The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog

The astonishing true story of one of the first wolves to roam Yellowstone in more than 60 years.

Book One in The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone: A Trilogy

" Rick McIntyre] is first and foremost a storyteller whose encyclopedic knowledge of Yellowstone's wolf reintroduction project is unparalleled."
--Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf

Yellowstone National Park was once home to an abundance of wild wolves--but park rangers killed the last of their kind in the 1920s. Decades later, the rangers brought them back, with the first wolves arriving from Canada in 1995.

This is the incredible true story of one of those wolves.

Wolf 8 struggles at first--he is smaller than the other pups, and often bullied--but soon he bonds with an alpha female whose mate was shot. An unusually young alpha male, barely a teenager in human years, Wolf 8 rises to the occasion, hunting skillfully, and even defending his family from the wolf who killed his father. But soon he faces a new opponent: his adopted son, who mates with a violent alpha female. Can Wolf 8 protect his valley without harming his protégé?

Authored by a renowned wolf researcher and gifted storyteller, The Rise of Wolf 8 marks the beginning of an original and bold new trilogy, which will transform our view of wolves forever.

Rick McIntyre has worked with the National Park Service for more than fifty years and has recorded more sightings of wild wolves than any other person. During one fifteen year period, he rose before dawn every day to observe the Yellowstone wolves. Now retired, he has spoken about the Yellowstone Wolves with news outlets such as 60 Minutes and NPR’s Snap Judgement, and is profiled extensively in American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee.

Robert Redford--actor, director, and producer--has been a passionate art and environmental activist since the early 1970s. He has been an advocate for climate change awareness, clean energy, and habitat protection for over forty years.