The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

As a large-format coffee-table book of photos of B.C. wolves and their world, initially this work appears to be attractive, but stops short of being visually sensational. The photos—approximately 100 of them—are full-page plates, each professional in technique and well-chosen for composition and artistic merit. Yet most don’t sing. The singing is left up to the content—the subject—of the photos and text.

How do you get great photos of a secretive, largely nocturnal animal with the power to kill a bear, the cunning to know instantly when a human enters its territory, and the ability to decide whether or not it will allow itself to be seen? Learning how the author/photographer answered that challenge moves appreciation of the book to a whole new level. Now a head-on portrait of an alpha wolf, for example, shifts from “good shot” to “incredible accomplishment.” The text opens the door to this level of appreciation of the photos, of the wolves, and their unusual ecology.

By framing the text on a seasonal structure, the author introduces the wolves’ habitat, behaviours, relationship to First Nations peoples, symbiotic relationship with ravens, pack traditions, and prey. There is information on the role of specific individuals within the pack (babysitter, sentry, etc.), the training of pups and other details of their daily life. Wolves eat a range of foods, from mice to moose, berries to bear. Yet unlike any other known wolves, the B.C. coastal packs have a diet rich in salmon brains, fish eggs, seals, barnacles, crab, and squid.

The author is not only the writer and photographer; he is also one of the field researchers for the work. His is well-known for his work as an advocate for conservation of B.C.’s rainforest and as co-founder of the Rainforest Wolf Project. The book describes the methodology of this scientific study, which uses non-invasive research techniques to achieve groundbreaking findings.

A 16-minute DVD provides an attractive overview and summary.

The book is elegantly written, and an outstanding contribution to the body of information available on Canada’s unique ecology and wildlife.