Anything in italics takes place when Big Red is sleeping.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Home
1
Chapter 1
- A dark form appears on a frozen lake
- Enter Big Red
- The birthing den
- Death of three siblings
- Saved from a black bear
- Encounter with a golden eagle
- A pack of five wolvespursues
- Big Red
- The decision to return home
SURVIVAL OF THE CUTEST
11
Chapter 2
- A pack of five wolves hunts Big Red
- The wolf packs of Algonquin Park
- Big Red cracks a moose femur
- Winter Night on an island with barred owls
- The survival value of beauty
- Star-nosed mole vs. baby raccoon
- The evolution of Mickey Mouse
- Firebirds in the forest
- Description & photograph of Big Red
- A desperate search for food
WOLF BIRDS
25
Chapter 3
- Followed in the forest
- Wolf-birds
- The Hunt& the feast
- The world of ravens
- Odin & his birds
- Ravens, Noah, &Gilgamesh
- Big Red awakens
- Wolves & ravens, a symbiosis
THE JOURNEY
35
Chapter 4
- Big Red runs on through the evergreen forest
- The loneliness of a lone wolf
- Dreams of a wanderer
- Beringia & the migration out of Asia
- Dire wolves
- All wolves are one big family
- Bergmann’s rule
- “Nature will find a way.”
- Right front paw
- Squirrels invade Big Red’s den
- A fateful decision
THE WAR ON WOLVES
47
Chapter 5
- Savage battle on Grand Lake
- The mauling of Big Red
- Enter Paws, Big Red’s brother
- Blood on ice
- A wounded wolf defies six others
- A week under a pine tree
- Man’s slaughter of wolves
- Vivisection
- Prey base & wild boars
- The Nations of the Gray & Red Wolf
- Two Socks from Dances with Wolves
- Guns, traps, snares, & poison
- Wolf bounties
- Return of the European wolf
- The Yellowstone wolves
- The Big Guy & Natasha
- The resurrection
- Big Red walking
THE WARRAHS
69
Chapter 6
- Big Red eats a spruce grouse
- The forest awakens
- A bonanza of meat
- Friendly island animals
- Enter Charles Darwin
- Syms Covington, Darwin’s “servant.”
- HMS Beagle visits the Falkland Islands
- The warrahs
- The slaughter
- The last warrah
- The Maned wolf of South America
- Big Red’s luck
- The Vireo Lake wolf
DEATH AT LAKE VIREO
83
Chapter 7
- Someone follows Big Red
- Beaver for breakfast
- Enter the radio-collared Vireo Lake wolf
- Vireo Lake wolf challenges Big Red
- Another wolf stands by Big Red
- A mate called Phantom
- A honeymoon week
- Vireo Lake wolf kills Phantom
- Big Red drowns her killer
- The way of all flesh
- Goose eggs
- A pond at night
- Grey Owl &the beaver
- A keystone species
- Richard Dawkins &the selfish gene
- Awakened by snakes
- Enter John & Mary Theberge
- They collect the collar & skull of the Vireo Lake wolf
- Big Red fleesGolgotha
OUT OF ASIA
97
Chapter 8
Wolves attack Big Red at night
Our wolf swims across a freezing lake
Barely alive he crawls ashore
Wolves leave Asia
A few tame wolves
Man & wolf travel the world together
Big Red recovers from hypothermia
A beaver shuffles right up to him
- Man & wolf
- Dingoes arrive in Australia
- They become the masters of Australia
- They kill all the Tasmanian tigers
- Convergent evolution
- The hardiness of wolves
- Big Red heads west
THE WATCHMAKER’S GIFTS
109
Chapter 9
- The deer hunter
- Stalking and waiting
- The greatest adventure of all time
- Pre-Columbia times
- Anticosti Island
- Enter Aldo Leopold, conservationist
- The green fire died
- Arms race: wolves vs. deer
- White-eye
- Double printing
- Countershading
- The night is vast & full of wonders
- Big Red sings&gets an answer
THE WRITTEN WOLF
123
Chapter 10
- Big Red wanders through abandoned farms
- A woodchuck for a snack
- A night in an old barn full of wild residents
- Argos, history’s first dog
- Dr. Zhivago at the Ice Palace
- The myth of the steppe wolf
- Never Cry Wolf
- Farley Mowat understood wolves
- The legend of Old Three Toes
- The wolf speaks
- Postscript:My favorite childhood book
- The talking barn
- The night singer
- Wolf talesmy uncle told me
- Wolves near our home
- Waking up under the stars
- Big Red continues his Homeric quest
WOLVES VS. BEARS
145
Chapter 11
- What my dog taught me
- Death in the woods
- A road-killed deer
- Big Red battles a black bear
- They share the deer
- Hibernating bears
- Big Red’s father attacks a sleeping bear
- A rite of passage
- The casting out of bear cubs
- Feeding bears
- A wolf & bear friendship
- A sucker run
- Bear going fishing
WILD JUSTICE
161
Chapter 12
- Three wild boars
- Enter Spitfire, Big Red’s new mate
- And then there were two
- Incest avoidance
- Golden Rule
- Wolf Play
- Prosocial or antisocial behavior
- Feral children raised by wolves
- Yawning
- Tripod, a wolf with three legs
- The morality of wolves
- Spitfire is gone in the morning
- Brings breakfast
MOTHER COURAGE
175
Chapter 13
- Bears eating leaks (ramps)
- Encounter with a sow &her two cubs
- A mother’s care
- A mystery animal
- Enter Mother Courage
- A paraplegic bear
- Courage, endurance, & morality
- Death
- Mother Courage as a cub
- Enter wild turkeys
- Big Red & Spitfire as Adam & Eve
THE CANIDAE
193
Chapter 14
- Grazing wild turkeys
- John James Audubon
- Turkey dinner
- The dog family
- The red fox
- All but one of his fires out
- How to catch a vole
- The fox knows many things
- A family of foxes
- Voles echolocate
- Big Red & Spitfire move on
- The Canopy of Algonquin Park
THE ANCESTORS
209
Chapter 15
- Up through the hardwood forest
- Our wolves napping
- Life at/in a pond
- A night in a limestone cave
- Epicyon—mega dog
- The sweet point
- Cynodictis—dawn dog
- The canid diaspora
- Big Red protects Spitfire
PAINTED WOLVES
219
Chapter 16
- Crack of a rifle
- Big Red & Spitfire take refuge
- Varmints
- Death in the afternoon
- Toxic masculinity
- Our wolves walk through the valley of death
- Song dogs of America
- Our wolves spend the night on an island
- Painted wolves
- Wolf health care
- David Attenborough
- Dynasties: The Greatest of Their Kind
- The legend of Tait
- Death by lions
- Big Red’s love for Spitfire
- Snake attack in the water
- We are wolves
MAN’S FIRST FRIEND
237
Chapter 17
- Big Red &Spitfire dine on beaver
- Spring bear hunt
- Manger full of Puppies
- Amundsen’s dogs
- Shackleton’s dog crew
- Moscow Metro dogs
- Big Red and Spitfire meet the Hill Pack wolves
- Dancing with wolves
HOMECOMING
259
Chapter 18
- A golden eagle
- Death of Big Red’s father
- The mourning
- Big Red injures a Hill Pack wolf
- Joyous family reunion
- Showdown on the back barn flat
- The Hill Pack vs. the Natal Pack
- Celebration
- The Natal Pack mark their land
- The true nature of wolves
- Big Red & the author
- Spitfire has seven puppies
- Memory
- I recognize the Ryder in the Whirlwind
- Animals who have found places in my heart