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Show OCTOBER “The Yellowstone Wolves, the First Year 1996 43 Wolves and Humans: Ferguson’s Examination By Kris Edwards he first time I went to the zoo, I saw a lioness, stretched long and pale across a smooth, flat rock in the dry, dusty sun of an Ohio summer. A ish moat narrow, green- 2» separated ¥ “ 7 we beet her from the chainfe link fence, which we ; é clung to and peered through. The nearly aa iOS Gary Ferguson imperceptible magic that shot through me as I watched her was eclipsed instantly by an overpowering sorrow that soon gave way to anger. I could find no explanation for why this magnificent animal was trapped in that enclosure, separated from me by the moat, by the chain-link fence, by a distance that I could not begin to understand. I didn’t stay long, because I couldn't. The silent, suppressed rag e that | felt on seeing that lioness came back to me as I read Gary Ferguson’s book “The Yellowstone Wolves, the first year.” In telling the story of the first year of the wolves in Yellowstone, Ferguson allows us to question what it means to transplant these wolves, to interfere with their existence, ultimately to control the lives of the 100 wolves that can be supported by the Yellowstone ecosystem. Only 100, no more, the rest will be managed, killed, transported, relocated or used for research. Ferguson writes the story earnestly, warmly, with an appreciation for the complexity and long history of what it means to bring these wolves back to Yellowstone National Park. He tells about the fourteen wolves that were removed from their home territory in Canada, about the team of biologists, scientists and land managers who captured them, tranquilized and transported, studied and monitored them. Perhaps as importantly, he writes about the onlookers, the public, you and I, who came looking, watching and waiting — searching for the wolves, for even just a sighting of one. After the original fourteen are trapped and flown to Yellowstone, they are assigned to pens for nine weeks. It is believed, as Ferguson details, that nine weeks of prison time will allow for the formation of new family bonds arid reduce the possibility that the displaced wolves will immediately launch off to the north for their lost homes and families. But the pens are tough on the animals, he writes: “The Wolves make dramatic leaps high off the ground, clamping their teeth eight feet up on the fence and just dangling there for twenty to thirty sec- onds, die-hards trying to yank down the jail house walls.” With their teeth worn down and their faces bloodied from hours spent chewing on the fence trying to get out, there is worry that the animals’ ability to bring down large mammals, like elk or moose will be compromised. Wolves live by their teeth. Referring to the wearing of teeth as a sign of age, one See for yourself. biologists laments, “we brought in wolves. We're releasing old young ones.” But nowhere is Ferguson’s story more fragile and complicated and human than when he tells of “number Ten, a whopping robust male,” to whom the book is dedicated. “If there was one favorite wolf of all the workers in Canada, it was number Ten . . He was different than any other wolf we had. When he was in that holding area, though never aggressive, he never broke his stare.” Number Ten was the first of the Yellowstone wolves to be killed, shot by Chad McKittrick, a local, who, depending on who you believe, killed number Ten by mistake, by design or, as the judge at his trial opined, “as an intentional, thrill-seeking act in direct violation of the law.” Number Ten’s death leaves a nowfamous pregnant mate, who can wait no longer: “She makes her way downslope from the fire trail across patches of foot-deep snow, slips under the low-lying branches of an old spruce. She’s been there before, in this dark place, crouching on the east side of the tree trunk thoroughly hidden from the world, digging with her front paws through the thin layer of duff Continued on page 13 You Deserve This Kind Of, Pampering FREE SCREENINGS & EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS With the focus of providing the highest quality care, Moran Eye Center physicians offer a full range of refractive surgery Cla LeU Ne 8 TS PARK CITX* 649-6363 ca Cola tera Dermalogica, options. Ore > EYE CENTER ts oUmH THE EXCIMER RADIAL Call ates Ptr LASER _ other KERATOTOMY yA re ae 585-EYES as reoister for ® the “= 7 = to register seminar to schedule an appointment PAGE 12 ; |