North Cascades National Park: The wolf comes home

The Wild with Chris Morgan

KUOW News and Information

Science, Nature

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One day, Chris was on the search for a very rare animal: a single wolf that had made it to the western side of the North Cascade mountains. That day, to his amazement, he found a set of fresh tracks on a sandy riverbed. Wolves had been extinct here in Washington state for nearly a hundred years, so the find was incredible.

These mythical creatures are very slowly returning to the North Cascades. It’s a sign of hope for both Jason Ransom, a biologist at the National Park, and Scott Schuyler from the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. But it’s taken a lot to get to this point, and there’s still a long way to go before this place is truly healed.

On his journey searching for this lone wolf, Chris asks the question: will the wildlife and human ecosystem make space for them as they trickle back?

The image pictured is the first wolf track Chris found on the west side of the North Cascades that triggered the story told in this episode.

This show would not be possible without listener support. You can help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by donating at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

For some great photographs and clips from our journey through the national parks, check out our Instagram @thewildpod and @chrismorganwildlife.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. THE WILD is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here at Shortwave Space Camp, we escape our everyday lives to explore the mysteries and quirks of the universe.
0:07.0	We find weird, fun, interesting stories that explain how the Cosmos is partying all around us.
0:14.0	From Stars to Dwarf planets to Black Hole and Beyond, we've got you.
0:18.5	Listen now to the Shortwave Podcast from NPR.
0:29.4	This podcast is free and it's accessible to everyone thanks to support from listeners like you. If you value this show, please consider supporting its production by donating to our home, KUAW. It only takes a minute to give and you'll be helping to support the production of this podcast.
0:43.7	Make a donation at KUOW.org or follow the link in the show notes.
0:49.4	And thanks.
0:51.4	Hi everyone, Chris here. Just wanted to let you know that this season of the wild
0:55.2	we're bringing you three new things along with the launch of our series on location
1:00.2	in America's National Parks we're also presenting interviews with the sharpest minds in wildlife conservation.
1:07.0	And we'll dip into our archives to share some of our favorite wild episodes from the past. Enjoy.
1:23.2	Oh!
1:31.0	What a wild sound sound. It's a wolf and it's howling right into a remote wildlife camera. It's just 60 seconds of grainy nighttime footage on the side of a trail in the mountains.
1:39.0	It's a sound that seems to just cut through to some ancient connection inside us. And here it's a sound from the past,
1:48.7	until very recently.
1:59.0	All across America, wolves were exterminated, poisoned, trapped and shot.
2:02.0	There were once one million of them, but white settlers killed
2:05.5	them for bounties and pelts until there were only a few thousand left in the
2:10.2	whole country.
2:13.8	It was no different here in Washington State.
2:16.8	Every wolf was gone by the 1930s.
2:21.0	Along with a whole community of carnivores,
	...

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