A Day With the Wolves
The ghost through our blurred vision
The Wolves & Us
Not the best photo I've taken, but easily one of my all-time favorite experiences. I call this one "The ghost through our blurred vision between extinction and survival."
Long story of the experience and my reflections below.
This moment, this wolf, represents something far beyond just an image—it’s a portrait of survival, resilience, and the raw beauty of the wild. Notice how the conditions are against every rule of photography - the subject is too far, the snow is coming down sideways, the visibility is barely there, and the natural light is more from the snow. Not to mention the frigid -20F temperature that made it almost impossible to hold the camera still. At this point we'd been out in "that" for over 3 hours already. But thankfully, the wind was on our side.
This was a true, on-foot, no jeeps, no snowmobiles, no drones, no helicopters kind of expedition in Yellowstone. Just five of us, tracking wolves the natural way. We’d spot them a mile away, hike the distance, only to find they’d moved another mile in another direction. This was Day 5 of this type of trekking and persistence paid off!!
We finally got this close—about 200-300 yards (that's close? lol). Close enough. They knew we were there, standing on the mountain, while they hunted an elk in the valley below. From all my photos of them, this one means the most to me. It captures their ghostly existence, their struggle, their resistance to extinction as well as our blurred lines.
Our blurred lines between extinction and survival. To us, the line between them has become the threshold for their well-being. If they aren't extinct, they're fine and surviving we don't need to pay attention. We decide whether wolves continue to exist or fade into history. But who gave us the right to make that choice?
What if our blurred lines were between thriving and healthy populations and survival? Wolves aren’t just "cute creatures" to be admired, they are a keystone species. They keep ecosystems balanced, forests thriving, rivers flowing as they should. And yet, arbitrary laws and profit-driven policies continue to decide how many wolves are "enough." The reality? These decisions are often fear-based, not science-based.
We can take a step back and consider what we’ve created, because only we, as humans, have created such a concept as “enough wolves”, or any other wildlife for that matter. Nature has it’s own control mechanisms, there can never be “too many” of anything in an ecosystem since nature has its way to create ecological balance. Populations fluctuate to maintain the equilibrium - there are many examples of this - a textbook example is with the Canadian lynx and the arctic hare, and as photographers we notice this phenomenon with snowy owls, we call them irruption years, when there’s an increase in lemming populations, there is an increase in snowy owls. If we got rid of snowy owls, the lemming populations would get out of control, there would not be enough predators.
And, most of us, experience this phenomenon on a daily basis in our own backyards. Have you noticed the increase of rodents in general? In the small community I now live, it’s a constant discussion there are so many voles, moles, mice, rats - compared to just a decade ago the locals say. They got rid of all the coyotes and foxes. There used to be foxes on the island, but many people saw them as “pests” and killed them off, by shooting or poison. They’re now completely eradicated. This caused an explosion in rodent populations across the island, and even bunnies. Bunnies they rarely saw, are now everywhere feeding on people’s gardens. Poisonoing them now, in turn, is causing issues with bald eagle and other birds of prey - like the barn owl and great gray.
If we know to leave nature alone, nature will take care of it’s own balance. All we need to focus on is to learn to live with it.
Going back to our wonderful wolf day. We had no guns. No machines that could harm the wolves. And never once did we feel threatened. They knew we were there from a mile away. Their senses, their awareness, exist on a level we can barely comprehend.
Every day, I wake up hoping we don’t lose another species. Another den filled with innocent, unsuspecting pups. This year, I’m working on another project involving wolves because I don't think we know them enough.
We have the power to protect them. The question is: Will we choose to?
What will you tell the next generation? That you tried? Or that you chose to look away?
