Diane Boyd has written her debut memoir about her more than four decades studying wolf recovery, many years before any wolf reintroductions.
World-renowned wildlife biologist Diane Boyd has spent four decades studying and advocating for wolves in the wilds of Montana near Glacier National Park. In the 1970s, she was the only female biologist in the United States researching and radio-collaring wild wolves. With her two dogs for company, she faced the rigors of the Montana winter in an isolated cabin without running water or electricity. Boyd fearlessly forded icy rivers, strapped on skis to navigate thick stands of lodgepole pine, and monitored wolf packs from the air in a tiny bush plane. She faced down grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolverines—and the occasional trapper—as she stalked her quarry: a handful of wolves making their way south from Canada into Montana. Resourceful and resilient, she matched wits with the wolves and negotiated with locals as wolf populations grew from the first natural colonizer to the thousands of wolves in the West today.
In this captivating book, Boyd takes the reader on a wild ride from the early days of wolf research to the present-day challenges of wolf management, highlighting her interactions with an apex predator that captured her heart and earned her undying admiration.
Buy from:
Greystone Books
Praise for A Woman Among Wolves
"[A Woman Among Wolves] reads as much as an adventure tale as a scientific study....Matching wits with wolves, dealing with trappers, catching wolverines and cougars in wolf traps, and negotiating with the locals....Boyd's life with wolves is irresistible."
Booklist
"[A] swashbuckling memoir recounting episodes from a career spent studying and protecting wolves....There are moments of levity... However, it's the tales of adventure and derring-do that will keep readers turning pages....Nature lovers will be riveted."
Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
"This is a book about a courageous woman. Often alone in wild country, she endures hardships and faces danger in many forms in her passion and determination to better understand and protect the wolves she loves. Informative, fascinating, and beautifully written."
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE & UN Messenger of Peace
"A thoroughly engaging dispatch from a pioneering female biologist about a life spent trapping wolves, evading grizzly bears and, hardest of all, navigating the world of humans, in America’s wildest place.”
Jim Robbins, author of the award-winning The Wonder of Birds
“Diane Boyd’s memoir begins with a sedated wolf unexpectedly waking up in the back seat of her truck. Just another day in a forty-year career filled with amazing stories about wolves and the people who live alongside them. Highly recommended!”
Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf
“In this fascinating account of how wolf research is carried out, Boyd describes in marvelous detail the struggles and successes of wild wolves and biologists who study them.” Rick McIntyre, author of the Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series
“A wild ride through four decades of wolf recovery. As Boyd shares her adventures with candor and humor, her deep respect for the resilience of the wolves shines through.” Colleen Marzluff, wildlife biologist and co-author with John M. Marzluff of Dog Days, Raven Nights
"Diane Boyd’s life-long journey as the United States’ first female wild wolf biologist is a must read for anyone interested in and curious about the history and process of natural wolf recolonization in Northwest Montana… engagingly written with sincerity, humor, and occasional anguish as the book chronicles the return of the wolf, important discoveries unfolding important aspects of their ecology, and the volatile hallways of human hostility, fear, compassion, and politics she and the wolves had to navigate." – Dick Thiel, Board member, International Wolf Center
"This is a must read not just for wolf people, but for nature lovers and folks interested in living with controversial issues in tough times. Why? Diane will look you in the eye and tell you. Just like a wolf."
Douglas W. Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist, Yellowstone National Park- retired
"A Woman Among Wolves is a fantastic read. Period. I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who loves great storytelling. It is a tale of a passionate life well lived, and of a species—the wolf—that has haunted our dreams and literature, but that few understand. Boyd is a world class wildlife biologist and a born adventurer who guides us through the nuances of the human-wolf relationship as few can. The book is an inspiration and entertaining as hell. Absolutely marvelous."
Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars, The Last Ranger, and Burn.
"Compelling, often funny, always detailed and scientifically accurate as only a fine researcher can write, this delicious book is one of the best readings on wolves, combining a wealth of thrilling stories of wolf trapping and tracking with sharp insights on the challenges of managing the coexistence of wolves and humans. A deeply insightful book on how to combine love and respect, with the acceptance of killing some wolves to help mitigating the impact of livestock depredation and improving wolf acceptance by humans."
Luigi Boitani, Professor Emeritus at the University of Rome, Italy, and long-time wolf researcher
"Fpr more than forty years, Diane Boyd has been studied the recovery of wolves. Her remarkable memoir is long overdue. Her vision and passion should inspire any young aspiring field biologist. Diane Boyd, in my opinion, is a shining example of Aldo Leopold's vision of a true field biologist."
Maurice Hornocker, PhD, Founder of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute and large feline researcher