The restoration of the gray wolf to Yellowstone was an epic with scores of heroes, dating back to the first advocate of reintroduction, the naturalist Aldo Leopold, in 1944. It would be full fifty years before the biologist Mike Phillips would lead the team that brought living wolves to their ancestral home, and in those decades the complexity of the story and the valor of the actors in it exceed any one writer’s capacity to record or even adequately to praise. Here I must confine my humble thanks to those who in the last glorious moments of struggle and victory made time for me in my efforts, first, in my book The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone, to portray this greatest event in the life of Yellowstone National Park and, now, in The Killing of Wolf Number Ten, to distill an essence of it.
I must single out Doug Smith, who was second in charge of the wolf project at its beginning and now leads it. Besides his wise and patient counsel to me, Doug has spent countless hours talking to schoolchildren, civic groups, journalists, every audience he can find who need to learn the truth of wolves in this world of misinformation. He has also written for magazines and newspapers, done radio interviews, and appeared on TV. And somehow, meanwhile, he has been conducting outstanding technical research and publishing its results in a wide range of scientific journals. I cannot imagine a finer example of that most necessary of citizens, the scientist unafraid to be an advocate.
There are a number of others who have been remarkably generous with their time and understanding. To the project leader Mike Phillips; to David Mech of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the world’s most knowledgeable authority on the wolf; to the veterinarian Mark Johnson, who never left the wolves from the moment of their capture to their release; to the trapper and tracker supreme Carter Niemeyer; to the strategician Ed Bangs; to their FWS colleague Joe Fontaine, who found Nine and her pups; and to the nonpareil investigator Tim Eicher, I extend heartfelt gratitude. To all the conservationists who worked so hard through so many years and finally triumphed, especially to my personal heroes Renée Askins of The Wolf Fund, Tom France of the National Wildlife Federation, and Hank Fischer of Defenders of Wildlife, let me speak for the millions who owe you gratitude. To Bill Strachan, who published The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone in 1997 and who now has shepherded this little book to Yellowstone, to David Wilk, who figured out how to publish it in a uniquely creative way, and to David McCormick, my literary agent and friend, my gratitude.
And let a bright spotlight shine on Sandra Nykerk, who spent I can’t even think how many hours bringing hopelessly fuzzy and contrastless photographs to life, and who has been the sweetest and truest of friends. Sandy, you have not only my gratitude but my lifelong affection.
Last, because most, to my dear Elizabeth, my gratitude and all my love.