The world thrilled to the wanderings of Oregon's first modern wolf star, OR-7. By the time the numbers got higher, some of the thrill had worn off, and the realities of living near wolves had become clearer to more people. OR-143 was hit by a car and killed in Douglas County, possibly because people were feeding him from cars.
There were always going to be mixed feelings in society about bringing back an animal that civilization had deliberately wiped out in the last century. Journalist Eli Francovich explores those feelings, from wolf lovers to wolf haters to the very big space in between, in his book The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator's Struggle to Survive in the American West.
We bring the author in for a chat about his many conversations about wolves.