Wolves of the Nez Perce: from Sawtooth to Owyhee

Origins: the Sawtooth Pack

In the early 1990s, a group of gray wolves was brought together in the mountains of central Idaho under the direction of Jim and Jamie Dutcher. Their goal was ambitious: to observe a wolf pack over time and introduce the world to the complexity of wolf society through film.

The wolves became known as the Sawtooth Pack: Wolves of the Nez Perce.

At the center of the pack were the eight adult wolves who would later become known as the Elder Eight:

Kamots · Lakota · Matsi · Weyekin
Motomo · Amani · Chemukh · Wahots

Among them, Kamots stood out as the confident and steady alpha male. At roughly 130 pounds, he carried responsibility for the welfare of the pack — maintaining order at feeding, settling disputes, dictating social boundaries, and fathering the pups. Under his watch, corrections were swift, rarely theatrical, and almost always understood. Wolves knew their place, and the pack moved with the quiet confidence of an established family.

Within that original structure, three pups were born: Ayet, Motoki, and Piyip. Raised within the hierarchy of the Sawtooth Pack, the three pups grew under the watch of Kamots and the original adults during the filming years, long before the next chapter of their lives began.

Over the years that followed, the lives of these wolves became the basis for the films Living with Wolves and Wolves at Our Door, helping shape public understanding of wolves at a time when few Americans had ever seen wolves observed across generations. At one point, Kamots’ image appeared on the side of a bus in New York City, reflecting the national visibility of the pack and the public fascination these wolves created.

By 1996, that chapter had come to an end.

A new mission: the birth of WERC

As the Dutchers stepped away from the day-to-day care and management of the wolves, responsibility for the pack transitioned to the newly formed Wolf Education & Research Center — an organization created specifically to provide long-term sanctuary, professional care, and lifelong stewardship for the wolves, while preparing the public to better understand the species and its role in healthy ecosystems.

The wolves remained on a 300-acre wilderness sanctuary in north central Idaho, at the time considered among the largest wolf enclosures in North America. The scale of the habitat allowed the wolves to separate, regroup, and reassemble as a pack without constant human proximity.

The identity of the pack remained formally tied to the Nez Perce Tribe, whose involvement in regional wolf recovery and long-standing cultural relationship with wolves provided broader context for the work taking place on the land. The pack also existed during one of the most controversial periods in modern wolf recovery across the Northern Rockies. In that environment, the Sawtooth Pack became a rare and sustained example of wolf behavior observed over generations.

Life at Wolf Camp

Daily life on the property was managed by Sanctuary Director Jeremy Heft, a marine biologist who first arrived as an intern and went on to become the longest-serving member of the team. By the time of his departure in 2023, Heft had served as Director of Sanctuary Operations and had begun consulting with emerging sanctuaries seeking to build their own standards of animal care and enclosure management.

Jeremy’s routine began and ended each day with a full perimeter inspection, ensuring the integrity of the enclosure and the safety of the wolves in his care.

The sanctuary itself was structured to allow both distance and controlled proximity. The property was divided into three primary enclosures — approximately 20 acres, 5 acres, and 1 acre — each surrounded by dual eight-foot fences, with an additional buried barrier between them to prevent digging.

Visitors had multiple vantage points. Wolves could be observed from the deck of the A-Frame Visitor’s Center, or along the boardwalk that extended through the meadow. At times, when wolves chose to approach, visitors could stand close to the fence line. Many remember placing a hand against the wire as wolves like Motomo or Piyip approached — sniffing, investigating, and occasionally pressing close enough to lick a flattened hand through the barrier.

The wolves, however, were only visible when they chose to be.

In 2005, when future President Chris Anderson visited the sanctuary for the first time, none of the wolves appeared. His twelve-year-old son responded simply: “That’s how it should be. That’s when they are safest in the wild.”

That expectation became part of how visitors were prepared — people came to learn, and any close encounter with a wolf was understood as a possibility, not a guarantee.

Over the years, the Center operated the site as both a sanctuary and educational facility, welcoming more than 100,000 visitors.

The Owyhee Rescue

By the late 2000s, the Sawtooth Pack had diminished, but several members were still alive. In 2008, a separate situation in southern Idaho led to the formation of a new group of wolves.

Following the death of a private wolf owner in Murphy, Idaho, approximately seventeen wolves were left without long-term care, prompting a coordinated response involving the Humane Society of the United States, state officials, and animal handlers. Some of those wolves were brought to the Wolf Education & Research Center.

From them, a new pack was formed — the Owyhee Pack, named for Owyhee County, Idaho.

The most significant difference between the two packs was the lives they were born into. The Sawtooth wolves were brought together with deliberate care for long-term observation. The Owyhee wolves arrived out of trauma — many underweight, some having escaped prior to relocation, and all requiring stabilization. Staff selected five wolves requiring the most intensive care. With the help of volunteers, the animals were sedated, placed into transport kennels, and moved overnight to the Center, where they were released the following day.

By that time, Piyip, the last remaining member of the Sawtooth Pack, had been moved to a smaller enclosure where he lived out his final years. Visitors often relied on binoculars for a glimpse of him in the meadow.

Over time, the Owyhee wolves established their own structure. They developed consistent movement patterns, den sites, and feeding behaviors that closely resembled those observed for years in the Sawtooth Pack.

Within the first sixty days, Sanctuary Director Jeremy Heft and his team carefully documented each wolf’s behavior, social tendencies, and emerging role within the pack. Those observations were then shared with the Nez Perce Tribe naming committee, who selected names that reflected the character and behavior of each wolf:

The Final Sawtooth

One by one, the members of the Sawtooth Pack were lost. Sanctuary Director Jeremy Heft described each loss as the passing of a friend or family member. The work extended beyond daily care to the final responsibility of planning each wolf’s interment. Over time, the Center established a Memorial Trail, where visitors could walk and reflect on the lives of the wolves.

What had once been a full pack was eventually reduced to: Ayet, Motoki, and Piyip.

In 2013, Piyip — the last of the Sawtooth Pack — died at 17 years of age, marking the end of the Sawtooth Pack: Wolves of the Nez Perce.

Returning the land

From the beginning, the Wolf Education & Research Center operated under a 15-year lease with the Nez Perce Tribe, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing public understanding of wolves and their role in the natural world. When that lease reached its conclusion in 2011, the immediate question was not whether WERC would leave, but what came next.

The Tribe understood the enormous responsibility that came with relocating wolves, dismantling nearly two decades of infrastructure, and confronting the question supporters, donors, and staff were all asking: would WERC reopen somewhere else?

Rather than demand an immediate departure, Tribal leadership gave WERC the time and flexibility needed to address the realities ahead. What followed was not an immediate departure, but a difficult and expensive transition.

Between 2015 and 2017, WERC undertook the dismantling of nearly two decades of infrastructure with one clear objective: to responsibly return the land while removing nearly all visible evidence the sanctuary had ever been there. That meant buildings, boardwalks, a cook shed, a small residence, utilities, holding areas, and — most significantly — miles of fencing. Not just the outer fence lines, but the secondary safety fences and the buried barrier systems that had been hand-dug to prevent the wolves from digging out.

One notable exception remained: the purpose-built A-Frame Visitor’s Center, designed in the style of a traditional longhouse and used for years to welcome students, families, scientists, filmmakers, and supporters from around the world.

The work cost tens of thousands of dollars in direct expenses, with labor and volunteer support representing several times that amount in additional value. By 2017, WERC had fully vacated the property, formally completing the return of the land to the Nez Perce Tribe.

That same year, the remaining member of the Owyhee Pack was relocated to a privately managed setting, where she would continue to receive care for the remainder of her life.

Rather than rebuild a new public facility, WERC shifted its focus — supporting other agencies, expanding education, and reaching broader audiences through online programs, articles, film, and public dialogue. This included the production of The Great Wolf Divide, honoring the Sawtooth Pack and the supporters who made their care possible.

The mission continues

With no wolves remaining in care, the focus of the Wolf Education & Research Center continued to evolve.

Over more than three decades, WERC has helped shape thousands of opinions, led just as many public conversations, and participated in policy discussions surrounding wolf recovery, coexistence, and management across the American West — including Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California.

In addition to public programs, field outreach, and media appearances, the organization produced a second educational film, The Great Predator Debate — an Ecology 101 classroom film shown in high schools across the United States. Its purpose was not to tell students what to think, but to begin a more honest conversation about predators, ecosystems, rural communities, conservation, and the difficult realities faced by all stakeholders.

At the end of 2023, the Center closed its Idaho-based operations and transitioned to a volunteer-run outreach organization, continuing its work from University Place, Washington, just south of Olympia — where the State Capitol is located and where conversations surrounding wildlife policy, conservation, and public land management continue to shape the future of the region.

In 2026, the Center launched the Passport to Wildlife Online Academy, bringing structured lessons on wolves and other apex predators to science classrooms across the United States and around the world.