I just finished reading American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee and it was really good. I am surprised it is not talked about that much here. This book covers the history of wolf reintroduction and politics surrounding them. The author does a good job explaining both sides without being too particularly bias.
The first chapter opens with a hunter’s perspective on wolves but then the rest of book mostly focuses on the wolf’s perspective. The book follows one Yellowstone wolf in particular known as O-Six. It goes into great detail about the life history of O-Six such as how she became an alpha, how she formed her pack, and so on. I enjoyed learning about the lives of these wolves.
The meat of the drama surrounding wolves is that despite compensation to farmers and killing wolves that target cattle, this is not enough to satisfy the farmers. They want wolves to be completely eradicated. Red states particularly want to drastically reduce the populations of wolves within their states. So with wolves there is the danger of history repeating itself. That is why wolves have taken on and off the endangered species list over the years. Within these windows of wolves being delisted, hundred to thousands of them have been killed.
Overall it is a great read and I would recommend it. I actually going on a trip to Montana and Yellowstone next month so I am hoping to see some wolves there.
by AwesomeFrito