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Chapter One
Farely Mowat became interested in biology when he found two catfish near his grandmothers house in Ontario, Canada. THe book flashes forward a little to when he graduates from college, and finds a job with The Department of Mines and Resources to investigate a large drop in the caribou population. They wanted him to confirm that the wolves were to blame. -
Chapter Two
He makes it to Churchill, and is then tasked with finding another plane to take him to the back country. While waiting for the other plane, a hunter shows him wolf juice, a mix of beer and antifreeze. -
Chapter Three
When he finally gets another plane, he is able to trade a ride for some wolf juice, and the pilot takes him and leaves him on a frozen lake, where he is supposed to find shelter and "make contact with the subjects". -
Chapter Seven
After settling in to the cabin, Mowat goes in search of the wolves. In the middle of the day during one of his walks, he takes a break to realize that there were two wolves sitting and looking at him. he shoos them away and the go away. -
Chapter 12
Mowat meets Mike's cousin Ootek, who tells him a lot about wolves that he didn't know. He said that they prefer ground squirrels and fish to caribou, because they cost less energy to kill. When he asks about all of the caribou skeletons around, Mike says that he killed them to feed himself and his dogs. He also add that he kills about three hundred a year just himself. -
Chapter 18
Mowat and Ootek go out to all surrounding areas to get information about the wolves from other people. Everyone agrees that there are about 30 thousand wolves in the area, or about one wolf to every six miles. -
Chapter 18 Cont.
After awhile, Mowat realizes that the population estimate sounded off, so he took into account the landscape and makes his own, more realistic estimate of around three thousand. -
Chapter Four
Having nothing else to do, he sets up a temporary radio tower, and somehow manages to signal someone in Peru, who agrees to send a message back to Ottowa. -
Chapter Five
Mowat hides under his canoe, because he thinks that wolves are after him. Turns out it wasn't wolves but sled dogs owned by an Eskimo named Mike. He makes a deal with Mike where he pays him ten dollars for three months of rent for his cabin and help from his sled dogs to get to the cabin. -
Chapter Eight
Mowat figures out where the den of the wolves is, and abandons the cabin to set up a tent camp closer to it. He then realizes that the wolves mark their territory, and that even though he is in it, they don't notice him at all, so he marks his own small territory within the wolves'. -
Chapter Nine
Mowat begins to grow fond of the wolves, and gives them names. The main wolf is George, his mate is Angeline, and the other male is named Albert. Mowat decides that Albert is like the uncle, so he becomes Good Old Uncle Albert. -
Chapter 10
Mowat becomes curious on how the wolves eat, if they don't eat caribou. He soon figures out that they eat a lot of mice, after watching Angeline catch and eat a good amount of them while Albert kept the pups busy. He realizes that people won't believe him, and will keep accusing the wolves of eating all of the caribou, so he goes in search of more evidence. -
Chapter 11
To prove that mice are enough to keep the wolves healthy, he decides to use himself as an experiment where he only eats mice, and if he is still healthy enough or not. -
Chapter 13
Mike tells Mowat that Ootek can speak wolf, and that he heard the wolves saying that there were caribou in a certain place, so he set off for a hunting trip. He then comes back saying that the caribou were right where the wolves said that they would be. -
Chapter 14
Uncle Albert falls in love, when Mowat finds out that one of Mike's dogs, Kooa, is in heat. He brings her around to leave her scent everywhere. -
Chapter 20
Mowat asks Ootek why the wolves don't go for the caribou, and Ootek replies that they know they can't outrun a caribou. They usually only go for weak ones or young ones in a strong herd where natural selection hasn't played out yet.