Valentine, a love letter, with main characters whose stories, together and individually, will change everything you think you know about wolves.
If you are going to read only one book in the series – The Reign of Wolf 21 is the book to chose.
The Redemption of Wolf 302:
From Renegade to Yellowstone Alpha Male.
Every parent will recognize wolf 302 as the neighborhood's charismatic young ne'er-do-well, the one you hope your child will not fall for but invariably does.
The young 302 made his first appearance in The Reign of Wolf 21, an annoying thorn in Alpha male 21's side. Wolf 302 was flirtatious, opportunistic, almost always irresponsible, somewhat cowardly but good natured, and utterly relentless in pursuing females who invariably found him irresistible.
With so many young solid males to choose from, McIntyre continually wondered why the young female wolves flocked to this one who would sneak into their various territories, flirt, "do the deed," and quickly abandon them, leaving them (and their patient families) to cope with the resulting hungry pups, time and again.
And yet, there was something about 302 that gave you hope that, against the odds, eventually, he would mature and take his place as a responsible Alpha. The years went on. Can a wolf change? With diminishing hope, Rick McIntyre watched - and then…
The Alpha Female Wolf.
The Fierce Legacy of Yellowstone's '06
Who runs the wolf pack?
A wolf's life is full of play, but also full of danger. To survive, the pack must work as a unit, but who is in charge? And can a “lone” wolf, especially a female, make it in the wild?
This book is the story of a female who changed the narrative.
We tend to think ALPHA MALE in capital letters, but to understand the dynamics of a pack, first, you need to understand that a pack is family. The Alphas are the breeding pair, the parents; others members are usually kids – from pups to yearlings to young adult helpers, not quite ready to find mates of their own.
The young '06 female chose to set out on her own rather than be subordinate to her abusive Alpha sister. But the '06 also had no patience for a long-term partner. This was an independent female, a lone wolf fully capable of taking care of herself, a strong female who became the matriarch of a line of remarkable, independent, successful daughters.
Prepare to be inspired by the ‘06 female.
Coffee-table (Wolf) Images Meet Citizen Science
Wildlife photographer, John E.Marriott, spent five years solo tracking a family of wild wolves in Kootenay National Park, British Colombia, Canada. Then he waited to publish the story in order to protect the creatures he came to love. Image: ©John E. Marriott Facebook
The Kootenay Wolves
Five Years Following a Wolf Pack
John E. Marriott’s The Kootenay Wolves is coffee-table-book-meets-citizen-science. Marriott, a professional wildlife photographer (National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Macleans, and the Readers Digest), has assembled a beautiful, unique volume of wild wolf images taken in Canada's Kootenay National Park in southeastern British Colombia.
Wolf image coffee table books are almost ubiquitous - but two important points set “The Kootenay Wolves” a world apart from the other glossy volumes.
Kootenay Was No Ordinary Photo Session
The first difference is: the Kootenay wolves are wild, not captured and living in a "wild-like setting" like most other wolf photography books. And importantly, these are not Yellowstone wolves which, while wild and free, are also somewhat habituated to the smell and sound from their human roadside audience.
To be able to capture these images, Marriott spent five years alone, tracking an uncollared, unstudied, wary and elusive wild wolf family while dodging persistent wolf hunters, other photographers, heavy truck traffic, grizzlies - and a mountain lion.
Marriott persevered through long stretches without a wolf sighting, wondering if the Kootenay family was still alive – or had become hunter's trophies. When he was able to find them, he routinely abandoned his hard-won wolf-watching sites when discovered by his subjects – not because he feared for his safety but for theirs. Marriott makes very clear that to allow the wolves to become used to him, a photographer who meant no harm - could be the death knell for the pack. Marriott is a true conservation photographer.
The second difference is: The accompanying text of The Kootenay Wolves is in the spirit of McIntyre's writing, with captivating observations of wolf family life. But while McIntyre and Marriott share a love and respect for wolves, John is a photographer, not a career naturalist. He watches the interactions as you and I would – without intimate knowledge or experience of wolf family behavior. Every sighting is a shared new and wonderous discovery – and every observation is an acknowledgment of the precariousness of the wolf's existence.
The Kootenay Wolves is a book to display and to read and then thumb through and read again. And it make the perfect gift for a wolf lover or anyone interested in wildlife or conservation, or beautiful photography.
Be sure to not to miss the other wonderful books on wolves we have assembled over the years. 9 Great Books on Wolves 2021 Edition
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