Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild [Paperback]

James C. Halfpenny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

Spectacular color photos of Yellowstone National Park's wild wolves plus eye-witness stories from park scientists and "wolf watchers." An unprecendented portrait of individual wolves and wolf packs and astonishing new information about how wolves are changing the park's very nature. This book sets a new standard for wolf photography and natural history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Riverbend Publishing; 1st edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931832269
• ISBN-13: 978-1931832267
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 10.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Mammals

More About the Author

Jim is an author, scientist, educator whose interest in COLD (altitudinal, latitudinal, and seasonal) has taken him to all seven continents and Greenland. Jim's specialities include environmental ecology, animal tracking, and carnivores; his greatest academic love, bears, led to over 20 years studying black, grizzly and polar bears. He also works with wolverine, lynx, cougar and wolves.

Jim has written over 25 books and videos including some of his latest, Yellowstone Bears in the Wild, Track Plates for Mammals, and Tracking wolves: The Basics. He led the American East Greenland expeditions in 1975 and 1976 and is a Fellow of the Explorer's Club and received the Antarctic Service medal. Jim is past Chairman of the Board of Directors, senior instructor, and administrative liason officer of the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Currently Jim is President of A Naturalist's World, an ecological education company. A past Research Fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Jim was Director of the Mountain Research Station and the Long-Term Ecological Research program in the Alpine. He is listed in Who's Who in the World 1989-1993, Who's Who in Emerging Leaders 1989-1996, Who's Who in Western America 1987-1997 and Who's Who In Science. A Vietnam veteran, Jim received the Navy Achievement Medal with Combat "V" and Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm.

Jim received his Ph.D. in 1980 in Biology, Ecology, & Mammalogy from the University of Colorado. His B.S. in 1969 and M.S. in 1970 both in Botany & Ecology from the University of Wyoming. At the University of Wyoming, Jim was President of Wyoming Mountain Resuce and the Outing Club, on the President's Academic Honor Roll, University of Wyoming and a four-year letterman in diving, swimming and water polo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Re-introduction Triumph., January 31, 2004

By 

Christopher Girvan "wolfgirv" (Menzies Creek- Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild (Paperback)

When the introduction of Wolves into Yellowstone National Park first occured in 1995/96 many books appeared celebrating and philosophizing the environmental and social effects of that success. Now, eight years later comes this wonderful book that not only looks at the success of the Yellowstone experiment, but also at those pioneering Wolves, the actual animals who braved that unknown scientific test to see if, after 80 years, the Wolf could again be a part of the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Author James C Halfpenny has beautifully, with just the right amount of anthropomorphism, detailed the lives and experiences of the introduced wolves known to us only by numbers. But like all animal/human interactions even a number can create an emotional attachment, as was the case with the fate of Rose Creek number 10M, the 'Big Guy', whose ultimate sacrifice became the strenghth and symbol of the desire for the Yellowstone experiment to be a success despite the echoes of human hatred still being felt throughout the wilderness.

Ultimately, with all popular wolf books, it is the photographs that are the real joy to most readers, and again this publication delivers. Beautiful and fascinating pictures are presented throughout, and with the well advertised phrase 'no captive wolves" ,a unique claim also, it should be noted, found in David L Mech's Arctic Wolf: Living with the pack (1988) and Jim Brandenberg's White Wolf (1988)and Brother Wolf: a Forgotten Promise (1993) , the photographs take on a special importance of being truely wild and free animals in an environment that had been stolen from them for so many decades. Also included in this text are several Appendices, outlining the original packs and pack members, detailing their histories and social status and also the 2002 wolf packs, their members, offspring and pack locations around the park.

For those wolf enthusiasts who enjoyed the Yellowstone wolf experience in the books, Yellowstone Wolves (Ferguson) Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone (McNamee) Yellowstone Wolf Guide & Sourcebook (Scullery) and Wolves of Yellowstone (Philips & Smith),this is an essential addition to that collection of documents about the most successful animal re-introduction program ever undertaken. As Henry David Thoreau once wrote -" In wildness Is the preservation of the World "-

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning photo book and a first-class reference, October 13, 2003

By 

H. Todd Wheeler (West Linn, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild (Paperback)

I have high expectations of any work of Jim Halfpenny's, but Yellowstone Wolves is absolutely stunning. In logical progression this book describes the latest field biology and the story of one of the few successful wildlife restoration projects. In describing the "how" of returning a key predator to Yellowstone, it answers the more important but harder question of "why."
Unlike similar, decorative nature books with captions and text created to suit stunning photos of posed, penned, or tame animals, this book uses only photos of Yellowstone's free ranging, wild wolves. This is not just a noble abstract ideal, like using recycled products; it is at the root of the editorial concept for the book. Jim has selected each photo to illustrate a specific point in Yellowstone wolf ecology. There are close portraits of individual animals, but they do not dominate. I think the best photos are more distant ones where the body language of the pack illustrates a point of mainstream wolf behavior, like traveling single file in heavy snow, a strong but not necessarily alpha wolf breaking trail for the rest, or an alpha male following the alpha female up a hill. For contrast, there are photos of unusual or individual behavior, like wolf 224M in a "mousing" leap that he is particularly apt to display after a pack kill of conventional prey. It could be play or it could involve things we don't understand yet, as Jim freely admits.
The book concludes with numerous technical appendices, including "snapshot charts" that show, in remarkably compressed shorthand, the gender, age, social standing, and pack of origin for each yearling through alpha member of each pack.
Yellowstone Wolves is the rarest of formats: scientifically gray literature that is also entertaining reading, artistically chosen photographs placed exactly within the text, clear identification of sources for key facts, and clear separation of fact, speculation, personal opinion, and dissenting ideas. It will join the small group of popular books that can be, and are, cited in scientific literature. All in all, it is a first class reference on technical merit disguised as a coffee table decoration.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully done, excellently written, October 13, 2003

By 

"swatson999" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild (Paperback)

Dr. James Halfpenny has done a marvelous job of telling the story of the Yellowstone wolves, using photos of the actual animals (no photos of captive wolves, a first for a book of this kind!). He marvelously interweaves biology and research topics with first-hand accounts and stories from the park staff, visitors and volunteers to give a rich account of what the Yellowstone Wolf Project has taught us about this magnificent animal.

The book contains a wealth of information on the wolves, including their reintroduction, the history of the packs, their behavior, and their impact on the entire ecosystem. Plenty of reference material at the end including ID charts and maps round out the factual data. Filled with personal accounts, gorgeous photos and fascinating stories, this book is a must for anyone interested in the most successful endangered species restoration project of the century.