Wildlife biologist Diane Boyd: 'Wolf and human societies have intriguing parallels'

The grey wolf expert on the incredible distances the predators travel, why dogs are a kind of dumbed down wolf - and her most hair?raising close callThe grey wolf (Canis lupus) has generated fear and hatred. Seen as a danger to livestock and people, the once widespread predator was nearly completely eradicated from western Europe and most of the contiguous US in the 19th and 20th centuries. Pro- and anti-wolf groups now duel over how the species should be managed as populations have rebounded in places over the past few decades. American wildlife biologist Diane Boyd, 69, has spent 40 years studying the recovery of wild wolf populations in remote north-western Montana and Glacier national park. When she started in the late 1970s on the University of Montana's Wolf Ecology Project (WEP) - which she later co-led - she was the only female biologist in the US trapping, radio-collaring and following their trails through the snow for research. Boyd's new memoir, A Woman Among Wolves, charts her life's work with the animals and looks at the challenges of wolf management across the world today.What is it about wolves that drew you in?I grew up in Minnesota, the only state in the lower 48, along with a tiny part of Michigan, where wolves hadn't been completely extirpated. They were denizens of the wilderness that nobody saw and that fascinated me. They are clever, beautiful and interesting animals. The parallels between wolf and human society are intriguing - like us, they are social, live in family groups and defend their homes. I have also always been a dog person: a dog is kind of a dumbed down version of a wolf. Continue reading...