1938. December. It was his winter job to survey the coyotes on the Yellowstone, to chart their movements in and out of the park. To observe their predation. To document their social customs.
The wolves were all gone, unless you believed some of the hot talkers. If there were bears they were rarely seen, and the bison had all but disappeared.
He traveled alone with his camera, his note book and his gun.
Below Lava Creek the Gardner River flowed through a sweet valley with cottonwoods and firs clustering in the bottom land. It was here that he came to watch the old she coyote with the great flap of skin hanging from her flank.
Early March and the weak were failing. Hunger accompanied the creatures of the park. The old coyote felt her strength sucking away from her. She patrolled the river's edge finding what she could to eat, pausing to attempt to lick the great wound in her side. She found a faun just dead, its mother still defending it. The coyote waited.
The ranger tried to sketch the coyotes. He wanted to capture something missing from his photographs. A quality of wildness. But his drawings were clumsy and inept.
The ranchers in the area claimed the coyotes were breeding in the park then fanning out into the neighboring country to feast on lambs and even calves. He saw little truth in this claim.
As the snow began to melt the ranger saw the old she coyote once again along the Gardner River. A war was brewing in Europe. Dictators were raising their banners over the people, and he was in this quiet place, with the old coyote, watching her die.
It was not his job to intervene, but as spring came and the cottonwoods released their scent he saw that the coyote was not recovering.
On his last morning he walked toward her through the new grass and she did not move away. He realized then that she could not hear, could hardly see and could not smell his approach. He followed her circular wanderings until late afternoon. She limped badly and her legs were stiff and trembling.
His plan had been to capture her and nurse her back to health, but in the failing light she slipped away from him.