The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin: The Death And Life Of A Majestic Predator (A North Coast Book)

In early 1958 in the far northern town of Cornucopia Wisconsins "last" timber wolf was accidentally run over by an automobile. The "humane" intention to end the animals suffering produced a grisly aftermath: the wolf survived the impact of the car was bludgeoned with a tire iron twice but survived and finally had its throat slit with a restaurant knife. This horrifying scene is certainly an apt (if appalling) symbol of the timber wolfs early fate in Wisconsin. Feared detested hunted down for state-authorized bounties the animal was systematically exterminated as an enemy of man and progress. Yet this bleak chapter in the history of conservation has a happier ending. Seventeen years later in 1975 the timber wolf had officially reestablished itself and as a protected species is now flourishing under the care of Wisconsins Department of Natural Resources. Few can be more caring than the author a DNR educator in wildlife management. As an inquisitive teenager Richard Thiel began his pursuit of the Wisconsin timber wolfs story in the mid-1960s and has been at it ever since. The result is this arresting intensely readable book a story of fear mistrust and misunderstanding that ends thankfully as one of hope and appreciation.