Book Review: Wolf Empire

Revered and reviled, the wolf embodies the concept of the "noble savage," a sort of respectable wildness that is both admired and feared. Presently many populations of wolves in North America continue on at the indulgence of our own species, humans essentially exterminating as many wolves as they could in America, and the tenuous position of modern wolves in the United States relies on understanding and the death of the "Big Bad Wolf" mythos. Scott Ian Barry, a photographer and wolf enthusiast who is intimately familiar with the natural history of these animals, has released a new book to let armchair observers become better acquainted with the canid predators, a stunning look into the Wolf Empire.

Bloody hunts are often the stuff of nature documentaries, a pack of wolves hunting down an elk or deer being quite compelling, but the most you'll see of prey in Barry's book is the tip of a femur that is being nibbled on by an old female wolf. Pack life, the complex interactions between individuals, make up the bulk of the book, and it becomes easy to see how Barry can attribute a personality to each of the wolves featured. Whether it's a pair of males asserting their dominance over another member of the pack or an old female showing that she's still got some fight in her, Barry reveals scenes that most of us will never see, being careful to temper what may sometimes seem like savage images with concise explanations of wolf behavior. Wrinkled muzzles and bared teeth look awfully vicious to us, but such signals are a necessary and integrated part of the social life of these carnivores and do not depict any sort of wanton brutality.

While the snapshots of wolf life reflected in the prose is interesting, presented like captions in a photo gallery, the pictures themselves are what makes this book truly wonderful to behold. As I have found myself when photographing gorillas in captivity, some animals just look better in black and white, and Barry's photography is perhaps more powerful as a result of sticking strictly to black and white images. The photos are much crisper and clearer, especially in the majority of the photos when the wolves are surrounded by snow, and many of the images are truly captivating. It would almost be tempting to skip the prose altogether and just stare at the photographs for some time, although this would be a mistake. Barry does know quite a bit about wolves, and as the pages go by I found myself being able to start distinguishing between males and females and certain individuals, Barry pointing out the key features and differences, this sort of "guided tour" drawing the reader further into the book.

Unfortunately the writing does feature a few drawbacks that somewhat tarnish what would otherwise be a nearly flawless book. At one point Barry attempts to make the case that a particular wolf using a rock to see just a little bit higher constitutes "tool use," a conclusion that I feel is a bit stretched (especially when compared to complex tool cultures in primates). Further, occasionally the concepts of being in harmony with nature and appeals to a type of nature-based spirituality are offered, and while they may simply be the author exercising a bit of poetic license to describe his personal feelings about the wolves, the books closing remarks about the moral lessons we can learn from wolves took away from what was otherwise a solid photo essay. Perhaps that's merely because of my more scientific standpoint (I think wolves can teach us plenty about natural history and evolution while remaining silent as to how another species should go about its existence), but your own mileage may vary.

Despite these relatively minor sticking points, however, Barry has produced a very beautiful coffee-table book that is truly captivating. He presents wolves "at home" in a way that reflects the complexity and beauty of a species that has often been misunderstood and demonized, just as nearly every other large predator we've lived alongside has. Perhaps there are echoes of these animals in the domesticated dog, but the wolf represents something almost more refined and pure, untouched by what our own species might desire it to be. I for one hope that there will be wolves in the woods for some time to come, but even if I can never catch a fleeting glimpse of these animals in the wild Barry has done a wonderful job bringing them to us.

[Tomorrow's review; Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway]