American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West (book review)

Nate Blakeslee takes you inside a wolf’s den, and you follow the epic story of generations of wolves living and dying in Yellowstone, surrounded by hunters and farmers, grizzlies and elk.

Their lives are majestic and thrilling and fraught with danger and tragedy. Living in packs, wolves survive by arranging themselves hierarchically — with an alpha male and alpha female who get to mate and have a brood, surrounded by siblings and rivals and children who support the pack and get to eat in order of their seniority.

While not quite as classist as humans, where the world’s 26 richest people control 50 percent of all the wealth, wolves are always also trying to climb the social ladder. Promotions rarely come from within, only when an alpha dies can a beta male or female become CEO. So they have to venture out on their own, as a lone wolf, to find a mate and clan of their own.

It was thrilling to follow the lives of these wolves — O-Six was smart, beguiling, athletic and a true leader. You get to learn their personalities, and they sometimes show mercy, and sometimes exact revenge.

I found myself entranced by the lives of the wolves, and saddened that people would kill these animals for sport. What is sporting about luring these animals out of the woods and shooting them with a rifle?

Rated 5/5 on Goodreads.