About this episode
The episode discusses the efforts to eradicate wolves in the West and how their intelligence and the science of ecology contributed to their survival.
For the first 50 years of the 20th century a new federal agency did everything in its power to disappear all wolves from the West and America. What saved the wolf was its own intelligence in the face of eradication, and the emergence of the new science of ecology, whose practitioners revealed the real animal within the legend. Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck . Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube , Spotify , Apple , iHeart , Pandora , Amazon . MeatEater on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , Youtube , and Youtube Clips Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals " The Long Hunters " and " Mountain Men " Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop MeatEater Merch See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Topics covered
- wolf conservation
- ecology
- federal agencies
- 20th century history
- wildlife intelligence
Keywords
- wolves
- ecology
- conservation
- federal agency
- 20th century
- wildlife
- intelligence
Sponsors
Velvet Buck
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Long Hunters, Mountain Men
More episodes of Gunfighters
- Ep. 38: The River That Flowed From Nowhere, Part I · July 21, 2026 · 58 min
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- Ep. 37: The Wolf Returns to the West · July 14, 2026 · 1h 1m
- Ep. 36: Down the West’s Grandest Canyon · July 7, 2026 · 57 min
- Ep. 35: How the Endangered Species Act Saved the West and America · June 30, 2026 · 56 min
- Ep. 34: Big Bend and the Deserts of the West · June 23, 2026 · 55 min
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