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The Killing of Wolf Number Ten: The True Story
A killer. A manhunt. The triumph of justice and of the wolf.
The greatest event in Yellowstone history.
Greater Yellowstone was the last great truly intact ecosystem in the temperate zones of the earth—until, in the 1920s, U.S. government agents exterminated its top predator, the gray wolf. With traps and rifles, even torching pups in their dens, the killing campaign was entirely successful. The howl of the “evil” wolf was heard no more. The “good” animals—elk, deer, bison—proliferated, until they too had to be “managed.”
Two decades later, recognizing that ecosystems lacking their keystone predators tend to unravel, the visionary naturalist Aldo Leopold called for the return of the wolf to Yellowstone. It would take another fifty years for his vision to come true.
In the early 1990s, as the movement for Yellowstone wolf restoration gained momentum, rage against it grew apace. When at last, in February 1995, fifteen wolves were trapped in Alberta and brought to acclimation pens in Yellowstone, even then legal and political challenges continued. There was also a lot of talk in the bars about “shoot, shovel, and shut up.”
While the wolves’ enemies worked to return them to Canada, the biologists in charge of the project feared that the wolves might well return on their own. Once they were released, two packs remained in the national park, but one bore only one pup and the other none. The other, comprising Wolves Nine and Ten and Nine’s yearling daughter, disappeared.
They were in fact heading home. As they emerged from protected federal land, an unemployed ne’er-do-well from Red Lodge, Montana, trained a high-powered rifle on Wolf Number Ten and shot him through the chest.
Number Nine dug a den next to the body of her mate, and gave birth to eight pups. The story of their rescue and the manhunt for the killer is the heart of The Killing of Wolf Number Ten .
+
Read this book, and if you are ever fortunate enough to hear the howling of Yellowstone wolves, you will always think of Wolves Nine and Ten. If you ever see a Yellowstone wolf, chance are it will be carrying their DNA.
The restoration of the wolf to Yellowstone is now recognized as one of conservation’s greatest achievements, and Wolves Nine and Ten will always be known as its emblematic heroes.
The greatest event in Yellowstone history.
Greater Yellowstone was the last great truly intact ecosystem in the temperate zones of the earth—until, in the 1920s, U.S. government agents exterminated its top predator, the gray wolf. With traps and rifles, even torching pups in their dens, the killing campaign was entirely successful. The howl of the “evil” wolf was heard no more. The “good” animals—elk, deer, bison—proliferated, until they too had to be “managed.”
Two decades later, recognizing that ecosystems lacking their keystone predators tend to unravel, the visionary naturalist Aldo Leopold called for the return of the wolf to Yellowstone. It would take another fifty years for his vision to come true.
In the early 1990s, as the movement for Yellowstone wolf restoration gained momentum, rage against it grew apace. When at last, in February 1995, fifteen wolves were trapped in Alberta and brought to acclimation pens in Yellowstone, even then legal and political challenges continued. There was also a lot of talk in the bars about “shoot, shovel, and shut up.”
While the wolves’ enemies worked to return them to Canada, the biologists in charge of the project feared that the wolves might well return on their own. Once they were released, two packs remained in the national park, but one bore only one pup and the other none. The other, comprising Wolves Nine and Ten and Nine’s yearling daughter, disappeared.
They were in fact heading home. As they emerged from protected federal land, an unemployed ne’er-do-well from Red Lodge, Montana, trained a high-powered rifle on Wolf Number Ten and shot him through the chest.
Number Nine dug a den next to the body of her mate, and gave birth to eight pups. The story of their rescue and the manhunt for the killer is the heart of The Killing of Wolf Number Ten .
+
Read this book, and if you are ever fortunate enough to hear the howling of Yellowstone wolves, you will always think of Wolves Nine and Ten. If you ever see a Yellowstone wolf, chance are it will be carrying their DNA.
The restoration of the wolf to Yellowstone is now recognized as one of conservation’s greatest achievements, and Wolves Nine and Ten will always be known as its emblematic heroes.
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2014
26 people are currently reading
461 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 6, 2015
Please excuse me while I finish crying.
I continue to pick up books with such spoilerific and depressing titles as The Killing of Wolf Number Ten even though I know once I reach the back cover I will be a mixed bag of anger and sadness and hopeful optimism. It's a very mild form of self-inflicted torture. But I suppose that's kind of all reading.
Anyway, this was a short, quick, very emotionally charged read. The bulk of the story was dedicated to the story of wolves Nine and Ten, the first pair of wolves to establish roots in Yellowstone in some 70 years. I did like how the author also jumped ahead to more recent years and discussed the current state of the park and how the wolves are doing. Which of course was its own form of torture because of course an issue as big and complicated and with as much opposition as the wolf reintroduction is never going to have a neat and happy ending.
I didn't really realize it until I was staring at the chapter head with the date "January 12th, 1995" but the reintroduction of wolves, not just to Yellowstone but the rest of the lower 48, has been a part of my entire life. I was only 5 when wolves Nine and Ten were flown down from Canada and brought to Lamar Valley. Since I was old enough to be aware of the issue it has always been a concern of mine. It has brought me great joy to see wolves returned to so many areas of the States and I will be happier still when people abandon their misplaced fear and hatred of them.
Thomas McNamee does a wonderful job of capturing the tension, fear, joy and hope that everyone involved in the reintroduction effort felt as they work tirelessly to see the wolves returned to Yellowstone. I am grateful to him for this book and to everyone who worked so hard to bring home the wolf.
~Ren
I continue to pick up books with such spoilerific and depressing titles as The Killing of Wolf Number Ten even though I know once I reach the back cover I will be a mixed bag of anger and sadness and hopeful optimism. It's a very mild form of self-inflicted torture. But I suppose that's kind of all reading.
Anyway, this was a short, quick, very emotionally charged read. The bulk of the story was dedicated to the story of wolves Nine and Ten, the first pair of wolves to establish roots in Yellowstone in some 70 years. I did like how the author also jumped ahead to more recent years and discussed the current state of the park and how the wolves are doing. Which of course was its own form of torture because of course an issue as big and complicated and with as much opposition as the wolf reintroduction is never going to have a neat and happy ending.
I didn't really realize it until I was staring at the chapter head with the date "January 12th, 1995" but the reintroduction of wolves, not just to Yellowstone but the rest of the lower 48, has been a part of my entire life. I was only 5 when wolves Nine and Ten were flown down from Canada and brought to Lamar Valley. Since I was old enough to be aware of the issue it has always been a concern of mine. It has brought me great joy to see wolves returned to so many areas of the States and I will be happier still when people abandon their misplaced fear and hatred of them.
Thomas McNamee does a wonderful job of capturing the tension, fear, joy and hope that everyone involved in the reintroduction effort felt as they work tirelessly to see the wolves returned to Yellowstone. I am grateful to him for this book and to everyone who worked so hard to bring home the wolf.
~Ren
December 16, 2016
Thomas McNamee, a writer of proven talent and grit in the world of environmental affairs, has written an important book in the history of the reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowstone Park and the surrounding ecosystem.
In this short book, McNamee drops the reader into a passionate political debate that has raged for decades out West - should the wolf, which once roamed freely but was hunted to virtual extinction under private and public programs, be reintroduced to Yellowstone? At the opening of the book, the champions of the wolf reintroduction are on edge, waiting for the long-overdue green light to officially release wolves into protective pens in Yellowstone. Last minute legal wrangling by their opponents - a combination of ranchers, hunters, and just plain wolf-haters - has temporarily halted their efforts just before the magic moment of release.
McNamee uses this delay to provide a quick overview of the historic debate over the wolf and the forces opposing its reintroduction. McNamee, clearly a fan of the wolf's reintroduction, also provides the perspective of the scientists, environmentalists, and just plain fans of the wolf who ache for a return of the alpha predator to its former hunting grounds.
This story, long dominated by politics, takes a real-world turn once the courts give the green light and the wolves are released into their protective pens. McNamee then turns to the maddening process of reintroducing the wolves to their new home. Will the wolves thrive? Will they mate? Will they leave their temporary enclosures? Will the wolves stay in Yellowstone? Wolves can travel hundreds of miles - will the packs return to their old hunting grounds in Canada? Wolves have no idea of park boundaries, after all. Worse - will the wolves commit the sin that their foes are warning about - killing domestic livestock?
Every movement of the wolves is tracked, including the most promising pair, Wolves Nine and Ten, two exemplars of the species who appear to have mated.
As the title of the book indicates, there is a fair amount of tragedy in this process. If you feel passionately about animal rights, there will be some agonizing pages in store.
But in this tragedy lie the seeds of hope. The wolves in Yellowstone are thriving today, thanks in large part to Wolves Nine and Ten. So there is reason for hope.
But as the Trump Administration takes power in Washington, one must wonder about the future of the wolves. They still have their opponents, including western governors, legislators, hunters, and ranchers. The reintroduction of the alpha predator to Yellowstone is a godsend to some, including many environmentalists, but it is far from secure.
"The Killing of Wolf Number Ten" is an important book on a vital subject, and while McNamee definitely has a pro-wolf bias, he defends it with facts while respecting the complexity of the debate. Highly recommended.
In this short book, McNamee drops the reader into a passionate political debate that has raged for decades out West - should the wolf, which once roamed freely but was hunted to virtual extinction under private and public programs, be reintroduced to Yellowstone? At the opening of the book, the champions of the wolf reintroduction are on edge, waiting for the long-overdue green light to officially release wolves into protective pens in Yellowstone. Last minute legal wrangling by their opponents - a combination of ranchers, hunters, and just plain wolf-haters - has temporarily halted their efforts just before the magic moment of release.
McNamee uses this delay to provide a quick overview of the historic debate over the wolf and the forces opposing its reintroduction. McNamee, clearly a fan of the wolf's reintroduction, also provides the perspective of the scientists, environmentalists, and just plain fans of the wolf who ache for a return of the alpha predator to its former hunting grounds.
This story, long dominated by politics, takes a real-world turn once the courts give the green light and the wolves are released into their protective pens. McNamee then turns to the maddening process of reintroducing the wolves to their new home. Will the wolves thrive? Will they mate? Will they leave their temporary enclosures? Will the wolves stay in Yellowstone? Wolves can travel hundreds of miles - will the packs return to their old hunting grounds in Canada? Wolves have no idea of park boundaries, after all. Worse - will the wolves commit the sin that their foes are warning about - killing domestic livestock?
Every movement of the wolves is tracked, including the most promising pair, Wolves Nine and Ten, two exemplars of the species who appear to have mated.
As the title of the book indicates, there is a fair amount of tragedy in this process. If you feel passionately about animal rights, there will be some agonizing pages in store.
But in this tragedy lie the seeds of hope. The wolves in Yellowstone are thriving today, thanks in large part to Wolves Nine and Ten. So there is reason for hope.
But as the Trump Administration takes power in Washington, one must wonder about the future of the wolves. They still have their opponents, including western governors, legislators, hunters, and ranchers. The reintroduction of the alpha predator to Yellowstone is a godsend to some, including many environmentalists, but it is far from secure.
"The Killing of Wolf Number Ten" is an important book on a vital subject, and while McNamee definitely has a pro-wolf bias, he defends it with facts while respecting the complexity of the debate. Highly recommended.
July 7, 2023
Really torn between a 4 and a 5 star rating. Anyways this book was excellent. Quick read, really cool real life account of the restoration of wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Super sad in parts describing the hatred and killing of wolves (especially wolf number 10), but equally as inspiring to hear about the efforts of pro-wolf conservationists. Loved the end where the author discusses the stats on wolves and their impact.
January 15, 2017
To start with I found this book to be a bit too anthropomorphic in the way it wrote certain paragraphs in the point of view in the wolf. I wasn't a fan of this. Yet whilst reading it became clear, these passages were few and far between.
Being very familiar with the subject matter of the yellowstone reintroduction and the killing of wolf number 10 the first half of the book was run of the mill material I had read many times before. The second half dealing with the Hunter who illegally shot him and the characters involved in taking him to justice, was not a story I knew very well and it added the book a unique dimension to stand out from the rest.
A book highlighting possibly the best meaning science and (human nature) and the worst of human nature, it was structured well and ended in a very positive note, expanding on the very romanticised and missinderstood concept of 'wolves changing yellowstone' with facts straight from the scientist's papers.
well worth a read even if you are familiar with the subject matter. It is a sad story, yet the determination and effort made by the other members of the reintroduction effort and wildlife agents shows that even in the worse scenario, people can still do good things.
Being very familiar with the subject matter of the yellowstone reintroduction and the killing of wolf number 10 the first half of the book was run of the mill material I had read many times before. The second half dealing with the Hunter who illegally shot him and the characters involved in taking him to justice, was not a story I knew very well and it added the book a unique dimension to stand out from the rest.
A book highlighting possibly the best meaning science and (human nature) and the worst of human nature, it was structured well and ended in a very positive note, expanding on the very romanticised and missinderstood concept of 'wolves changing yellowstone' with facts straight from the scientist's papers.
well worth a read even if you are familiar with the subject matter. It is a sad story, yet the determination and effort made by the other members of the reintroduction effort and wildlife agents shows that even in the worse scenario, people can still do good things.
July 28, 2020
It wasn't riveting, and for someone who already knows the story and has read several books about the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction, it may not offer too much of a new info. But it's also a good, detailed account of the wolf project, the titular killing of wolf #10 and the fate of his mate and pups, with many b&w photographs inside.
August 8, 2021
I saw someone was reading this on the Facebook site What Are You Reading and the story interested me. I picked this up at our public library. The first trip my husband and I took was to camp in Yellowstone National Park and we have been interested in the park ever since. This is a quick read of a short book. It focuses on how wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone and how they increased in numbers throughout the upper western states . It talks about the different groups that were in favor and opposed to the introduction and the effort of the Federal government to protect the wolves. Very interesting.
February 17, 2020
This is my latest read in an extended list of books on and about the reintroduction of wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. It is well researched and written, rich in details documented by those who were there from the beginning of the project. The author's inclusion of photographs throughout the story further bring the story to life. This is a must read for anyone with interest in not only wolf Number 10 but in gaining a better understanding of the broader view of the issues, myths, and science.
March 15, 2020
After reading the Doug Smith book on the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, I was interested in knowing more about what happened to wolf 10.
There was a bit of a rehash of that book but it definitely answered my questions. A sad tale of people who don’t understand the value of wolves and kill because they can. Also interesting to hear about the killer’s defenders. One was former Interior Secretary James Watt.
There was a bit of a rehash of that book but it definitely answered my questions. A sad tale of people who don’t understand the value of wolves and kill because they can. Also interesting to hear about the killer’s defenders. One was former Interior Secretary James Watt.
July 15, 2018
Not just a time line of events which develops into a gripping documentary of how against all odds the wolf is reintroduced to yellow stone national park
On the initial reading of the first few pages, just a time line of events which develops into a gripping documentary of how against all odds the wolf is reintroduced to yellow stone national park
On the initial reading of the first few pages, just a time line of events which develops into a gripping documentary of how against all odds the wolf is reintroduced to yellow stone national park
October 22, 2018
Gripping and Encouraging
Movies misrepresent wolves at every turn making them seen as man killers when the last thing they want is exposure to man's cruelty and misunderstanding. This story gives me hope for our world, including the necessity of women's education and responsible and irresponsible decisions concerning childbirth and how it impacts our world one way or another.
Movies misrepresent wolves at every turn making them seen as man killers when the last thing they want is exposure to man's cruelty and misunderstanding. This story gives me hope for our world, including the necessity of women's education and responsible and irresponsible decisions concerning childbirth and how it impacts our world one way or another.
November 1, 2020
Hopeful and Sobering
The Killing of Wolf Ten, the book at least, is really the tale of the rebirth of an ecosystem. Thomas McNamee doesn't gloss over the natural descriptions, the scientific explanations or the political forces at work in this story of the rocky reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park.
The Killing of Wolf Ten, the book at least, is really the tale of the rebirth of an ecosystem. Thomas McNamee doesn't gloss over the natural descriptions, the scientific explanations or the political forces at work in this story of the rocky reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park.
February 14, 2019
Easy to read and understand
Any person with interested in the people and politics involved in the survival of the wolf needs to read this book. Just like human racism and discrimination, the wild wolf has and is still experiencing much backlash from closed minded people.
Any person with interested in the people and politics involved in the survival of the wolf needs to read this book. Just like human racism and discrimination, the wild wolf has and is still experiencing much backlash from closed minded people.
May 23, 2018
If you are long on opinions but short on facts, there are three books to read. This is one of the three. The second is "Wild Wolves I have Known" (Thiel), and the third is "Wolfer" (Carter Niemeyer).
Then you decide.
Then you decide.
November 26, 2018
An excellent read. Fact based and informative
Team this up with American Wolf and you have a great way to spend some of these winter evenings. You will come away with a great respect for wolves and those who brought them back to Yellowstone.
Team this up with American Wolf and you have a great way to spend some of these winter evenings. You will come away with a great respect for wolves and those who brought them back to Yellowstone.
January 6, 2020
A well-written and compelling account of one of the turning points in the wolf's reintroduction to Yellowstone, this book is a testament to the people who worked tirelessly to keep the hope of reintroduction alive. It still astounds me how much hatred the wolf can inspire in people.
September 1, 2024
Great read. Picked this up after going through the National parks. Heartbreaking that this wolf didn’t get to see its full potential. Eff the guy who did it. He should have had his hunting privileges take away.
March 12, 2021
Worth a read!
Short but sweet, I really enjoyed the detail this book offered from the personalities of the Wolves to the scientific justification.
Short but sweet, I really enjoyed the detail this book offered from the personalities of the Wolves to the scientific justification.
January 27, 2022
A fast and easy read but utterly amazing for anyone that enjoys nature and our natural world.
September 3, 2023
Loved seeing such a pathetic loser brought to justice in this book. My heart breaks for Ten and his family.
October 21, 2023
Brill but frustrating
June 14, 2024
Great, quick read. I feel bad for wolf Number Ten :(
July 16, 2024
I ❤️🐺
December 16, 2024
Good read if you’re interested in national parks / environmental stuff
December 27, 2019
#poppyreads2018
October 11, 2014
Made me cry to hear Number Tens story. Great, easy read. He compiles all the facts into a nice timeline. Gave him 4 of 5 stars only because his writing was a bit too flowery, but not enough to discourage anyone from reading. Recommend reading before you go to Yellowstone if you are traveling there. Great perspective on the enormous effort it takes to protect the blessing of Yellowstone. Read it!
January 3, 2017
When I first grabbed this book off the shelf I thought it would be too sad for me to read. It is sad but it's also an amazing. I find it fantastic that people can be so determined to bring the wolves back to their natural home in Yellowstone. This book is so full of information and pulls at your heart with emotion.
May 31, 2014
I really enjoyed this book--and it's really short. It only offers a glimpse of the struggle of reintroducing the wolf to Yellowstone (and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) but the story of the park-specific wolves was fascinating. I look forward to reading more on the subject.
August 6, 2014
A day-by-day journal of the first days and years of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. Quite interesting to see the issues, uncertainties and people involved...along with those first wolves. A quick little read, interesting but not a block buster.
September 18, 2015
I moved to the area after this event so never heard the story. Fascinating and sad look at the wolf reintroduction
March 31, 2017
If it weren't for frequent dramatizations of things we could not possibly know (Number 9 felt this way. The wind was blowing that way.), this book would get 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews