I grew up watching old wildlife movies like the "Incredible Journey" and "The Legend of Lobo" (bonus points if you remember the song...) in which an animal takes on human society and his/her own natural world to survive. Reading American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee, which recounts the above story, brought all those memories back, except this time in a thrillingly true story.
Wildlife narratives often fill in details with guesswork or scientific background to make up for a story that is otherwise fairly short- we know animals' exact activity only when they're in contact with us. American Wolf does neither; O-6's day to day actions were well documented by naturalists who kept track of her, resulting in an intimate biography with surprising details no fiction writer would publish.
The author also weaves together a story that is bigger than the day to day life of a wolf. It involves the naturalist community, local ranchers, and the legal system in a battle that has ramifications for both people and animals today. The lines between good and bad are grey; they lie somewhere in the primordial fight for survival which I am sure the wolf would understand were she able to communicate with us. A wolf can't do so in so many words, but maybe 0-6 has through American Wolf.
