Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation

Abstract

L. D. Mech, L. Boitani (eds.). 2003. Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, and London, United Kingdom, 448 pp. ISBN ISBN 0-226-51696-2, price (hardbound), $49.00. One of the references most cited by wolf biologists has been Mech's (1970) seminal work, The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species . It is one of the few work-related books that adorn my living room shelves. On 1 June, 1978, Dr. Mech autographed it for me as we sat at a 3-person table in a converted tool shed that served as the bunkhouse on the Kenai National Moose Range in Alaska. At the time, he was already the alpha male of North American wolf biologists, and I drove the refuge's garbage truck. As we talked, I felt inspired about the insights science was providing about this mythical creature, the wolf. Dave and Luigi Boitani are still the alpha wolves of the new and old worlds, respectively, and I still basically clean up after people, but we are fortunate to have lived during a time when public interest in and research about wolves flourished. Wolves don't always make people's lives better, but wolves always make people's lives more interesting. Dave's and Luigi's work has fledged a host of outstanding biologists since the 1970s, and, to our great fortune, they were able to twist enough arms and call in enough old favors to …