Ira Glass
It's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Today's program, "How I Learned to Shave." Stories of our parents' legacies and what we learned from our dads, whether it's intended or not. We've arrived at Act Two of our show. Act Two, "Raised by Wolf."
So we now turn to this father and son who go hunting together, have all kinds of adventures, and then things get complicated. Both of them were raised by wolves because they are wolves. Here's Lilly Sullivan.
Lilly Sullivan
Rick McIntyre has spent more time watching wild wolves than anyone in the world. He's been doing it for over 40 years. His focus on them is singular and complete. He lives alone in a little cabin just outside of Yellowstone. And every day, seven days a week, he gets up before dawn, figures out where they are. He watches them, writes down what they do. It's now over 13,000 pages of field notes, single-spaced. And he's turned those notes into books.
Reading them, it's like you're out there with him, seeing what he sees. And you just watch the wolves. Lots of scientific papers have been based on his observations. Before Rick and others started doing this work, we really didn't know much about wolves-- well, except for one thing-- that we didn't want them around, even in Yellowstone.
Rick McIntyre
The early rangers back in the 1920s, like pretty much everyone else in America at that time, felt that wolves were no good and that they should all be killed off. And those early rangers did that job in a very thorough manner.
Lilly Sullivan
US Park Rangers killed off the last of the wolves in Yellowstone. Then, in the 1990s, we realized that was a big mistake. So we decided to reintroduce them by capturing three families of wild wolves from Canada and bringing them back to try to get them to settle in and repopulate the park.
They put tracking collars on them so they could find them and watch them, which meant we could really learn what these animals were like in a way that hadn't been possible for most of history. That's what Rick's job was. And of all the things he observed, this is the story that got to him most, of two wolves, a father and a son.
We're going to start with the father, who was one of the first wolves to be reintroduced to Yellowstone. As Rick puts it in his book, "If Shakespeare were telling the story, he'd start it deep in a forest, deep in a wolf's den." Three pups come running out of the den, all robust and strong like their father. And then a fourth pup tumbles out after them, like an afterthought, a scrawny gray pup, the pup who seemed least likely to amount to anything.
Rick McIntyre
He was the runt of his litter. His three brothers were all bigger and stronger than him. And he looked different from everyone else in his family. He had a very dull, drab gray coat. His mother had a beautiful whitish coat. His father was jet black. And all of his brothers looked exactly like the father wolf. They also had black coats. So he really stood out, but stood out in a really bad way.
His brothers constantly picked on him. He ate last. They would chase him around the pen. They would pin him and beat him up. And it was really a tough time for him.
Lilly Sullivan
They named the pup Wolf 8 because the collars they gave the wolves, each one had a number. And his was number eight, so that became his name. These pups were all new to the park. Rick was kind of new to his job, too. This was the first time he'd ever gotten to watch wolves so closely. And Rick felt for 8 immediately, started calling him the little guy, worried about him. But then one day, he was watching 8 out playing with his brothers.
Rick McIntyre
And they were just fooling around, chasing each other. And suddenly, they stopped, and they steered into a pretty thick forest. And then they suddenly just ran at full speed into those trees.
Lilly Sullivan
Rick lost sight of them in the trees for a while. Then they came darting back out, the three bigger pups in the lead.
Rick McIntyre
And then last in line, as usual because he was the slowest, was 8.
Lilly Sullivan
One of the big pups was carrying a dead elk calf. At first, Rick was impressed that such young pups had taken down an elk.
Rick McIntyre
But it turned out that they had not killed that elk. Because just behind 8, as he ran out of the trees, was a huge grizzly bear. And it was really the bear's elk calf. The bear was gaining on little 8. He was getting closer and closer. 8 was looking back over his shoulder. And it looked like at any moment, the bear would pounce on 8. 8 was maybe 60, 70 pounds at that time. The bear was maybe 400 pounds.
But then little 8 just stopped, turned around, and confronted that huge grizzly. And somehow, it worked. The bear stopped. It looked at this little thing that was standing up to him like he didn't understand. And as the bear was confused, he had lost sight of 8's brother who had the elk calf. So now the bear literally didn't know what to do. So it basically just shrugged his shoulders, turned around, and walked off the other way. But that made me realize that there was really a lot more to this wolf than any of us had ever realized.
Lilly Sullivan
His bigger, beautiful brothers didn't see this act of heroism. No one shared the elk with him. And they kept picking on him. As the months passed, 8 started spending more and more time alone to get away from them, just kind of wandering the forest, like a high schooler might do to get away from their family. And again, Rick felt for him, small like that, out there all by himself, with a family that didn't get him.
Then one day, wolf 8 was out wandering alone as usual, when he ran into these wolf pups. Their mother was in a rough spot. She'd had a litter of eight pups, and she was all on her own. Because the same day she gave birth to her pups, her mate was illegally shot and killed.
And the thing is, it's really hard to raise wolf pups alone. In order to produce milk to feed them, she needed to hunt and eat. But that would mean leaving them alone. And newborn pups can't regulate their body temperature on their own. So starve or freeze-- she and her pups were screwed.
The Wolf Project staff was so worried, they even captured the family for a bit so they could feed them. But then wolf 8 came along, the little guy, just a yearling, just out by himself. He saw these pups, and he started playing with them.
Rick McIntyre
And the mother wolf was watching that from a distance, and she was desperate. She needed whatever help she could get. And he'd already made friends with all of her sons and daughters. So a moment later, she ran to him. They greeted each other. They played a bit.
Lilly Sullivan
8 liked this family. Over the next days, he started hunting for them, bringing them back little snacks. A little tangent I learned from the books-- a wolf often feeds pups by regurgitating the meat it's hunted. A wolf can carry up to 20 pounds of meat in its belly, which is easier than carrying that much in its jaws over a long distance. Once back at the den, the pups then trigger regurgitation by licking its face. That's why your dog licks your face. It's trying to get you to puke. Gross, right?
So wolf 8's going out, hunting and bringing back these little snacks, as I said, all for these little pups. That was the first time they'd ever documented something like that-- a male wolf caring for another pack's pups, who he wasn't related to.
Rick McIntyre
And he was invited into the family, meaning now he went from being a picked on, bullied, undersized wolf, to being a big shot alpha male. Perhaps her first impression of seeing this undersized yearling wasn't that he was the best candidate, but he had shown up. He was there.
Lilly Sullivan
He adopted those pups like they were his own. This is one of the things they were seeing while monitoring wolves, by the way. Wolves, like lots of creatures, they have really distinct personalities. And now they could see. Some wolves are aggressive. Some are aloof. And 8 seemed really-- I know how this sounds-- he seemed really nice.
So that's the dad, which brings us to the second wolf in this story, the son, one of 8's adopted pups, known as 21. When 8 came along and started feeding the family, he and 21 really bonded, father and adopted son. Part of it was that 8 was young for a father, just a year older than the pups, so still puppy-like in lots of ways. 8 would do things like let all the pups attack him, roll on his back and pretend to lose to them. Or they might chase him around, and 8 would pretend to be scared and run away. Not all father wolves play with their pups like this. Some are standoffish or dominant.
But 21 seemed particularly connected to 8. As the years went on, the other pups in the litter wandered off, joined other packs. It was just what wolves do. 21, though, stayed first one year, and then another. There was one spring that their den was especially visible. And Rick's spotting scope had a clear view of them. So that whole season, Rick was able to watch them every day for hours on end as they chased and played.
Rick McIntyre
And that's where I really began to understand the depth of the relationship between 8 and 21. It was the peak of my wolf watching career to be able to watch that.
Lilly Sullivan
They were a funny couple because 8 was so small, and 21, his son, grew huge, became significantly larger than his dad. Rick describes 21 as an almost cartoon version of a wolf. If you wanted to draw a wolf as a Marvel superhero, it'd look like 21. They'd go hunting together. 8 would decide when to go. And if 21 wasn't around, 8 would howl and wait. And then they'd head out together. When they found the prey, 21, so muscly and fast, would usually get there first and grab hold. Together, they'd take it down.
Rick McIntyre
So they would go off and hunt. They would come back with food. They were just inseparable. They were buddies. They did everything together, with 8 being the older guy, the one in charge, 21 essentially being the apprentice.
Lilly Sullivan
Another season passed, and still, 21 stayed in the pack. He was nearly three at this point, which, honestly, is like too long for a grown-ass wolf to be living with his parents. It'd be like a 24-year-old with no friends, except for his mom and dad. Eventually, 21 did leave. And here's where things get complicated. He went to the pack right next door, what Rick and his team had been calling the Druid Peak pack, a pack that their family did not get along with. They'd battled in the past. There was still a lot of tension.
The Druid Peak pack was led by a female who was notoriously violent. And seriously, she was wild. She drove her own mother and sister out of the pack. Rick's pretty sure she killed entire litters of her sister's pups two years in a row. To this day, Rick calls her "the psychopath." And she was the leader.
The whole alpha male running the pack thing, by the way, one male beating all the others into submission, that's a myth. A pack is usually just a family of wolves, and the lead male is just the father. The one calling the shots is actually a female. She's in charge of strategy and decisions. And this female was terrifying. One year after 21 joined her pack, 21's sister wandered into the pack's territory. The psychopath just went off on her. Someone from the Wolf Project was in a plane, saw it all happen.
Rick McIntyre
The researcher in the plane took photographs of what was happening. And I later looked at every one of those photographs. It was not a pretty sight. There was snow on the ground. And as the photos were taken, you could see more and more blood on the snow as she was biting at the helpless opponent.
Lilly Sullivan
21 was there. But he was in her pack, and she was the leader. He didn't intervene. As the years went by, he got bigger, and their pack thrived. He became the lead male of the pack, and he had pups of his own. His true love seemed to be wolf 42, a real sweetheart, Rick says. They'd bed down together all the time.
And his pack grew huge, too. Someone shot a documentary. A lot of the footage focused on 21, and 21 actually got famous for being this amazing, majestic wolf. People would travel to Yellowstone to see him. No one really came to see his dad.
One winter, the tension started to escalate between 21's pack, the Druid Peak pack, and his father wolf 8's pack. Rick would be at home and hear the packs howling at each other from across the valley. He could tell from their radio collars that they were encroaching on each other's territory. Neither side seemed to be backing down.
The main way wolves in the park die is in fights with other wolves. Rick had seen wolf fights. They could be brutal. And if a clash came, 21 and his father, 8, would be pitted against each other. 21's job was to protect his pack, and 8's job was to protect his.
Rick McIntyre
I was very worried about 8. He was now very old. He had a lot of health problems. He was losing his strength and his speed. 21 was middle-aged at that point. He was at the peak of his strength and fighting ability. He had never lost a fight in his life. He was the undefeated heavyweight champion of Yellowstone.
Lilly Sullivan
Then there was the lead female, the vicious one. 8 would be up against her, too.
Rick McIntyre
I was in Lamar Valley. I was getting signals from both the Druid Peak pack to the east. I get the signal from 8's family to the west. Both of those packs were traveling toward each other. It looked like they were both traveling on the same ridge, Specimen Ridge, on the south side of Lamar Valley. They were moving toward each other, meaning that there was going to be a fight.
Lilly Sullivan
One side howled. The other side howled. It was January. There was snow out. Rick pulled over in his truck, got his spotting scope on the wolves. 8's pack was up on the ridge. 21's pack was running uphill through forests and meadows. 21 was out in front of his pack. 8 was in front of his. Both packs were charging at each other.
Rick McIntyre
So here I was watching the two wolves that I admired the most in the world, father and adopted son running at each other. They started to come together. They were charging each other. 8, he wasn't running as fast, but he was still out in front of his family. And nothing was going to stop him.
I mean, even now, thinking about it, I'm in great distress because I remember how I felt then. I did not want to see 8 killed. I did not want to see him torn apart. Of all the deaths that could befall 8, in my mind, this would be the very worst. This would be such a horrible ending to their story.
Lilly Sullivan
Rick starts ticking through possibilities, trying to figure out if there was some way out. 21 could just pin 8 down and let him go. But no, that wouldn't work. The psychopath was right behind 21. She'd surely jump in and kill 8. No question.
Rick McIntyre
And I was just helpless that there was nothing that I could do as a researcher other than just watch and document what was about to happen in front of me. They got to within 40 yards, 30 yards, 20 yards, 10 yards. And I knew, just in a moment, it was all going to be over.
So there I am, standing there, looking through my spotting scope. The moment arrives. They're just a couple of feet apart from each other. Well, in that moment, 21 did something-- ran right past 8 without stopping. Just in the very slightest way, 21 angles away and just shoots past 8.
Lilly Sullivan
It was the strangest thing, two sides heading into battle and then running right past each other. 21's pack kept following 21 because he's leading the charge. So when he sprinted past, they just kept following him.
Rick McIntyre
All the other Druid wolves ran past 8 and all the other wolves. And 8 didn't have the ability to turn around. He just kept on going as well. Wolves from both packs, they were just running back and forth. They were howling at each other. It was a confusing situation. No wolves were harmed. No wolves were fighting. And that was the end of the fight that never was.
Lilly Sullivan
This happened 23 years ago. But Rick still thinks about it all the time, wondering what happened that day. Rick's convinced that what 21 did that day was intentional. He thinks that 21 changed the battle into a game of chase, knowing that the other wolves would keep following him, and also, that he could outrun them all.
Rick McIntyre
21 had just come up with this genius solution to save the wolf that had raised him. It was probably the most emotional moment of my life.
Lilly Sullivan
It was the most emotional moment of your life?
Rick McIntyre
Yes. By that time, I had known 21 and 8 for so many years. And I respected and admired them for so much. I was rooting for 8 to somehow survive. But the reality was, I didn't see any way that that could be the end of the story. And somehow, 21 figured it out. He saved the day.
Lilly Sullivan
Rick had been watching 8 and 21 day after day for years, their whole lives. And 8 was such a nice wolf. I know how that sounds, but I really can't think of a better word for it. You'd think that in a world as brutal as theirs, niceness could get you killed. But in the end, it was the thing that saved him. After all, 21 learned how to be a wolf from 8. It's like a dad who just poured out all this love, and the son inherited it.
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