A Woman Among Wolves

A debut memoir from one of the first women biologists in the United States to study wild wolves in their natural habitat—a story of passion, resilience, and determination.

“The story of a woman in a career dominated by men, tracking wolves as they return to a world dominated by humans—Diane Boyd’s A Woman Among Wolves is, in more ways than one, a gripping and vital portrait of wolf repopulation. It is impossible not to root for her, or for the wolves.”—Erica Berry, author of Wolfish

Called the Jane Goodall of wolves, world-renowned wildlife biologist Diane Boyd has spent four decades studying and advocating for wolves in the wilds of Montana near Glacier National Park. When she started in the 1970s, she was the only female biologist in the United States researching and radio-collaring wild wolves. With her two dogs for company, she faced the rigors of the Montana winter in an isolated cabin without running water or electricity.

Boyd fearlessly forded icy rivers, strapped on skis to navigate thick stands of lodgepole pine, and monitored packs from the air in a tiny bush plane that skimmed the treetops so she could count wolves and see what they were feeding on. She faced down grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolverines—and the occasional trapper—as she stalked her quarry: a handful of wolves that were making their way south from Canada into Montana. Resilient and resourceful, she devised her own trapping methods and negotiated with locals as wolf populations grew from the first natural colonizer to more than 3,000 wolves in the West today.

In this captivating book, Boyd takes the reader on a wild ride from the early days of wolf research to the present-day challenges of wolf management across the globe, highlighting her interactions with an apex predator that captured her heart and her undying admiration. Her writing resonates with her indomitable spirit as she explores the intricate balance of human and wolf coexistence.

Diane Boyd holds a PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana. She divides her time between her home in Kalispell, Montana, and her beloved cabin in the North Fork. She is the author of numerous scientific papers on wolves.

Douglas H. Chadwick is a wildlife biologist. He is a frequent contributor to National Geographic, the author of more than two hundred articles on wildlife and wild places, and fifteen books, including The Wolverine Way and Four Fifths a Grizzly.