In the Field

Cautious But Curious - Coastal Gray Wolf Pup. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 19, 2024.

I captured this image of a seriously curious coastal Gray Wolf pup on the very first day of my September 2024 "Into the Great Bear Rainforest" Exploratory Photo Adventure. While anyone who follows my blog and website knows that I'm a pretty big fan of bears, I have to admit the encounter with a family group (AKA "pack") of wolves rates right up at the top of my list of "best wildlife encounters of all time!" I personally find wolves (and dogs) fascinating, but so often when you're viewing or photographing wolves in a remote location (and without the aid of dedicated "wolf watchers" who spend all their time following the wolves and sharing their sightings online) the best you can get is a quick glimpse of a wolf in the distance (as it disappears into the forest). But this time...well...not only did we have the 6 wolves in the family totally to ourselves, but the very wild wolves were very tolerant of our presence and mostly went about their "wolf business" as though we were just a floating log. This early evening encounter went on for around 40 minutes before we withdrew to leave the wolves to themselves. And the next morning we spent another two full hours with the wolf family! During the two encounters both the adult wolves and the pups gave us just so, so much to watch and photograph.

Back to this shot. The wolf here is one of the three pups-of-the-year, and was around 6 months old at the time this image was captured. Each of the three wolf pups reacted differently to us - one was quite shy but still quite indifferent to us, one was slightly bolder and couldn't care less about us, and one was much bolder and downright curious about us. This is the boldest one here, and after giving us this long hard stare with those enchanting eyes, it simply laid down and alternated between watching his/her family members and us. While this wolf family was in a really remote location within the Great Bear Rainforest (and on just a gorgeous beach) it's highly likely they had encountered humans other than us since the pups were born. But, based on how they acted around us, it was clear they were a rare breed of wolves - ones that hadn't experienced abuse at the hands of humans. And, hopefully, no one (and specifically no selfish wildlife photographers!) had been feeding them.

I captured this image using a Nikon Z 9 body and a Z 800mm f6.3S super-telephoto lens. When I got this lens I anticipated using it far less than my Z 400mm f2.8S but have been pleasantly surprised with how much use I have been getting out of it. There are definitely times when the Z 800mm is simply "too much focal length" for my chosen subject matter (such as most of the time when photographing grizzlies in the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary), but with how easy it is to hand-hold (even in a floating Zodiac!) it can come in darn handy when working with shy wildlife and/or situations where you want to keep your distance from your subjects to minimize your impact on their behaviour.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this curious wolf pup:

• Cautious But Curious - Coastal Gray Wolf Pup: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 5.2 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Into the Great Bear Rainforest Exploratory Photo Adventure in late September of 2024. Each year I offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest as well as tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Cautious But Curious - Coastal Gray Wolf Pup. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 19, 2024.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 6400.

Nikon Z 9 paired with Z Nikkor 800mm f6.3S. Hand-held from a floating Zodiac inflatable boat. VR on in Sport mode. 3D-tracking AF area mode with subject detection set to "Animal" mode.

1/1250s @ f6.3; No compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Cautious But Curious - Coastal Gray Wolf Pup. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 19, 2024.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 8.1 Elite (using the appropriate lens/camera optical module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One's Capture One Pro 23 (build 16.4.6). In the case of this image the only global adjustment was an overall contrast tweak (using the Levels tool). Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 5 separate layers, with most of the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to clarity, highlights, shadows, etc.). Sand colour was adjusted using a selective adjustment to the blue channel (curves adjustment).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Cautious But Curious - Coastal Gray Wolf Pup. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 19, 2024.

Species Status in Canada*: Only Eastern Wolf listed as species of "Special Concern" in May, 2001. Other populations not listed as Endangered or Threatened.

Probably no species alive today has suffered as much direct persecution from humans as has the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus). Once extremely widespread in North America, the Gray Wolf was virtually extirpated from the contiguous 48 states of America and now is regularly found within only a fraction of its historical range in Canada. While the Gray Wolf is currently listed as endangered in most of the 48 lower states of the United States and enjoys the privileges associated with such status (if lack of persecution and abuse can be thought of as a privilege), it is still official policy in much of Canada to rid the countryside of this magnificent keystone predator. As an example, in British Columbia, there is NO closed season on the wolf in most hunting jurisdictions and opportunistic slaughter is encouraged by policy (it is the ONLY fur-bearing species for which NO species hunting tag is required in British Columbia!). Conservation of wolves presents a puzzling paradox. Reduced to the most basic principles, wolf conservation is simplistic: we need only to stop persecuting this species in order for it to survive. Yet accomplishing this invariably proves incredibly difficult - it's as though wolf persecution has been institutionalized directly into government (and societal) bureaucracy.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada