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The Arctic Wolf: Living with the Pack
Now an international bestseller, these are the fascinating adventures of a leading wolf expert on a National Geographic expedition, as he tracks the rare white Arctic wolf to its den and lives with the wolf pack.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
L. David Mech
34 books56 followersLucyan David "Dave" Mech is an internationally recognized wolf expert, a senior research scientist for the U.S. Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (since 1970), and an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. He has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale.
Mech is the founder of the International Wolf Center and sits on its Board of Directors as Vice Chair. The project to create the facility, which he started in 1985, was a natural outgrowth of his wolf research as well as his ambition to educate people about the nature of wolves that they may come to respect the creature through understanding.
He has published ten books and numerous articles about wolves and other wildlife, the most famous of these being his books The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species and Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation.
Mech is the founder of the International Wolf Center and sits on its Board of Directors as Vice Chair. The project to create the facility, which he started in 1985, was a natural outgrowth of his wolf research as well as his ambition to educate people about the nature of wolves that they may come to respect the creature through understanding.
He has published ten books and numerous articles about wolves and other wildlife, the most famous of these being his books The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species and Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 29, 2019
A classic study of arctic wolves, carried out across 10 summers the author spent with the pack on Ellesmere Island.
Dr. David Mech's enthusiasm is truly contagious, and it's something of a highlight of the book - because who wouldn't want to spend the arctic summer months with a wild wolf pack, studying them, observing, photographing, interacting, but, most of all, being accepted by them near the den and the pups? Even if, at the same time, one would have to live off a monotonous diet, constantly ward off mosquitoes and spend hours on end just watching wolves sleep. Well, I would surely sell my soul for such an experience, mosquitoes be damned, but I also know it's not everyone's dream. It was a dream come true for dr. Mech, however, and it made the book very personal. Even though not exactly a page turner, The Arctic Wolf is an insightful, scientific read with gorgeous photographs throughout.
I strongly encourage anyone interested in reading it to get the updated, 10th anniversary edition, and to make sure to check out White Wolf, whose author, Jim Brandenburg, spent the 1986 summer with dr. Mech observing and photographing the wolves. For those who, like me, are interested in the study and want to know more, there is a blog where later trips and findings were recounted. Mech also wrote a chapter about Brutus - one of the arctic wolves he studied later on Ellesmere, this time with a radio collar to see where the wolf and his pack went during the dark winter months - which can be found in Wild Wolves We Have Known.
During the summer of 1986, the NatGeo documentary White Wolf was filmed. Of course, because the white wolves of Ellesmere Island are unique, more documentaries followed: White Falcon, White Wolf in 2008, The Snow Wolf Family And Me in 2014, Arctic Wolf Pack in 2017 and Kingdom of the White Wolf in 2019.
Dr. David Mech's enthusiasm is truly contagious, and it's something of a highlight of the book - because who wouldn't want to spend the arctic summer months with a wild wolf pack, studying them, observing, photographing, interacting, but, most of all, being accepted by them near the den and the pups? Even if, at the same time, one would have to live off a monotonous diet, constantly ward off mosquitoes and spend hours on end just watching wolves sleep. Well, I would surely sell my soul for such an experience, mosquitoes be damned, but I also know it's not everyone's dream. It was a dream come true for dr. Mech, however, and it made the book very personal. Even though not exactly a page turner, The Arctic Wolf is an insightful, scientific read with gorgeous photographs throughout.
I strongly encourage anyone interested in reading it to get the updated, 10th anniversary edition, and to make sure to check out White Wolf, whose author, Jim Brandenburg, spent the 1986 summer with dr. Mech observing and photographing the wolves. For those who, like me, are interested in the study and want to know more, there is a blog where later trips and findings were recounted. Mech also wrote a chapter about Brutus - one of the arctic wolves he studied later on Ellesmere, this time with a radio collar to see where the wolf and his pack went during the dark winter months - which can be found in Wild Wolves We Have Known.
During the summer of 1986, the NatGeo documentary White Wolf was filmed. Of course, because the white wolves of Ellesmere Island are unique, more documentaries followed: White Falcon, White Wolf in 2008, The Snow Wolf Family And Me in 2014, Arctic Wolf Pack in 2017 and Kingdom of the White Wolf in 2019.
January 11, 2013
This book is an absolute must for any Wolf-fan and is worth every penny of the price. Although it is easy to read, it stands out mostly for its spectacular images of a pack of Arctic wolves in the Arctic. To my knowledge this book is the first one with photographs of the truly wild wolves in such abundance. Many people do not know but most of the photos taken of wolves are from wild- or game parks (or whatever they are called) and therefore the photographed wolves often look very "smooth".
Not this book, we see photos of puppies to adults. It is not hidden or glossed over. Everything is shown: disheveled fur, dirty faces, bloody muzzles drawn fresh from a prey, the icy wind whistling around the ears of them, in short:
What you get to see are wolves how they are and not how you want them to be.
Not this book, we see photos of puppies to adults. It is not hidden or glossed over. Everything is shown: disheveled fur, dirty faces, bloody muzzles drawn fresh from a prey, the icy wind whistling around the ears of them, in short:
What you get to see are wolves how they are and not how you want them to be.
April 8, 2011
I enjoyed this book immensely. Let’s face it, most non fiction books of this sort are dryer than the Texas sand. This book is not dry. David Mech makes you feel like you are on his journey with him. I got quite caught up in Mech’s enthusiasm for finding a wolf den that he could observe. The book is a fast, fun and informative read and there are some absolutely gorgeous and stunning pictures of Arctic wolves. Excellent book!
January 7, 2021
Un emozionante racconto all'inseguimento di un branco di lupi in caccia, la conoscenza di ogni singolo individuo e dei vari ruoli nell'allevamento dei cuccioli. Il bue muschiato, difficile preda, animali mitici, lontano dall'immaginario comune. Personalmente non avevo mai sentito parlare di questi animali quasi leggendari, che vivono in territori sperduti lontanissimo dall'uomo, fortunatamente, perciò scampati all'estinzione.
November 29, 2025
Old book but I enjoyed it. Some parts seemed to jump around a bit and certainly a bit dated but still two
People ahead of their time in conservation efforts.
People ahead of their time in conservation efforts.
November 16, 2014
The Arctic Wolf chronicles a couple of summers in the life of a pack of wild arctic wolves observed by wolf biologist David Mech, who during that time lived with the pack together with wildlife photographer Jim Brandenburg (who later wrote the book White Wolf about the same pack).
To find and be accepted by this pack was the highlight of Mech’s career, and he describes through several chapters in the book how he had dreamt of a chance like this through much of his 30 year long career as a wolf researcher and “obsessed student of wolves”. Wolves are rare and extremely wary creatures, so studies of wolves in the wild are typically undertaken indirectly or via observations from small aircraft; and most (especially older) studies of wolf packs’ social behaviour and group dynamics draw conclusions from studies of captive wolf packs composed of brought-together unrelated individuals. Such captive packs differ in fundamental ways from natural wolf packs, which are essentially nuclear families comprising a pair of parents (naturally in charge), and some of their offspring from previous years.
Mech’s dream was to study a litter of wild wolf pups being raised by a wolf pack in the wild. The book documents his dream coming true as he finds the wolf pack on Ellesmere island in the high arctic where humans are so rare and hunting to sporadic that wolves don’t have the same extreme fear and avoidance of humans that wolves do almost everywhere else.
Mech and Jim succeed in befriending the wolves, and then Mech finds their den (which he later finds out has been in use for 700+ years). Since dens are extremely scarce and far between in the barren landscape and new dens can’t easily be dug due to the permafrost, the wolf pack can’t easily move their pups somewhere else. He gets to observe their rearing of their litter of pups close up, along with many other aspects of wolf pack life, hunts and social relations. Every day provides new unique and intimate insights into a wild wolf family’s everyday life, and many of these are shared with the reader through Mech’s captivating writing and Brandenburg’s stunningly raw photographs of the scruffy, bloody, calm and affectionate real life of wild wolves.
This is my favourite amongst Mech’s wolf books. Mech’s passion and excitement lifts the book way over and beyond informative and rigourous science (which it is too); it is deeply insightful and touching. Some of the information in it is outdated… after all it is written in 1988, and more is known about wolves today. However, its strong personal “firstness” quality of a life dream coming true makes it the most captivating and memorable of Mech’s books out of the ones I’ve read so far.
To find and be accepted by this pack was the highlight of Mech’s career, and he describes through several chapters in the book how he had dreamt of a chance like this through much of his 30 year long career as a wolf researcher and “obsessed student of wolves”. Wolves are rare and extremely wary creatures, so studies of wolves in the wild are typically undertaken indirectly or via observations from small aircraft; and most (especially older) studies of wolf packs’ social behaviour and group dynamics draw conclusions from studies of captive wolf packs composed of brought-together unrelated individuals. Such captive packs differ in fundamental ways from natural wolf packs, which are essentially nuclear families comprising a pair of parents (naturally in charge), and some of their offspring from previous years.
Mech’s dream was to study a litter of wild wolf pups being raised by a wolf pack in the wild. The book documents his dream coming true as he finds the wolf pack on Ellesmere island in the high arctic where humans are so rare and hunting to sporadic that wolves don’t have the same extreme fear and avoidance of humans that wolves do almost everywhere else.
Mech and Jim succeed in befriending the wolves, and then Mech finds their den (which he later finds out has been in use for 700+ years). Since dens are extremely scarce and far between in the barren landscape and new dens can’t easily be dug due to the permafrost, the wolf pack can’t easily move their pups somewhere else. He gets to observe their rearing of their litter of pups close up, along with many other aspects of wolf pack life, hunts and social relations. Every day provides new unique and intimate insights into a wild wolf family’s everyday life, and many of these are shared with the reader through Mech’s captivating writing and Brandenburg’s stunningly raw photographs of the scruffy, bloody, calm and affectionate real life of wild wolves.
This is my favourite amongst Mech’s wolf books. Mech’s passion and excitement lifts the book way over and beyond informative and rigourous science (which it is too); it is deeply insightful and touching. Some of the information in it is outdated… after all it is written in 1988, and more is known about wolves today. However, its strong personal “firstness” quality of a life dream coming true makes it the most captivating and memorable of Mech’s books out of the ones I’ve read so far.
June 21, 2011
Beautiful photos. And not much good text.
Relationships in the pack are for the author not very important.
And there is amazing thing - alpha female is not mother of the cubs! Their mother was humble, mediocre female wolf. The author believed, that she was "widow" after dead previous alpha male. I understand it. But she than had again the other cubs with alpha male! Four times. Shocking. And very important.
Why she was not alpha female (or alpha female mother of cubs)? Maybe alpha female couldn´t have cubs, but she was good leader? Or mother of cubs was so poor leader, but alpha male loves her, so has he her for her cubs and another alpha female as leader of pack?
Or maybe was female alpha daugher of male alpha and mother of cubs (or some dead previous alpha female) and male alpha doesn´t want have cubs with her, so he needs onother female wolf for it?
So many questions!
But, no antworts.
The author has his theory about dead previous alpha male, which was aparently not true (not for second year and so on), and nothing more. Poor. Not very good book.
But, this thing with female wolf with cubs, but not alpha female is very interesting.
I wish more precious study about it.
Relationships in the pack are for the author not very important.
And there is amazing thing - alpha female is not mother of the cubs! Their mother was humble, mediocre female wolf. The author believed, that she was "widow" after dead previous alpha male. I understand it. But she than had again the other cubs with alpha male! Four times. Shocking. And very important.
Why she was not alpha female (or alpha female mother of cubs)? Maybe alpha female couldn´t have cubs, but she was good leader? Or mother of cubs was so poor leader, but alpha male loves her, so has he her for her cubs and another alpha female as leader of pack?
Or maybe was female alpha daugher of male alpha and mother of cubs (or some dead previous alpha female) and male alpha doesn´t want have cubs with her, so he needs onother female wolf for it?
So many questions!
But, no antworts.
The author has his theory about dead previous alpha male, which was aparently not true (not for second year and so on), and nothing more. Poor. Not very good book.
But, this thing with female wolf with cubs, but not alpha female is very interesting.
I wish more precious study about it.
April 11, 2013
Yikes.
Full of good and interesting facts about arctic wolves. And (tons of) gory photographs of said wolves taking down prey, eating it, and regurgitating it for their young cubs.
Maybe not a book for the preschool set.
Full of good and interesting facts about arctic wolves. And (tons of) gory photographs of said wolves taking down prey, eating it, and regurgitating it for their young cubs.
Maybe not a book for the preschool set.
March 5, 2014
An excellent read - I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews