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Wolf Education & Research Center — Over Thirty Years of Wolf Conservation

The packs we cared for became ambassadors for an entire generation.
Now it's the world's turn to protect the future.

For more than three decades, we cared for the Owyhee Pack and the Sawtooth Pack—Wolves of the Nez Perce—giving families, students, and the public a rare opportunity to experience wolves up close. Though the packs have passed, their legacy lives on. Our mission continues through education, research, publishing, and the defense of wolves and other wild carnivores around the world.

Education. Conservation. Legacy.

Turning more than three decades of fieldwork into classrooms, publications, and conservation partnerships—so the next generation inherits a world where predators and people thrive side by side.

30

years in the field

From caretakers of the Sawtooth and Owyhee packs to mobile classrooms and coexistence trainings — the work has never paused.

3

continents reached

Reporting, educators and field partnerships across North America, South America and Europe — wherever wild carnivores meet people.

501(c)3

verified nonprofit

EIN 82-0453409. Ninety-four cents of every dollar goes to programs — not overhead.

Passport to Wildlife Academy

Passport to Wildlife Academy

A platform for teaching biology, ecology & wildlife science.

Built by biologists, ecologists and science educators. Designed for real classrooms. Delivered worldwide.

Explore the Academy

Learn

Free expert-built lessons in biology, ecology and wildlife science.

Assign

Create classrooms, assign coursework and track student progress.

Reward

Students unlock savings and benefits as they complete lessons.

Three ways in

Choose your place in the future of wild carnivores.

📖

Learn

Films, eBooks, field notes

Explore The Great Predator Debate trilogy, the monthly C3 journal, illustrated biology guides, and Sherlock Bones—created to inspire the next generation of naturalists.

Explore resources →

Give

Fund the fieldwork

A recurring gift supports tracking, research grants, educational outreach, and publishing. A legacy gift carries this work far beyond your lifetime.

Give today →

Act

Protect What Remains

Volunteer at local outreach events, join the C3 membership or bring a WERC educator to your classroom or community.

Get involved →

The long story

From the Sawtooth pack to classrooms across three continents.

We were founded around one iconic group of wolves — the Sawtooth Pack: Wolves of the Nez Perce — who became synonymous with the wolf reintroduction movement in America. The Elder Eight and the three pups that followed lived on a 300-acre sanctuary in north central Idaho, where over 100,000 visitors encountered wolves not as headlines or symbols, but as living ambassadors.

That legacy gave us the experience to later become home to the Owyhee Pack — five wolves rescued after the death of a private owner in southern Idaho, and re-named by the Nez Perce: Kú·cuc, Himtú·u·qin, Le·qéy·le·qey, Xáy·xay·x, Miyó·o·xat.

When Kú·cuc, the last of the Owyhee Pack, passed in 2020, the enclosure chapter closed. The mission did not. Today the Center runs Passport to Wildlife online, publishes the C3 Journal, and is finishing the Great Predator Debate trilogy — the long version of everything those two packs taught us.

Welcome sign at the entrance to Wolf Camp

1996 — 2013

The Sawtooth Pack

A wolf from the Owyhee Pack walking through snow

2008 — 2020

The Owyhee Pack

Children and an educator at an outdoor classroom session

2026 →

Passport to Wildlife

Wolf howling in an autumn forest

Trilogy

The Great Predator Debate

Next →

With your help, what comes next

The third film in the trilogy, a field guide to mesopredators, a new Sherlock Bones case. None of it ships without you.

Support the work →

Latest Stories

From the Field & Forest

Every week, we tackle the science, conflict, and conservation stories shaping the future of wild carnivores—giving advocates the knowledge to speak with credibility and act with purpose.

All stories →
Wolf pups following an adult through late-summer forest cover

September 4, 2026

Where Did the Wolf Pups Go?

By late summer, wolf pups spend less time at rendezvous sites and more time traveling with adults. Learn when pups begin joining hunts and…

Gray wolf standing alert in autumn grass with golden leaves behind it

September 2, 2026

Autumn Grumpiness in Wolves

Autumn can bring more tension in wolf packs as winter breeding hormones rise. Learn why ritualized dominance, play-bows, and boundary testing increase seasonally.

Give

Fuel the science. Defend the wild.

Your recurring gift powers the science, storytelling, and fieldwork behind modern carnivore conservation—from research grants and documentary films to outreach events, conflict response, and collaborative work with agencies across the Pacific Northwest and around the world. Ninety-four cents of every dollar reaches the field. Cancel anytime.

Field researchers tending to a sedated wolf during a rescue operation

Tracker

$10/month

Helps fund the daily tracking data that reveals how wolves move, hunt, and survive.

Give $10/month
Most popular A white wolf standing in a summer meadow

Guardian

$25/month

Helps ranchers, agencies, and communities reduce conflict before it becomes loss.

Give $25/month
A gray wolf standing in tall grass looking toward the camera

Pack leader

$100/month

Helps launch critical research while giving you behind-the-scenes access to the science in motion.

Give $100/month

Stay in the pack

Monthly letter from the field — no spam, just stories.

Make a difference

Every gift protects wild carnivores.

Volunteer-run and strengthened by collaborative sponsors, 94¢ of every dollar reaches the field—fueling research, documentary storytelling, scientific publications, educator outreach, conflict response, and conservation partnerships across the Pacific Northwest and around the world.