The Yukon wolf is the largest race of Canis lupus in the world. There are 5,000 wolves in the territory. Wolves live in all Yukon mountain ranges hunting Dall's sheep and caribou in the high alpine. In the forested valleys they hunt moose, the ideal prey size for packs to handle. Regional wolf numbers depend on the number of moose in the area. Packs are territorial except in the far north where wolves migrate long distances to follow the Porcupine caribou herd year-round. --From book cover.
A post-apocalyptic debut novel in a tradition that includes The Hunger Games and Station Eleven, this vision of a possible future shows humanity pushed beyond its breaking point, the forging of vital bonds when everything is lost, and, most centrally, a heroic young woman who crosses a frozen landscape to find her destiny. Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As the memories of her old life continue to surface, she’s forced to forge ahead in the snow-drifted Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap and slaughter. Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive in the endless white wilderness beyond the edges of a fallen world. Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who brings with him dark secrets of the past and sets in motion a chain of events that will call Lynn to a role she never imagined. “With elements of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and TV’s The Walking Dead, (Kirkus Reviews) The Wolves of Winter is both a heartbreaking, sympathetic portrait of a young woman searching for the answer to who she's meant to be and a frightening vision of a merciless new world in which desperation rules. It is enthralling, propulsive, and poignant.
"The Yukon River is 2,000 miles long and the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the people who live along the river, salmon were once the lifeblood of commerce and local culture. But climate change and globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between people and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them. Traveling down the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, 'Kings of the Yukon' is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic"--Dust jacket.
"We conducted a large-scale, controlled experiment to study the responses of declining woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus), moose (Alces alces), and Dall sheep (Ovis dalli) to a 5-year reduction in wolf (Canis lupus) numbers in the Aishihik area in the southwestern Yukon"--Page 1
Wolves are some of the world's most charismatic and controversial animals, capturing the imaginations of their friends and foes alike. Highly intelligent and adaptable, they hunt and play together in close-knit packs, sometimes roaming over hundreds of square miles in search of food. Once teetering on the brink of extinction across much of the United States and Europe, wolves have made a tremendous comeback in recent years, thanks to legal protection, changing human attitudes, and efforts to reintroduce them to suitable habitats in North America. As wolf populations have rebounded, scientific studies of them have also flourished. But there hasn't been a systematic, comprehensive overview of wolf biology since 1970. In Wolves, many of the world's leading wolf experts provide state-of-the-art coverage of just about everything you could want to know about these fascinating creatures. Individual chapters cover wolf social ecology, behavior, communication, feeding habits and hunting techniques, population dynamics, physiology and pathology, molecular genetics, evolution and taxonomy, interactions with nonhuman animals such as bears and coyotes, reintroduction, interactions with humans, and conservation and recovery efforts. The book discusses both gray and red wolves in detail and includes information about wolves around the world, from the United States and Canada to Italy, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, and Mongolia. Wolves is also extensively illustrated with black and white photos, line drawings, maps, and fifty color plates. Unrivalled in scope and comprehensiveness, Wolves will become the definitive resource on these extraordinary animals for scientists and amateurs alike. “An excellent compilation of current knowledge, with contributions from all the main players in wolf research. . . . It is designed for a wide readership, and certainly the language and style will appeal to both scientists and lucophiles alike. . . . This is an excellent summary of current knowledge and will remain the standard reference work for a long time to come.”—Stephen Harris, New Scientist “This is the place to find almost any fact you want about wolves.”—Stephen Mills, BBC Wildlife Magazine
Alaska’s wolves lost their fiercest advocate, Gordon Haber, when his research plane crashed in Denali National Park in 2009. Passionate, tenacious, and occasionally brash, Haber, a former hockey player and park ranger, devoted his life to Denali’s wolves. He weathered brutal temperatures in the wild to document the wolves and provided exceptional insights into wolf behavior. Haber’s writings and photographs reveal an astonishing degree of cooperation between wolf family members as they hunt, raise pups, and play, social behaviors and traditions previously unknown. With the wolves at risk of being destroyed by hunting and trapping, his studies advocated for a balanced approach to wolf management. His fieldwork registered as one of the longest studies in wildlife science and had a lasting impact on wolf policies. Haber’s field notes, his extensive journals, and stories from friends all come together in Among Wolves to reveal much about both the wolves he studied and the researcher himself. Wolves continue to fascinate and polarize people, and Haber’s work continues to resonate.
"It's not only a feast for the eye--Florian Schulz is a fine young nature-wildlife photographer--but a challenge to those of us who live in a not-yet-used corner of he planet." (Seattle P-I)A grizzly bear emerges, one small detail in an immense vista of field and mountains and sky. A shoreline, still and empty but for the telltale tracks of passing wildlife. Golden peaks that roll to the horizon, starkly beautiful in the morning light. This kind of space, of solitude-of simple wildness-still exists in North America, outside the boundaries of any park.Photographer Florian Schulz documents the landscape, plants, animals, and people of an eco-system that is surprisingly intact up and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains. There is still time to make a difference: to direct the path of encroaching development and establish connections between the national and provincial parks on this course.Essay contributors--including Dvid Suzuki, David Quammen, Rick Bass, Ted Kerasote and Roberts F. Kennedy Jr.-- tell of their travels through the region and their experience of the land. They explain the need for Y2Y, based on new findings that reveal isolated nature sanctuaries to be a recipe for extinction. They set the Y2Y conservation program in context: a grand vision grounded on science; a practical plan that provides for economic as well as environmental sustainability; a blueprint designating critical wildlife habitat. Environmental conservation does not mean that humansmust be excluded from the land, but we must act thoughtfully.For more information about the author, visit his web site at www.visionsofthewild.com/.
The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race is one of the most challenging sporting events in the world. Every February, a handful of hardy souls spends over two weeks racing sleds pulled by fourteen dogs over 1,023 miles of frozen rivers, icy mountain passes, and spruce forests as big as entire states, facing temperatures that drop to forty degrees below zero on nights that are seventeen hours long. Why would anyone want to enter this race? John Balzar-who moved to Alaska and lived on the trail-treats us to a vivid account of the grueling race itself, offering an insightful look at the men and women who have moved to this rugged and beautiful place. Readers will also be fascinated by Balzar's account of what goes into the training and care of the majestic dogs who pull the sleds and whose courage, strength, and devotion make them the true heroes of this story.
From the hilarious and subversive children's author, essayist and NPR commentator, true tales drawn from his cordial--if dysfunctional--relationships with the dogs in his life. illustrations.
