Three Among the Wolves: A Couple and Their Dog Live a Year with Wolves in the Wild - Hardcover

Thayer, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570613982 ISBN 13: 9781570613982

Publisher: Sasquatch Books, 2004

Synopsis

Three Among the Wolves is a highly readable true-life adventure tale combined with a fascinating natural history of the wolf. Helen and Bill Thayer, accompanied by their part-wolf, mostly Husky dog, Charlie, set out on foot to live among wild wolf packs — first in the Canadian Yukon and then in the Arctic. They eventually set up camp within 100 feet of a wolf den, and are greeted with apprehension at first. They establish trust over time, because the wolves accept Charlie as the alpha male of the newly arrived "pack."

The Thayers discover the complexities of wolf family structure, including how pups are reared and how the injured are tenderly cared for. They view the intricacies of the hunt firsthand — how ravens direct wolves to prey in exchange for carrion — as well as the wolves' finely honed survival skills and engaging playfulness. Readers observe the ways Helen and Bill model pack behavior and how they address an unforeseen event: the Arctic wolves attempt to lure Charlie to join them.

About this title

About the Author:

HELEN THAYER has skied to the magnetic North Pole, lived among wolves in Alaska, kayaked in the Amazon, walked across the Sahara, and represented three countries as a track and field athlete. She is the author of Polar Dream and Three Among the Wolves and the recipient of countless awards. Thayer was named ''One of the Great Explorers of the 20th Century'' by National Geographic and is the president of ''Adventure Classroom'' an international educational project.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this breezy volume, Thayer, whose previous book chronicled her successful solo trek to the North Pole at age 50, recounts the year that she spent in the Yukon and Arctic wilderness following packs of wolves with her husband, Bill, and their part-wolf dog, Charlie. Like Farley Mowat and others before her, Thayer (Polar Dream) is motivated by a desire to study the behavior that wolves won’t reveal when they’re kept in captivity, particularly the "food-sharing habits they have with land-bound animals, such as grizzlies and ravens." The wilderness project relies heavily on the talents of Charlie, who acts as a canine go-between that both guides and protects his owners as they cautiously make their way closer and closer to a wolf pack. Thayer and her husband copy Charlie’s behavior to transform themselves from threatening humans to submissive, wolf-like strangers. They eat a vegetarian diet and try to minimize their presence as they follow the wolves on hunting expeditions in a cold, forbidding world. Suspenseful encounters with bitter storms and fearsome grizzlies are tempered by calmer moments with romping pups and breathtaking scenery. While the subject matter is not new, Thayer’s smooth prose style moves the story along, and the inclusion of Charlie as a main focus adds a new twist to the first-person nature narrative.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Sasquatch Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1570613982
• ISBN 13: 9781570613982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256