Wolves have been a special interest of mine for many years, and I have a lot of books about them. Being interested in wolves leads naturally to being interested in other canids, so I have more than a few books about other members of the canid family too.
| Wolves |
Other canids |
Domestic dogs |
There's probably been more written about wolves than about any other single living animal. I'm mainly interested in the science of wolves, so that's what most of my wolf books are about. My books about wolves include:
ARCTIC WOLF: LIVING WITH THE PACK
Mech, L. David
c. 1989
In the late 1980s, wildlife photographer Jim Brandenburg and wolf biologist L. David Mech found an isolated pack of Arctic wolves living on Ellesmere Island. The Ellesmere wolves have never been hunted, so they have no fear of humans. As a result, these white wolves became Mech and Brandeburg's career for the next decade. Brandenburg and Mech were able to observe this particular pack in detail and at close range. Eventually they were accepted by the pack to such an extent that they were allowed to come into the wolves' den and photograph young cubs at play. This book is Mech's account of their first couple of years with the Ellesmere pack.
ARCTIC WOLF: TEN YEARS WITH THE PACK
Mech, L. David
c. 1999
An update of LIVING WITH THE PACK, Mech's first book about the Ellesmere wolf pack. This book makes full use of Mech's several years of additional observations of the original pack and also of other Ellesmere wolves.
THE COMPANY OF WOLVES
Steinhart, Peter
c.1995, Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0-679-41881-4
An in-depth look at wolves and knowledge about wolves over roughly the last century. Steinhart takes detailed looks at red wolves, the wolves of Isle Royale, and the wolves that were recently reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park. The Company of Wolves is like a complement or update to Barry Lopez's book Of Wolves and Men. Steinhart more or less updates Lopez's view of wolves with the fruits of an additional twenty years of wolf research.
FOLLOWING THE PACK: THE WORLD OF WOLF RESEARCH*
Link and Crowley
c.1994, Voyageur Press
ISBN: 0-89658-199-3
Summaries of the work of different wolf researchers of the past century.
OF WOLVES AND MEN
Lopez, Barry Holstun
c.1978, Charles Scribner's Sons
ISBN: 0-684-16322-5
A superb, unmatched profile of wolves and their interactions with humans over time. Lopez explores the biology of wolves, their evolution, and their relationship with man. He starts with a excellent look at the reality of northern wolves, then talks about how wolves and humans have interacted over the centuries. He discusses the almost hysterical, superstitious fear and hatred of wolves in Europe, and the slow, methodical extermination of wolves that followed. He then moves on to the wolves of the USA, and the brutal anti-wolf campaigns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which nearly eliminated wolves from the continental United States.
THE RETURN OF THE WOLF
Grooms, Steve
c.1993, NorthWord Press
ISBN: 1-55971-151-5
WHITE WOLF: LIVING WITH AN ARCTIC LEGEND
Brandenburg, Jim
c.1990, NorthWord Press
ISBN: 1-55971-093-4
Jim Brandenburg is the wildlife photographer who worked with L. David Mech in studying the white wolves of Ellesmere Island. For reasons I don't know, he chose to publish a separate book about his experiences with the Ellesmere wolves, rather than working with Mech on a joint project. This book is a photo/text collage which Brandenburg assembled from his several years' worth of photographs of the Ellesmere pack.
THE WOLF ALMANAC
Busch, Robert H.
c. 1998, Lyons Press
ISBN: 1-55821-557-3
Another general look at the wolf: its evolution, nature, ecological role, and history with humans. Interesting and well done.
WOLF WARS
Fischer, Hank
c.1995, Falcon Press
ISBN: 1-56044-352-9
For a couple of decades, environmentalists have wanted to re-introduce wolves to any fragment of their former range where they could still survive. Most of the areas that qualify are in the American West. This book chronicles the controversy over re-introducing wolves to several areas of the American West, including Yellowstone Park.
THE WOLF: GHOST HUNTER
LeBoeuf, Daniel
c.1996, Firefly Books
ISBN: 1-895565-98-7
THE WOLF: THE ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Mech, L. David
c.1970, Univ. of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0-8166-1026-6
Mech's first in-depth book about the dynamics of a wolf pack, activities, hunting, habits, range, etc. This book focuses entirely on his studies of the wolves of Isle Royale Park, on Isle Royale in Lake Michigan.
THE WOLVES OF MOUNT MCKINLEY
Murie, Adolph
c.1944, Univ. of Washington Press
ISBN: 0-295-96203-8
Adolph Murie's groundbreaking study of the wolves of Mount McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park) in Alaska, and the relationships between them and their prey. A classic work of wildlife science. Murie's detailed, thorough examination of the McKinley wolves and their prey set a standard not only for wolf studies, but for studies of all big predators.
Being interested in wolves naturally leads to an interest in their relatives, the other canids. So, I have a few books about other canids too. Coyotes are interesting because unlike wolves, they've adjusted quite well to man and are even expanding their range.
EASTERN COYOTE: THE STORY OF ITS SUCCESS
Parker, Gerry
c.1995, Nimbus Publishing
ISBN: 1-55109-111-9
Coyotes have proven more adaptable to humans than their larger cousin. As humans have spread west, coyotes have spread east. Today they live in every state in the USA, often within sight of major cities. Eastern coyotes are developing into a rather different breed than their ancestors: larger, somewhat more aggressive, and more dangerous. This book describes the development of the Eastern subspecies of coyote.
GOD'S DOG: THE NORTH AMERICAN COYOTE
Ryden, Hope
c. 1979, Lyons & Burford
ISBN 1-55821-046-6
SEASONS OF THE COYOTE*
Harrison, Philip L.
c.1994, HarperCollins
ISBN: 0-06-258529-0
A variety of articles from different authors about the American coyote.
The red fox is another canid that does well despite man's presence. I have a couple of books about foxes:
HOW TO SPOT A FOX*
Henry, J. David
c.1993, Chapters
ISBN: 1-881527-17-4
RED FOX: THE CATLIKE CANINE
Henry, J. David
c.1996, Smithsonian Institute
ISBN: 1-56098-635-2
A very good, extensive profile of the red fox. Extremely interesting, not only in the detailed observations of fox behavior but also in the methodical way that Henry went about answering some of his questions about why foxes behave in the ways that they do.
I also have several books that look at the entire canine family:
THE CANINE CLAN: A New Look at Man's Best Friend
McLoughlin, John C.
c.1983, Viking Press
ISBN: 0-670-20264-9
This is a well-written basic introduction to canids, including their origins, evolution, and the modern members of the clan.
FOXES, WOLVES, AND WILD DOGS OF THE WORLD
Alderton, David
c.1994, Facts On File
ISBN: 0-8160-2954-7
A very good general overview of the different living canids, from wolves to foxes to the odd-dogs-out like the dhole and the aardwolf.
WILD DOGS: THE WOLVES, COYOTES, AND FOXES OF NORTH AMERICA
Bauer, Erwin A.
c.1994, Chronicle Books
ISBN: 0-8118-0405-4
An overview of the wild canids of North America. Short on text, but Erwin Bauer is an extremely good wildlife photographer, and this book contains some of his best work.
Of course, you can't really be interested in wild canids for long without also getting interested in their domestic cousins. Especially not when you've spent much of your life around them. So I have a couple of books about domestic dogs:
SIMON & SCHUSTER'S GUIDE TO DOGS
Pugnetti, Gino
c.1980, Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-671-25527-4
A "field guide" to more than two hundred breeds of dog from around the world. Each entry has a photo of a typical member of the breed and a description of the breed standard and characteristics.
DOGS ON THE CASE
Curtis, Patricia
c.1989, E. P. Dutton
ISBN: 0-525-67274-5
A survey of the many jobs that working dogs do in our society, from the powerful german Shepherds that work as police dogs to the friendly, innocuous little dogs of the USDA's Beagle Brigade. Many people know that dogs can guide disabled people, track fugitives, find drugs and other contraband, find people trapped in collapsed buildings or under snow avalanches. But few people know that dogs can also sniff out cases of arson, find lost people, find corpses in rough terrain or even underwater, or help enforce customs rules and regulations.
EMINENT DOGS, DANGEROUS MEN
McCaig, Donald
c.1991, Harper
ISBN: 0-06-098114-8
Scotland breeds better sheepherding dogs than anywhere else in the world, except perhaps for Australia. Scottish sheepdogs are famous all over the world; if you're looking for top-quality sheepdogs, you go to Scotland. Donald McCaig wanted a top-notch sheepdog to help his and his first sheepdog on his Virginia sheep ranch. This is the story of his trip to Scotland and his meetings with eminent dogs (who always do well in herding trials) and dangerous men (the best at training winning sheepherding dogs).
HISTORY OF DOGS IN THE EARLY AMERICAS
Schwartz, Marion
c.1997, Yale Univ. Press
ISBN: 0-300-07519-7
The title pretty much describes this book: it's a history of the role dogs played in Amerind societies before Europeans first came to the Americas.
THE TRUTH ABOUT DOGS
Budiansky, Stephen
c.2000, Viking Press
ISBN: 0-670-89272-6
Domestic dogs occupy a curious place in human society and culture. Just on the surface, dogs appear to be almost parasitic on humans, taking food, shelter, medical care and returning little as payment. In this book, Stephen Budiansky goes into some depth about how this strange situation came to be: where dogs came from, how they evolved into the first of the many animals that humans have domesticated, and what roles they play in our lives today.
