About the Book
Following five generations of female wolves including the famous 06 this gripping family saga set in Yellowstone National Park reveals the pivotal role that female wolves play in pack life.
Yellowstone's 06 female was called 'the most famous wolf in the world.' Her strength, beauty, and intelligence were unmatched, and her ability to hunt, protect her young cubs, and choose the right mates made her pack successful. In his latest book, award-winning author and renowned wolf researcher Rick McIntyre turns his spotting scope on 06 and more remarkable female wolves, telling the dramatic true story of five generations of female leaders in Yellowstone National Park.
As Rick shows us, female wolves, not their male counterparts, play the most pivotal roles in pack life. They choose who may mate with them and where their pack will hunt and raise pups. They negotiate treaties and fiercely defend their families. The only opponent they cannot defeat is a human with a gun.
In The Alpha Female Wolf, McIntyre profiles 06's rise to power. He also celebrates the lives of other female wolves who deserve our recognition. Throughout, McIntyre weaves wolf biology and storytelling into a page-turning narrative that, once again, gives readers a rare window into life in a wolf pack this time from a female point of view.
'Rick's writing is so vivid, so powerful, that I feel I have been right there with him among the wolves of Yellowstone. And I urge you, the reader, to come with us and discover the magic of wolf society.' Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE., Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
Table of Contents:
Map of Northeast Yellowstone National Park
Select Yellowstone Wolf Pack Territories 2009–2015
The Matriarchs
Foreword by Jane Goodall
Prologue
The History of the Druid Pack
Part I: 2009–2010
1 Acting as the Alpha
2 Enter the 06 Female
3 06 Puts Together a Team
4 06 and Her First Pups
5 06 Moves to Lamar Valley
Part II: 2011
6 06’s Second Litter
7 Prelude to War
Part III: 2012
8 Death on the Lamar River
9 The Rescue of the 06 Female
10 The Mollie’s Pack Attacks 06’s Family
11 The Den Raid
12 Teamwork
13 The Revenge of a Mother Wolf
14 The Lamar Pack in Late Summer
15 Hard Times
Part IV: 2013
16 Starting Over
17 The Setback
Part V: 2014
18 Quest for an Alpha Female
Part VI: 2015
19 Hard Times for 926
20 926’s Triumph
21 The Meaning of the Word Hope
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
References
Index
About the Author :
Rick McIntyre has spent more time observing and documenting wolves in the wild than any other person. A retired National Park ranger, McIntyre has spent more than forty years watching wolves in America's national parks, twenty-five of those years in Yellowstone, where he has accumulated over 100,000 wolf sightings, worked on the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Project, and educated the public about the park's wolves. He lives in Silver Gate, Montana.
Review :
"McIntyre continues his Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series with this vivid look at the life of the national park’s 06 female. McIntyre has a knack for creative comparisons—when 06 kills a grizzly cub to feed her pups, he writes that if she 'were a character in Game of Thrones, she would be known as Grizzly Slayer,'... Fans of the series will relish this dramatic installment."
—Publisher's Weekly
"No one has ever had the insight and intuitive understanding of wolves that Rick McIntyre brings to the page, because no one has ever had enough experience with the lifetimes of wild wolves to write their individual biographies. McIntyre is a phenomenon. His series of wolf books is unprecedented in writing about the natural world. And this book’s main focus, the career of the wolf called “06,” is astonishing by any measure."
—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild
“McIntyre’s meticulous observations have gifted legions of observers, and now readers, with new insights into the dynamic lives of Yellowstone wolf packs and with a new empathy for a species that challenges our own worldview, just by being wolves.”
—Rolf Peterson, author of The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance
"The fire and spirit of Yellowstone's matriarch wolves comes alive through Rick's compelling storytelling. The dramatic lives of 06, 42, 926 and other influential females, their loves, losses, hunting prowess, and tender moments of motherhood unfold in their tenacious fight to survive. These key females leave a legacy that ensures the success of Yellowstone's wolves. Read it!"
—Dr. Diane Boyd, wolf biologist
"This tragic story of one of Yellowstone’s most beloved wolves is one I know well, thanks to the time I spent in the park with Rick McIntyre and his fellow wolf aficionados. And yet what a pleasure it was to relive all of the joy and excitement she brought wolf watchers during her short time in the spotlight. This book, which places 06 squarely in a lineage of formidable females, will be a treasure for those whose paths crossed with 06’s over the years, and a revelation for those coming to her story for the first time. Highly recommended!"
—Nate Blakeslee, author of the New York Times bestseller American Wolf
“McIntyre’s stories let us understand why every hunter/gatherer society in the world admired wolves as “brothers and sisters in the hunt”—to be understood, respected, and on our most hopeful days, emulated.”
—Ed Bangs, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator for the Northern Rockies
"Rick McIntyre shares gripping and poignant stories about wolves that illustrate their lives in intimate detail. There has never been an adventure story starring wolves comparable to this one."
—Norman Bishop, Yellowstone Wolf Interpreter and Advisor to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and Living With Wolves
"Rick McIntyre's fourth book in a most remarkable series of books about 'all things wolves' is a gem, as were his first three outstanding books detailing the fascinating and surprising lives of the wolves of Yellowstone."
—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, co-author of A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without Humans
"There is simply NOTHING that Rick McIntyre has not experienced with wolves. What an accomplishment. He has made many insightful contributions about the nature of a very complex and fascinating carnivore."
—Lu Carbyn, author of The Buffalo Wolf
"Rick McIntyre has done it again. He is a seemingly endless source of stories about Yellowstone wolves. There is no drop-off in his fourth book in the Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series. This one, about key alpha females, gives us even more insights into the world of wolves and their society. No one has put in the hours watching wolves that McIntyre has. No one has his in-depth knowledge of individuals, the landscape, neighboring packs, and other wildlife. Using all this knowledge, he puts together stories of lead wolves in a way that has never been done before."
—Douglas W. Smith, senior wildlife biologist and project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project
“In The Alpha Female Wolf, Rick McIntyre tells the captivating story of legendary wolf 06 whose leadership, teamwork, and wisdom enabled her family to thrive through many challenges. McIntyre's riveting observations put the reader right there with generations of wolves as they play, eat, mate, and fight. Dazzling, heartbreaking, and hopeful.”
—Zazie Todd, author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy
"Rick McIntyre writes about wolves with the reverence they are owed. His detailed descriptions of the interwoven lives, deaths, deadly feuds, and romantic liaisons of Yellowstone’s wolves are Homeric in nature. And his intimate portrayals of individual wolves’ personalities and the sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic circumstances of their lives reveal them as kin to us, each of their days subject to fortune or fate as are our own."
—Amaroq Weiss, Senior Wolf Advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity
