In March 1995, a few wolves cautiously exited their pens into the melting snow of Yellowstone National Park, returning there 70 years after guns, traps and poison had wiped them out. The dramatic return of these top carnivores was watched around the world, the culmination of twists and turns rivaling any Hollywood blockbuster. Now, a new documentary film, Mollie’s Pack, tells the story in a new and emotional way. Mollie’s Pack pairs the story of the controversial reintroduction of the wolves with the life of Mollie Beattie, then head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Beattie was not only instrumental in bringing the Canadian wolves into Yellowstone National Park, but was also there to carry in the wolves on their arrival, specifically number five, an alpha female whose line would form the backbone of Yellowstone’s wolf population. Eighteen months after successfully bringing wolves back to Yellowstone, Beattie died from a brain tumor. She was 49 years old. These two stories — of Beattie’s life and death, and of the resurrection of wolves in one of the best-known ecosystems on the planet — form the film Mollie’s Pack. Mollie Beattie at the Yellowstone Arch in 1995. Image is a still from the film Mollie’s Pack. Mongabay’s Jeremy Hance interviewed the film’s director, Tom Winston, from the production company Grizzly Creek Films, about its serendipitous coming together and the legacy of Mollie Beattie — and wolf number five — in Yellowstone National Park today. Winston compares the herculean task of reintroducing…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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