Following the Pack - Mike Link & Katie Crowley

It's over 20 years old, but it was a brief overview of the state of wolf populations across most of the world, as well as looking at what research had been done in the various locations, and what legal protections there were, if any.

Most of this is done with short sections in each chapter focusing on a particular researcher, naturalist, or advocate of the wolves in that part of the world. There's a quick biography of the person, description of the work they've been involved with, some quotes from the authors' discussions with them. It's an interesting mix of people who very much came through the academic path and have remained as researchers, to people with none of that sort of formal training. Instead they learned and grew interested in wolves or nature through childhood experiences or working with trappers.

It's interesting to read an older book like this, since it mentions things like the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone as something that had only recently been approved, and hadn't even started at the time this book was published. Now we're 20 years in, and there's something like 100-120 wolves running around in the park. Or it discusses the efforts to maintain populations of red and Mexican wolves in captivity and gradually release them in the wild. The red wolves had been getting slowly released in the book, but the Mexican wolves hadn't been. In the present, the Mexican wolves are doing a bit better in both captivity and the wild, and the Fish & Wildlife Service may be abandoning releasing red wolves into the wild entirely.

The talks with the different researchers also provides a chance to discuss the attitudes of people in those areas towards the wolves. As you might guess, people who have livestock at stake tend not to be big fans, although in the section on Mexican wolves, it was mentioned the idea of radio collars that could be triggered at a distance to inject a sedative (so that a wolf that was killing livestock could be removed) was winning some converts among landowners.

One area that certainly has wolves that isn't discussed is Russia, which I assume has to do with how recently this book was written after the fall of the Soviet Union. Looking around online, it doesn't appear there was much research into wolves in Russia in the 20th Century, except in how to most effectively kill lots of them.

'While most people assume that Scandinavia would support the most wolves in Europe since there is a relatively small human population and a wild landscape, the opposite is true. The feeling of wilderness is deceptive. This is a very managed land, and the wolf is not wanted. The wildness of the wolf defies the sense of complete control that the countries seem to want.'