The Great American Wolf

For close to four hundred years, the wolf was this continent's most reviled animal. It became the object of a passionate, brutal hatred of the type humans usually reserve for members of their own kind. "Hundreds of thousands of wolves were trapped, poisoned, shot, or dynamited in their dens," Bruce Hampton writes. Many suffered deaths that carried the marks of revenge, such as being burned alive or scalped; others had their mouths wired shut or their eyes pierced with branding irons before being released to starve to death. Then, within the past quarter century, public and scientific opinion reversed itself, and the wolf became the emblem of wildness, tolerated and even desired in its former range. How this respect was won and the wolf's probable future are highlights of this vivid and comprehensive account, which serves as a vital contribution to our understanding of wildlife and wilderness management at the close of the millennium.