The Reign of Wolf 21

Starred review from July 1, 2020
Yellowstone-based biologist McIntyre continues his saga of the park's wolf population. Picking up where The Rise of Wolf 8 (2019) left off, the author writes with clear affection of a male alpha called Wolf 21, the "adopted" son of Wolf 8. As McIntyre notes, 21's notion of what it meant to be the leader of the pack was "the exact opposite of what we think of in humans as an aggressive, dominating alpha male personality." He was affectionate and playful, leading more by example than by bullying. So taken is the author with 21 that he risks the cardinal sin of anthropomorphism, attributing to his hero noble intentions and behavior befitting an enlightened king, even to the point, at the end of this lovely book, of sadly dying of old age on a hilltop that "was the closest thing he had to a throne room." In between, McIntyre gives a close account of how wolves live and behave: Observing a wolf pup that wove an elusive path around the pack's rendezvous area and then buried a piece of meat out of sight of other pack members strongly suggests to McIntyre that wolves not only have an advanced sense of location, but also think in pictures, with 21 picking up the pup's scent and those of his other charges. Under 21's leadership, the so-called Druid pack flourished and grew, in part because 21 was indeed adopted into it. Since he was not related to any of the females in the pack, he could mate with all of them. Like Thomas McNamee, David Mech, Barry Lopez, and other literary naturalists with an interest in wolf behavior, McIntyre writes with both elegance and flair, making complex biology and ethology a pleasure to read. Fans of wild wolves will eat this one up. (8-page color insert, 5 maps)

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