LRTPublicityLouise Rhind-Tutt

Jim and Jamie Dutcher spent years of their lives gaining the trust of a small pack of wolves with whom they shared a 25-acre enclosed compound in Idaho. Now they have written a touching book, with foreword by Robert Redford, to share their stories, advance conservation efforts and dispel myths about these amazing animals: The Hidden Life of Wolves

The effort to save the wolves from extinction is one of the greatest conservation success stories. However, you would never know that these animals were recently delisted from the endangered species list. They are one of the only animals to come off the list to be managed to a biological minimum. The Hidden Life of Wolves delves into one of the biggest issues - how ranchers, farmers and wolves can live together - and discusses the mistaken, but widely held belief that wolves are responsible for the majority of livestock predation. Of all the livestock that die of natural causes on the open range including weather, birthing problems, sickness and predators, predation from wolves adds up to less than 2%.

The Hidden Life of Wolves allows readers to get to know the members of the Sawtooth pack through stories, but also a timeline of the wolf pack generations and breathtaking photography. Readers will fall in love with the wolves including Lakota, the Omega wolf and the lowest ranking member of the pack. Lakota, maintained a special and uncommonly close relationship with Kamots, the Alpha and pack leader who would often fend off the rest of the pack from Lakota when play got too rough.

Not only will these photos thrill readers, they will also remind them just how closely related dogs and wolves are; many of the postures, behaviors and expressions of the wolves are displayed by our own dogs.

“The wolves of the Sawtooth Pack gave us so much and wolves in general are so misunderstood,” said Jim Dutcher. “We decided to stop filming and give back to the wolves by starting an educational organization. We now have dedicated ourselves to creating awareness for wolves.”

Jim Dutcher is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer whose extraordinary camerawork has led audiences into places never before filmed: inside beaver lodges, down burrows to peek at wolf pups, and into the secret life of a mother mountain lion. His work includes the National Geographic special, A Rocky Mountain Beaver Pond, and ABC World of Discovery’s two highest-rated films, Cougar: Ghost of the Rockies and Wolf: Return of a Legend. Jamie Dutcher, Jim’s wife and co-producer, has worked in the animal hospital of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., bringing her knowledge of animal husbandry and medical care to film and enabling her to quickly gain access to the sensitive and secret inner lives of wolves.