Wolf Photos

click each photo for a larger view

This is the start of what I hope will be an extensive wolf picture gallery.

There's so much to say about wolves, about our native timber wolf, about photographing wolves... In time, there will probably be lots of articles, links and resources branching out from this page (as well as more photos), so don't be a stranger.

I have been fortunate to observe wolves in the wild on Neebish Island, but I have yet to capture a photo of them. These are photos of a captive wolf, a young female who was fashion-model perfect on the late spring day when I showed up with my camera. She was coming in to season, but not quite ready to entertain her mate, a shaggy, frenetic male who worked off his frustration by trotting the perimeters of his large compound while Miss Wolf posed coyly. Miss Wolf lay warming herself on a flat rock. She stretched and yawned luxuriously, stretching again on her belly in the grass, peeking at me as I crept through the brush along the far edge of her enclosure. She rolled on her back, but I missed it.

We owe a debt of gratitude to captive wild animals. Whether they would or not, they are ambassadors for their species to humankind, the most efficient predators on the planet. I cannot resign from my own species, and I can't give wild choices and chances to a beast raised a captive. But with a photograph, I hope I can help to translate her unknowing sacrifice into a renewal of reverence for the place she holds in the world. LV