By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

Breathtakingly beautiful photos of Alaska, and of a lone black wolf that made his home below the Mendenhall Glacier for almost a decade–John Hyde tracked and recorded the activities of Romeo, a very unusual wolf. Orphaned, but able to live in the wild (the author’s scat analysis showed a diet of mostly deer, lemming and beaver), he was very fond of dogs–as in “playing with dogs”. 

An Alaskan Wolf is a very large, powerful creature, with jaws twice the strength of a German Shepherd, yet Romeo became accepted by the townspeople as a winter visitor each year, enamored of their dogs. His canine dominant status is clearly apparent in shots of his romping with the town’s pets, and yet he’s acting as silly as a puppy, getting them to chase him. He towers over the Labs and Boxers he’s shown scampering  with, and you almost feel like yelling to the unseen  dog owners “no, no–this won’t end well!”,  but of course Hyde wouldn’t have produced “Romeo” if there wasn’t an exceptional story to tell. 

Kim Elton, Dir. Of Alaska Affairs, U.S.D.I., says of the book, “If wolves can’t inspire awe, what wild creature can?”, and Farley Mowat adds, “I envy John Hyde as I have never envied another human being.”   

Over 80 amazing photos will tempt you to book that cruise to Alaska.

Nice commentary too, with echoes of Aldo Leopold, and other naturalists, who continue to share their vision of the necessity of wilderness for all of us.