3 minute read
13 THE MCCLEERY BUFFALO WOLVES
THE MCCLEERY BUFFALO WOLVES
THE MCCLEERY BUFFALO WOLVES
Advertisement
Wolves have varyingly held mythological and demonized status in global oral histories and cultures. The Eurocentric attitude toward wolves and other predators in the “New World” has been akin to that of the Old World—to fully exterminate them. Government and civilian wolf hunters in the United States intensively slaughtered wolves from New Mexico to Montana in the early 1900s, nearly wiping them out entirely by the 1930s.
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
DR. MCCLEERY & HIS WOLVES
Dr. McCleery was a great wildlife lover and traveled to the American West in the early 20th century. Upon learning about the plight of vanishing wolves, McCleery wrote the U.S. Biological Survey and o ered to buy wolf pups targeted for extermination. In a highly unusual bargain, the federal agency agreed. From 1921 to 1930, more than 20 wolves were shipped to McCleery from zoos, dealers, trappers and the U.S. and Canadian governments. Most were trapped around Montana’s Judith Basin.
The doctor built a compound of pens in his Kane, Pennsylvania backyard to house his growing pack. He called his charges “bu alo wolves” for their dependence upon the American bison (He additionally referred to them as “lobo wolves.”). Word spread about his domesticated wolf pack and the McCleery wolves were soon featured in newsreels and movies across the country. The compound became a tourist destination. By 1930, the U.S.
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
Dr. McCleery is recognized as a crusader for America's endangered wildlife and as a vanguard of today’s wildlife activists and advocates. Here he is pictured with one of his beloved wolves at his compound in Kane, Pennsylvania.
Biological Survey (today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) claimed that McCleery’s wolves were the last of the true wolves of the American West.
McCleery operated his park for decades, but fretted about the wolves’ ultimate fate as he reached his 90s and the park fell into disrepair. It was in 1962 that his protégé Jack Lynch arrived to Kane. Jack and his wife took a keen interest in the animals and agreed they were the ones to take on the pack. Dr. McCleery died soon after the agreement was made.
JACK & MARY BECOME WOLFKEEPERS
In 1972, the Lynches moved the wolves to Gardiner, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula and opened Loboland USA (later named the Pacific Wolf Preserve), a donation-based preserve open to the public. The Lynches closed the park to the public in 1979 and turning their attention to breeding and protection.
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
In spite of possessing zero knowledge of wolf behavior, husbandry or care, Jack integrated himself with the pack and learned their social order, habits and etiquette, as well as how to continue the bloodline without inbreeding. He eventually became Alpha male.
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
Jack and Mary Lynch integrated into the pack. Here, Mary embraces one of her pack mates.
COURTESY OF KANE HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY
In 1978, local resident Mary Wheeler volunteered at the preserve. Passionate about wolves, she became a fixture and eventually, an associate pack leader and Jack’s second wife. In 1980, becoming increasingly protective and paranoid about the pack, Jack and Mary moved the wolves here to Emigrant, Montana. Here on their hilltop preserve, the Lynches became known as eccentric, anti-social personalities who threatened trespassers or near-trespassers. Many in Paradise Valley have tales of their encounters with the Lynches. Jack and Mary maintained their operation for decades until Jack died in 2006.
Mary struggled to maintain the compound and wolves on her own. Her son Ed Wheeler sold the property to Mountain Sky and the Blank Family in 2008 and moved Mary and the pack to a more accessible location in Bridger, Montana. Mary passed away in March 2016. Ed and his wife Terry assumed the task of caring for the wolves in Bridger.
In 2018, Wolf Haven International took over the McCleery Bu alo Wolf Foundation.
The remaining animals of the pack are now located in Bridger, Montana. They are now cared for by Wolf Haven. Photographed in Winter 2018.
