Monday, June 16, 2014

Saving the Wolves


When I began writing my Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series, I decided to focus on various social problems, including serial killers in A Village Shattered, drugs in Diary of Murder and homegrown terrorism in Murder on the Interstate.

For my third mystery novel, Gray Wolf Mountain, I researched the unwarranted mass killings of wolves, both in this country and Canada. What I learned was shocking. In the northern Rocky Mountain states, where wolves have been removed from the endangered species list, gray wolf puppies are gassed in their dens and buried alive, while aerial killings of adult wolves are accomplished by shooting them from planes and helicopters.

In both the U.S. and Canada, where government mandated numbers of wolves must not go below one hundred, female wolves are captured and sterilized. Also in Canada, where the Keystone Pipeline is under construction, caribou have been dying off because their natural habitat has been destroyed. But wolves have been blamed for the caribou deaths and nearly a thousand have already been reportedly killed from the air.

In the Yukon Territory where biologists track wolf numbers and their locations with radio collars, the Game and Fish Department is killing great numbers of wolves from the air so that the caribou numbers will increase to 100,000 while wolf numbers dwindle to a hundred in the entire territory. Why? To attract big game hunters.

Why should anyone be concerned about the demise of the wolf as well as the grizzly bear, which is also under consideration here to be delisted. Because they're both keystone predators who influence their habitat’s entire ecosystem and keep the animals that eat plants in check. That in turn increases plant growth and the survival of birds and animals which depend on the plants. It also prevents a build-up of large game animals who will starve to death due to lack of food. In other words, killing off the predators unbalances nature.


To prevent my books from becoming boring nonfiction tomes, I added my two amateur women sleuths, who are always stumbling over bodies and getting themselves caught in the crosshairs of illegal hunters, terrorists, drug gangs and wolf killers, to name just a few. And by adding humor and a little romance in the form of a lovesick sheriff, as well as a few quirky characters, I can inform and hopefully entertain my readers


Gray Wolf Mountain is available in  print and ebook editions.
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20 comments:

  1. Wolves and mountain men, sounds very interesting. And that is an AMAZING view in your header.

    Congrats on your new release!

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  2. Thanks, Beverly. Your name's in the hopper for the drawing.

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  3. Hi Jean! Your cover photo is beautiful. Seems to me that you have a magnificent and serene backdrop in which to write. My best to you from the realm of Sunderland! J.E.Rogers
    http://warriorechidna.blogspot.com


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  4. This vista looks like the view from Oriole, PA in the wild part of the state. We have our issues with hunters out here, too. I'm glad you are taking this on with a pen and a plot line!

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  5. Beautiful vista! Just found your website through Linked In, and I'm looking forward to following your blog.

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  6. Thank you for the kind words, J.E. I am blessed to live on a small ranch in Wyoming's Laramie Mountains.

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  7. I'm glad someone else is interested in saving wildlife, Aquablogger. You forgot to leave you email address so I can contact you, if you win a copy of Gray Wolf Mountain.

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  8. Thank you, Darlene. I look forward to your visits.

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  9. Congratulations on your latest release, Jean. I like how your books tackle real issues.

    Wishing you the best,

    Cheryl

    ccmal(at)charter(dot)net

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  10. Thank you for taking a stand and bringing this to light. I had no idea it was that bad. Can't wait to read your new book to see how you handled it. Well, that and I always enjoy your stories.

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  11. Thanks, Cheryl and Marja. The more I researched the wolf killings, I more angry I became and I knew I had to write about it.

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  12. No animal should be treated with such cruelty. Appreciate your attempting to make more folks aware of problem.
    Please enter me in contest.
    Thank you for another great book & blog.

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  13. Thank yiu for the kind words, Jake. Your name is in the drawing hopper.

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  14. Jean, Thanks for the comment on my blog. You book sounds wonderful. I hate it when we humans don't consider the animals' issues.

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  15. Jean, thanks for commenting on my blog, which directed me to yours. This is a great post and I look forward to reading your book. Where I live in northern Wisconsin we have a few relatively small packs of wolves and a lot of people around here would like to see them all killed off. It makes me very sad. The wolves are just doing what they were meant to do, they were here first, leave them alone.

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  16. Thanks for your comments, Gregg. If we don't take action,there's going to be catastrophic results in the animal kingdom. A few groups of people are furthering their own agendas and don't care what the consequencs will be.

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  17. Thanks, Chris, for your kind words. I couldn't agree with you more. I hope you'll stop by again.

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  18. Jean,
    Three things are especially great: 1. you tackle societal problems in the context of fiction; 2. the cover for Wolf Mountain is ethereal; and 3. your banner/backyard view is beautiful.
    Looking forward to WWW in Albu and hope you will be there.
    Arletta

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  19. Thank you, Phil. It's my favorite cover of all 19 books published so far.

    Arletta, thank you for the kind words. I hope to see you there as well.

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