At the end of our wolf study course last November, Jack Laws organized an impromptu group fundraiser for our class to sponsor a radio collar for the Yellowstone Wolf Project through the Yellowstone Park Foundation (a great non-profit!). Our collar was placed on wolf 482M, the alpha male for the Gibbon Meadow Pack in the park. Doug Smith, the leader of the wolf project, told me 482M was one of the biggest wolves they've ever captured for study. He's certainly a beautiful wolf--see below. I hope to see him trotting through a meadow someday as I hike in the park.
Jack inscribed the collar with a quote from Aldo Leopold--I like thinking of the wolf running through the landscape and carrying a bit of wilderness "poetry" from one of my favorite nature writers. If you would like to make a donation to the project, or to support Yellowstone in general, visit www.ypf.org
"To look into the eyes of a wolf is to see your own soul...." Aldo Leopold