Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves

by Brenda Peterson Narrated by Donna Postel

Overview

In the tradition of Peter Matthiessen's Wildlife in America or Aldo Leopold, Brenda Peterson tells the 300-year history of wild wolves in America. It is also our own history, seen through our relationship with wolves. The earliest Americans revered them. Settlers zealously exterminated them. Now, scientists, writers, and ordinary citizens are fighting to bring them back to the wild. Peterson, an eloquent voice in the battle for twenty years, makes the powerful case that without wolves, not only will our whole ecology unravel, but we'll lose much of our national soul.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A rich account of a most enigmatic creature."—Library Journal

"In eloquent language, Peterson brings us to the truisms that not only does wilderness need wolves, but wolves must thrive to make the world whole again."—Booklist

"Blending solid history with on-the-ground reportage, Peterson turns in a spirited defense of Canis lupus."—Kirkus Reviews

"Gripping and wonderfully lucid, this is both an entrancing and necessary read."—Manhattan Book Review

"[Wolf Nation] is a comprehensive look at these animals - their behavior and biology, why they howl and how they hunt, how alpha females can lead a family pack, and how their presence has improved every ecology to which they have returned."—Cosmos

"The story of how wolves...came to reinhabit the American West is recounted in Brenda Peterson's instructive new book...[She] has ideal credentials to undertake such a project."—Wall Street Journal

"In Wolf Nation, Peterson adeptly captures the plight of wolves on this continent, stressing the importance of their return to prominence in nature."

—Winnipeg Free Press

"A riveting, heartwarming, and occasionally heartbreaking history of wolves in America."
—Chicago Review of Books

"Peterson broadens the existing wolf-behavior knowledge base through well-informed discussions of the pivotal effect that wolves have on wild ecosystems, the increasingly sophisticated study of wolf biology, and not only why wolves howl but what they might be saying."
—Santa Fe New Mexican

"Peterson's considerable writing skills shine brilliantly through her engaging, flowing prose as she seamlessly interweaves science, history and memoir in this important and meticulously researched book."—Forbes, 'The 10 Best Environment, Climate Science and Conservation Books of 2017'

Library Journal

★ 04/01/2017
A veteran of the "wolf wars," Peterson (Sightings: The Gray Whale's Mysterious Journey) draws on her own deep experience and artfully mixes it with science, history, and Native American lore to create a rich account of a most enigmatic creature. She fully explores lupine biology and ethology, and chapters devoted to two famous wolves, "06" and "OR-7" (aka "Journey"), complement that information. Readers learn how apex predators benefit ecosystems, and witness reintroduction in progress with Mexican gray wolves. Although the author leaves no doubt as to where her sympathies lie, she spends time with hard-core opponents to wolf conservation as well as with hunters and ranchers who are warming to the idea. Readers get an aching sense of what Canis lupus is up against—two-legged mammals with guns, of course, and, behind them, state wildlife commissions stacked with hunter-members gung-ho about removing wolves' protected status. Equally malignant, Peterson says, is the negative mythic weight of imported big bad wolf fables and homespun Old West tales of the animal as public enemy. Her book stands as a wise and potent antidote. VERDICT Highly recommended for most public libraries and readers interested in the natural world. An accessible, worthy update to classics such as those by Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez.—Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Kirkus Reviews

2017-03-21
Blending solid history with on-the-ground reportage, natural history writer Peterson (Wolf Haven: Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North America, 2016, etc.) turns in a spirited defense of Canis lupus. The war on wolves is an ancient one. In the American West, where the author lives, ranchers fear wolves for their supposedly ravenous, profit-reducing hunger; elsewhere, wolves have been made into fairy-tale monsters. Against such clichés, Peterson serves up a few of her own, including the old saw about superior Native American wisdom in asking, "who speaks for wolf?" and the rather obvious nostrum, "to declare a person or an animal an enemy requires dehumanizing the other." Much of the spiritual ground, so to speak, that she covers has already been explored in better books by Barry Lopez and Peter Matthiessen, while Thomas McNamee and Rick McIntyre (who makes an appearance here) have done more comprehensive work in studying the fate of the wolf population of Yellowstone National Park. Yet, while she does not surpass them, Peterson adds important information, including her account of the recently articulated mechanisms of "trophic cascades," by which wolves are seen to have large implications for the health of wild ecosystems. "We are just beginning to understand wolf biology," she writes before examining some of those implications as they center on the fate of one fallen wolf. Often, Peterson's passing observations are as useful as the data she presents on wolves themselves. For instance, she notes, hopefully, that the millennial generation, though not identifying as "environmentalists" strictly speaking, are "the most environmental generation ever," supporting clean energy, strong regulatory programs, wilderness protection, and, yes, wolf reintroduction. There are other good takeaways here as well, including a lively discussion of why wolves howl and what kind of "vocabularies" they employ when doing so. Though with some overlap with the existing literature, a useful survey of the current state of all matters lupine.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170605002
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/26/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos