Episode 1 Land of the Lost Wolves

Across the planet, most wildlife is under threat.

But against all odds, one animal is making a comeback...

..the wolf.

Nowhere is their return more controversial than North America.

They are vicious. If the devil had an animal, it's the Canadian Wolf.

Man's hatred of the wolf is deep-seated.

Well, we're going to have to hunt them,

we're going to have to trap them,

we're going to have to poison them, if possible.

Now, a team of wildlife experts is heading to the frontline.

We're here to map what happens when wolves try to return.

Is that ancient battle between man and wolf going to be reignited?

First, they must track them down.

When you see a wolf track, there's no mistaking it.

It's like, "Bam! Now that's a wolf track."

Then, they must work out just how far they're spreading.

HOWLING

Oh, man, they really are here!

For thousands of years, wolves were North America's top predator.

Intelligent, fearless...

..formidable as a pack.

But when European settlers arrived in America and moved west,

they ruthlessly exterminated wolves

from nearly every part of their range.

More than a million were shot, poisoned or trapped.

By the middle of the 20th century,

they had been pushed back into the wilds of Canada.

Now in Washington state, one pioneer pack has ventured back.

The first wolves to set up home on the west coast of the United States

in 70 years.

Only one thing stands in their way.

We're out to get rid of Canadian wolves.

I am for a hunting season that the wolf can be taken with dynamite...

with AR-15s - anything goes when you're hunting wolves.

I think that you've got to poison them

if you're going to get rid of them, myself, that's my personal opinion.

If I saw wolves in my backyard,

which I have before,

I will pull my rifle and I will kill them.

People say to me,

"Well, you guys are never going to get rid of the wolves."

We may not get rid of all of them,

but I'll tell you, we can make 'em a rare wolf.

A team of wolf trackers and wildlife experts

is joining forces to find out whether against such opposition,

these pioneering wolves can make it.

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan

has spent 20 years filming predators all around the world.

Below me is the frontline for the return of the wolf.

This landscape hasn't seen wolves living here for over 70 years

and we're here to map what happens when wolves try to return.

We're here to find out if they can exist, how many there are,

do they have a future?

Based in a remote valley in the Cascade Mountains,

the team has just one month to track down the new wolf pack.

Biologist Jasmine Minbashian

has campaigned long and hard to see the wolf's return.

Since I was a little girl, I've spent time skiing and backpacking

and walking through these mountains,

and I often think about the wildlife that live here.

But the Cascade Mountains without wolves is like

the Serengeti without lions, it's just not the same.

Isaac Babcock has 15 years' wolf-tracking experience.

If anyone can find the pack, it's him.

What I hope to do is to get up on top of the ridges

and to cover as much ground as I can.

To look for wolf sign, to try to find tracks

and hopefully, help the team catch up with them.

With all the kit needed to survive in Arctic conditions,

the team will begin their search

close to where the pack was last seen.

For decades, the wildlife in these mountains has lived wolf-free.

Without their top predator, deer populations can rise unchecked.

A wolf comeback would help keep their numbers under control

and prevent overgrazing.

The return of the wolf would have far-reaching consequences.

Gordon has years of experience filming elusive animals

in remote areas,

but wolves will be a new challenge.

I don't know this area. I don't know wolves as a species.

What is our plan of attack?

Well, I think the best thing to do is just to start right around camp

because there's been sightings near here,

so if we can just find some tracks,

or at least hear a howl,

we'll know we're in the right spot.

But getting close enough to film wolves here

will be nearly impossible.

They can smell humans from over a mile away

and hear them from further.

They will see Gordon long before he sees them.

Gordon needs extra sets of eyes.

He is blitzing the forest with 50 remote cameras.

They're triggered by the movement of a passing animal.

To increase his chances of capturing a wolf,

Gordon's using a hunter's trick.

These wolves have huge territories

and they go around and they scent mark,

so they urinate up against trees.

At this time of year, they're particularly interested

in the scent of other wolves,

because this is the time of year that males and females get together.

So if I put a little bit of wolf urine here,

any wolf that's going to come within 15 metres of this tree

is going to zone in on it.

Whoa-oh!

It smells like the worst toilets in the dodgiest, ropiest pub

that you've ever, ever thought of...

..but to a wolf...

..this is very enticing, very appealing,

and by just gently sprinkling it around this tree,

it's going to bring a wolf in.

Wolves can travel more than 50 miles in a day.

Right now, this pack could be anywhere.

They've been called the Lookout Pack,

named after Lookout Mountain,

which sits in the middle of their vast territory.

This pioneer wolf family is thought to be ten-strong,

but no-one knows for sure.

For Jasmine, these are very special wolves.

Despite being five months pregnant,

she has insisted on joining the expedition.

Seeing a top predator making a comeback is too good to miss.

I spent years dreaming about the time

when wolves were going to return to these mountains,

to their home where they lived for 10,000 years,

and I never thought that I would be alive

to see the day when they would come back.

What I'm hoping that we can achieve with this expedition

is to really get out into the wolf's territory

and figure out what is going on with this pack,

how many animals are there, are they breeding,

are they creating new generations of wolves

that can continue to repopulate this area?

If the Lookout Pack is doing well,

it could be the start of a healthy population in the Cascades.

From here, they could begin to re-colonise the west coast.

A mountainous wolf highway stretching from Washington state,

all the way down to California.

Leading wolf expert Doug Smith

believes the Lookout Pack could be the start of something big.

What's happened lately has revised some of our thinking

about what wolves are capable of doing.

200 years from now, I would like to see this wolf population expanded

and we would have one vast connection of wolves

where they used to be in Canada,

all the way up through these western states and back into Mexico.

So a lot rides on the shoulders of those Washington wolves -

can they pull this off, how smart are they?

Wolves can easily vanish into a landscape like this.

That's why the team has come in winter -

tracks are easier to find in the snow.

First, they have to work out which valley they're in.

And to do that,

Isaac must teach Gordon...to howl.

Pretty stunning, isn't it?

Yeah.

-It wouldn't be a bad spot to howl.

-Yeah?

-You ever howled?

No, I have never howled. Does it actually work?

-Yeah, actually, it works really well.

-Yeah?

It's probably one of the best tools to find them.

I could be one of the world's best yodellers, I've never tried.

Well, you're about to have an opportunity.

I'm going to take off my backpack,

I think I'm going to need all my lung capacity.

Y-o-o-owl! You know, kind of like that.

Aw-o-o-o-owl!

H-o-o-o-owl!

That is even worse!

Aw-o-o-o-oh!

Little bit camp.

If there's a gay wolf out there, he might answer back.

ISAAC HOWLS

If the pack is within earshot, they will howl back.

Gordon and Isaac will have to try another valley.

The team needs every lead they can get.

Jasmine is chasing up reports of wolf sightings from local residents.

Local knowledge is an incredible source of information,

it's just as handy as cameras and tracks.

In some cases, residents have photos or they've seen multiple animals,

and that's exactly what we're trying to find out.

Any recent sightings will help the team focus their search.

Hello, you must be Dwayne?

-So you've seen three animals together?

-Right.

Wow!

So when was the last time that you've seen three animals together?

About two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago. Wow, that's big news!

There were three wolves.

They are right up on that hill, up there.

Mostly, up in that direction,

but they've been working this whole ridge, from what everyone has been saying.

-So how many animals did you see?

-There was five of 'em.

-Five?

-Right.

-Really?

One of them was right about there at that bush.

-Right here?

-Right at the bush. I was standing over here.

-You're kidding?

-No.

-Wow!

Reports suggest at least five wolves in the Lookout Pack.

And it seems they've been spending time

in the valley north of base camp.

ENGINE PURRS

Now they have something concrete to go on,

Gordon can bring out his latest gadget...

..RoboWolf.

The idea is that this wolf is going to be left here

and it's going to be howling,

the head's going to be moving,

and any wolf that's in the area is going to hear that howl

and hopefully come down to check it out.

MECHANICAL WHIRRING

OK. This is a pretty good place for it.

This megaphone is going to broadcast a wolf howl far and wide.

So what I'm going to do is plug this in,

which is a computer that we can program to howl

at certain times of day,

so we're just going to have it dawn and dusk.

And the howl that we're using has been tried and tested

and it seems to be the howl that the wolves are most responsive to.

Play.

RECORDED HOWLING

The wolves in the area,

they might only pass through once a fortnight,

so we're using every member of the team doing their own thing,

and RoboWolf is very much a member of the team

and he's performing his job and I can just let him get on with it.

ROBOWOLF HOWLS

Wolves defend their territory against rival packs.

Gordon's hoping that RoboWolf

will draw the Lookout Pack into the area where he's set remote cameras.

With RoboWolf staking out one end of the valley,

the team can concentrate on the other.

These forests may appear empty,

but they conceal a rich array of wildlife.

This valley is good wolf habitat. There's plenty of prey here.

And there are large open spaces in which to chase them down.

If the pack IS here, they'll leave tracks in the snow.

And that's what Gordon is looking for.

Wolves prefer to move along ridges

where the wind-blown snow is less deep.

To reach their travel routes,

he's got to start climbing.

GORDON PANTS

This is really difficult - trying to make my way around this mountain.

What I can do in an hour, a wolf could probably do 50 times that,

just running straight across the top of it.

I'm like a big sloth.

A big sloth that's sliding halfway down the hill.

Wolves are built for speed and stamina.

Gordon is weighed down with 35 kilos of survival gear and camera kit.

It's this close to impossible.

Erm... It's just too heavy

and I'm sinking in with every single footstep.

HE LAUGHS

I'm on the ridge and I can't see a single thing.

The idea was to come up here and look out

onto the opposing ridge and see if we could pick up any wolves,

but you can't even see more than 20 metres.

With the weather worsening and the temperature plummeting,

it's too dangerous for Gordon to stay up on the mountain.

It's getting late.

We've got an hour to go before it's dark, so I think,

let's just start just picking my way down.

Oh!

OK.

On his way down to base camp,

Gordon checks in with Isaac on the walkie-talkie.

Isaac, Isaac, it's Gordon. Do you copy? Over.

'Yeah, Gordon, how do you read?'

Everything OK?

'Yeah, everything's real good. In fact, I have something interesting.

'You might want to come and take a look.'

-Hey, Gordon?

-Yeah, you got something?

Watch your next couple of steps here as you go over that log.

Holy moley!

Is that a wolf track?

I think so.

Gosh, it's huge!

Isn't it?

That's really big!

Yeah. I mean, look at that.

You can see the nails, the pads.

Yeah, so it's going this way.

This one, if you get back a little more,

-you can see the toes pretty distinctly.

-Yeah.

And the heel pad, I mean, it's not perfect, but it's right there.

Yeah. It is no wonder that people think that they're enormous.

-Uh-huh.

-And I wonder how recent that is.

They don't look sparkling brand-new to me,

but...I don't feel like they're that old.

First piece of the puzzle.

Yeah, we've got a wolf.

That is a wolf.

This is great, it is really exactly what we've been looking for...

..signs of wolves.

It may only be one wolf,

but it's the team's first sign they're not chasing ghosts.

Back at camp, Jasmine's checking the remote cameras.

These cameras were set up all around base camp,

so this will give us an idea

of who's living out there in the woods...near us.

Snowshoe hare.

It's holding so still,

it doesn't even look like it's moving, but there it goes.

SHE LAUGHS

All right, let's see what we have next.

Picture number two.

Oh!

Deer.

Uh! Oh, my gosh!

Wow!

Wow!

I can't believe it!

It's a beautiful wolf.

The first few seconds, there's nothing,

and then from behind a big tree comes a big, beautiful wolf.

Oh, my gosh! That is SO cool!

-Gordon!

-Hello!

-Hello. Just the man I want to see.

-How's it going?

Oh, wow!

Look at this! One of our cameras near camp!

Really?

Yeah, can you believe it?

Dun-da-da-da - the wolf!

Oh, what a beautiful animal!

Isn't it? Pretty cool, huh?

-Yeah, it's great. We're getting there.

-Yeah.

Jasmine thinks this animal is the likely leader of the Lookout Pack.

The alpha male.

It's welcome news at the end of a hard week's work,

though the team's still a long way from knowing

whether the Lookout Pack is thriving.

The Cascade Mountains look picture perfect,

but without wolves, they're missing a vital element.

These large carnivores

are one of the major structuring forces in nature.

I mean, equal to things like climate and sunshine,

these large carnivores really do affect what we see out there

and wolves are THE animal, top carnivore in North America.

With wolves about, elk and deer are on high alert and stay on the move.

Without them, they overgraze.

Trees and bushes never get a chance to grow,

knocking out a crucial part of the landscape.

This problem became so acute in Yellowstone National Park

that Doug Smith and his team reintroduced a pack of wolves.

It was a ground-breaking experiment. No-one knew what would happen.

The results were astonishing.

So these willows behind me were all much shorter.

A lot of them were below my knee, others were below my waist.

Every stem had been covered by an elk, eaten down.

And look at the difference now at this very site - great example -

and what has that meant?

What has happened?

We've had songbirds utilise that habitat, that structure,

we've had beavers come, clip those branches

and use that as food, as building material.

All those things are occurring now

because wolves have tipped the balance in this ecosystem to a different way.

So just as you look around here,

these very subtle effects are taking hold.

Biologists hope the wolf's return

will restore the balance of nature to the Cascades in the same way.

It's the second week of the expedition

and Gordon is in search of the lone male they caught on camera.

He wants to find out what's happened to the rest of the pack.

The remote camera image came from a valley close to Lookout Mountain.

Gordon's scouring the area.

He's discovered why the alpha male is spending time here.

A herd of deer has moved in to feed on the bitterbrush.

There's deer tracks all over here, down there.

There's a couple of deer up on the hill there

and there's a dead deer, over there.

Now, I can't see any blood or anything like that

so...my hunch is that it's died naturally.

Gordon is setting up a hide to stake out the carcass,

but wolves are extremely wary.

They may only show up if he can arouse their curiosity.

So I'm hoping that a wolf might see this carcass from the ridge,

or it might smell it,

but just as an added draw,

I've got a recording here of this,

and it is the distress call...

of a deer...

RECORDING OF DEER YELPING

..and a noise like this to a hungry wolf

is going to mean dinner, or an easy meal.

RECORDING OF DEER YELPING

What we want to do is find out whether this is a viable pack.

If we can bring down all of the pack members, that would be fantastic,

but we just need to find out whether

the wolves in this area have a future,

whether there's a breeding female,

whether they're going to produce pups this year,

and an opportunity like this might just reveal that.

RECORDING OF DEER YELPING

Isaac is searching the ridge above Gordon.

From up here, he can overlook the alpha male's last position.

This is what we're after.

These are wolf tracks and they're fresh.

In fact, they're really fresh.

They were here very recently.

We're one to two hours behind the wolves, so...

Pretty much, it's game on.

For the first time,

Isaac is on the trail of two wolves travelling together.

Hey, wait a minute. Come here, have a look at this.

(I think this is what the wolves are coming to.)

It's a young mule deer,

probably a fawn, about eight months old, and it's fresh too.

The hide's still soft, the skin's still sticky,

and if you pull the skin back here,

there's this big, red haemorrhaging area,

and in the middle of it is a canine puncture wound.

If you look at where that corresponds with,

you've got a canine puncture right in the top of the skull.

If you imagine the canine of a wolf...

I mean, you have,

I think it's like 1,500 pounds per square inch of pressure.

Imagine that coming down, breaking the skin

and actually crushing right into the skull.

That's the result.

The vertebrae column should be about that long

and the rest of it, I think, has just been chomped up and eaten.

There should be ribs sticking out all the way along.

That's another thing you find in wolf kills that you don't find with other predators -

it's just that ability to basically crunch everything down to nothing.

I think within the last day or two, they killed this.

They've probably been here on top of the ridge sleeping

and coming down and feeding on it.

I think they were here just a couple of hours ago.

These two wolves may lead the team to the rest of the Lookout Pack.

Gordon is spending the night in the hide,

hoping other members of the pack will show up.

Bit disappointing.

I've been in here for about six hours

and...

I was hoping for more than five magpies.

It's a lot of time and effort

to put in for a few magpies.

The wolves may have sensed Gordon's presence and stayed clear.

Remote cameras, however, are better at surveillance.

There are snowshoe hares,

their huge feet perfectly adapted to hop across the deep snow.

Bull moose, jousting with each other,

totally unaware of the camera just a metre away.

Following the prey come the predators.

The elusive bobcat.

The cougar, North America's biggest cat.

They've benefited from the wolf's long absence.

These valleys are alive with wildlife,

but there is no sign of the Lookout Pack.

ENGINE PURRS

The next day, Jasmine is called out at dawn.

Local biologist Scott Fitkin has heard wolves howling in the valley.

WOLVES HOWL

Oh.

I think I hear them.

HOWLING STARTS AGAIN

(This is the first time I have ever heard wolves...in this area.

(It's amazing.

(I can't believe it.)

It's unbelievable.

I've got... The hair on the back of my neck is standing up.

I don't think I've ever been this close to wolves.

WOLVES CONTINUE TO HOWL

(It's amazing!)

(It's almost like they're up on that slope, right there.)

He's a phantom.

-What's he doing?

-I have no idea!

I shouldn't say he.

He or she is up there on that hillside somewhere

and we can't see him.

I would love it if one of them is a breeding female,

I would be so happy.

The survival of the pack really depends on her

because it's really unlikely

that there's another breeding female

anywhere close by

and...I think the future of the pack

really rests on her still being alive.

-CAMERAMAN:

-Sorry, what's that on the ridge?

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh!

Look at that, there's a wolf.

Two wolves. Oh, my gosh!

I can't believe my eyes.

So we just spotted two wolves up on the ridge, it's so exciting!

And they're just so calm.

-Well, they're the lords of their domain, so...

-Yeah.

Wow, that is amazing. Oh, my God!

It's about to go, though. Oh!

Don't go!

Oh, my God!

How cool was that?! Isn't that great?

That is a once-in-a-lifetime...

..thing for me.

I can't believe it.

I'm just going to sit here and digest what just happened,

that I've seen wolves here in the North Cascades, my home,

for the first time in my life,

and just enjoy that for a minute.

-Gordon?

-Hello!

Hi, how are you?

-Yeah good, how are you doing?

-Good.

That night, back at camp,

Jasmine shares her news with the rest of the team.

SHE LAUGHS

I need a hug!

Now, this is exactly what we've been waiting for,

cos we've seen signs of wolves.

I've seen their tracks,

I've found animals that they're feeding on,

but we're waiting for a real break, a sighting,

and Jasmine's had that today and it's just phenomenal.

It's the biggest, most positive lead that we've had so far.

It's great.

Shall we listen to the calls?

RECORDED HOWLING

-So is that from today?

-Yep.

Really?

But they must be saying something - that variation in the sound.

You know, what... What are they trying to say?

-It sounded very mournful to me...

-Hmm.

..and I really hope that's not a sign that it's breeding season

and the male is looking for his mate and can't find her.

-That would be the worst case.

-Yeah.

The team's had a tantalising glimpse of two wolves,

but they are not a breeding pair.

The alpha male is travelling with a younger wolf,

which the team think is also a male.

There is no sign of his mate - the alpha female

and his mournful howl suggests something's not right.

Well, certainly, part of the allure and attraction of wolves is that

they're this kind of noble species that feels things like people do,

and interestingly, a male wolf lost his mate

and he howled at higher rates than normal for several days,

and I've told that to several biologists,

I hesitate to interpret it this way,

but they say...those wolves were certainly mourning.

Erm...hard to know,

but we do know that the behaviour after their mate dying was different.

Jasmine is starting to worry.

There's a part of me that wonders

if the male is wandering around with one of his older pups

waiting for the female to come back and that she's not coming back,

and that's a sadder story that I'm having a hard time accepting.

Gordon wants to know whether the local community can shed any light

on where the rest of the Lookout Pack has gone.

In some ways, this place and this animal

is different to how I normally film.

Most of the times, I'm somewhere where there aren't people.

Most of the wild animals that I have filmed in the past

live in wild places.

Here, we have a community, a local community

and we have the wolves trying to... almost join that community.

I'm on my way to meet some ranchers

who are some of the most vocal people living here,

and actually, the people that will be most affected

by the return of the wolf.

Wolves are protected by law in Washington state.

But that doesn't always count for much.

In the Wild West, their return is controversial.

What's going to happen in five, ten years' time

that people are seeing wolves on a very regular basis

and people are starting to lose cattle?

-What... What are people going to do?

-Shoot, shovel and shut up.

Does a lot of that go on?

Same if someone's breaking into your house

and they're attacking your child, what you going to do?

Stop and watch him? You're going to take care of what's yours,

protect your property, protect your livestock and your families.

If a pack of wolves come down and was jeopardising my grandkids,

my livestock,

I would, I'd shoot, shovel and shut up.

If they're a threat to my cattle and my horses,

and my family...

I'm going to start shooting 'em.

Having met with the ranchers,

it doesn't fill me full of hope.

When wolves are in the wilderness and away from people, there isn't a problem.

And when people are in towns without wolves, there isn't a problem.

But here, it's when you bring both of them together,

that's the controversy, that's what the wolf is up against.

Isaac hasn't given up searching for a breeding female.

He's been crisscrossing the ridge where Jasmine saw the two wolves

and has come across a hole in the snow.

I'd say it looks to me like a wolf den.

I don't feel like I have any phobias in life,

except one of 'em might be getting stuck in a den hole.

It looks pretty dry and cosy, let's have a look around.

This little den, right here,

is basically the wolf pups' home for the first six weeks.

Those first six weeks, a good part of it,

they're blind and totally helpless,

they're just depending on their mom to come down here and nurse them.

In April and May, when this den would ideally be full

of a wolf female and her pups,

they'd be just sitting right about here or so

and you'd have a female just laid out right there along the wall

and you'd have four or five, six pups

just lined up right here, nursing on her.

You can imagine that huge mass of heat down here,

all insulated up, well within the cavern.

It's a darn good-looking wolf den

and it's certainly safe from any predators.

But...this is about eight inches higher

than it looks like it originally was.

This is all soft dirt that's fallen out of the roof

and all I can figure is it's caved in.

So it's my guess the wolves haven't been here for a while.

Good den sites like this aren't abandoned without good reason.

You know, ultimately, the goal here, ultimately, what we're hoping for

is that this den is used again

and that this pack is still a functioning and breeding pack.

But right now, that's the huge question

and we're trying to figure out, what is the status of the pack?

It looks as if this pioneering wolf family has broken up.

Wolves can survive on their own,

but they only thrive if they are part of a pack.

A big part of wolf life is they're a social animal.

Only two to three percent of mammals live in family groups

and wolves are one of them.

You've got the pups, yearlings, two-year-olds,

even occasionally sometimes three-year-olds,

plus the breeding pair - we often call that the alpha pair.

It's essentially a family, we call it a pack.

They're raised up in a social setting

and they live in that social setting for the rest of their lives.

Without pups, the Lookout Pack can't maintain their foothold here.

The re-colonisation of the west coast will suffer a major setback.

It's week three of the expedition and Gordon is unexpectedly called in

to Washington's Wildlife Enforcement HQ.

We got two different calls from concerned citizens

who had information

and reported that an individual had illegally killed a wolf.

Whether that animal was part of the Lookout Pack

or whether it was a transitory animal from some other location

is yet to be determined through DNA testing.

Chances are it's from the Lookout Pack,

a wolf showing up in a place like that.

Our guess is, yes.

Right now, it's only an educated guess

cos it was so close to the Lookout Pack.

Could you tell whether it had been shot...or trapped?

Yes, we have a lab report and we believe that animal was shot.

OK. Can I have a look at the photos? It would be good to...

You can see, it's missing its feet.

It's missing its head and it's in a severe stage of decomposition.

It was quite odiferous when we found it

-and those white things you see on there are maggots.

-Maggots.

Mm-hm.

-So it had been shot, skinned and then dumped?

-Yes.

These were intentional acts.

This wasn't something that was done by somebody

who was out legally hunting coyotes and accidentally shot a wolf.

You probably have a better idea than anyone of the chances

of the Lookout Pack becoming properly established.

What do you think their chances are?

I'm not very hopeful.

I think they're in dire straits of re-establishing themselves

and that's very sad.

That's a man-made issue right now.

It's not just this wolf -

three local people were later charged

with illegally killing up to five members of the Lookout Pack.

This explains why the team struggled

and only found the two wolves.

Jasmine's in camp.

Her worst fears have come true.

I really don't want to believe

that the Lookout Pack doesn't exist any more.

It's a hard pill to swallow...

..because there was so much hope and optimism surrounding their return.

It's really a sad thing

that these wolves were shot

and they weren't causing any harm,

they were being good neighbours,

they weren't getting into trouble

and there was no reason for them to die.

So it was such a waste of life.

Yeah, it was a real waste of life.

Some people hate wolves for the way they hunt.

Ron Gillett isn't just angry they're returning,

he wants wolves exterminated all over again.

Look at this picture.

The rear end of this elk is all chewed out

and then she's left there.

Think of what this animal went through while it was dying!

Look at this one up here,

look at this poor young cow elk laying there and look at the blood.

Ron's spent his life in the West

and is a passionate defender of its hunting culture.

I am a sportsman, but I also love our game.

I am one of those people that want to see

well-managed big-game herds,

viable and visible big-game herds.

And now the wolves are killing everything.

It's not right

and this BS about wolves

being healthy for an ecosystem and balancing it

is a bunch of baloney.

Wolves have never balanced anything.

At base camp, the team has received news which gives them fresh hope.

The Lookout Pack may be in decline,

but reinforcements could be on their way.

Wolves have been heard howling just 20 miles away

and tracks have been reported near the border with Canada.

Gordon is heading straight out

to discover whether this is a new influx of wolves

to the Cascade Mountains.

HUSKIES BARK

For the first leg of his journey, Gordon is using a team of huskies.

One hook, second hook.

Good dogs! Hike!

Hike!

We're leaving all the comforts of camp behind.

We've literally got the bare minimum with us, the bare minimum equipment,

the bare minimum just to sleep out at night on top of the mountain.

Gordon is heading into the heart of the mountains.

Using huskies means he can travel quickly and silently,

but even so, it won't be an easy ride.

The first eight hours are a relentless climb.

In the midday sun, temperatures are soaring.

As the dogs struggle uphill,

Gordon has to lighten their load and run alongside.

Naively, I thought the dogs did everything.

We're going up into the mountain, so it's quite tiring.

I'm going to have to take off my thermal long johns.

You don't mind if I run in my underpants, do you?

HE LAUGHS

Come on, socks!

Right, OK, I'm not... I'm not ready, I'm definitely not ready.

Oh, they're nice and cool now.

That's the thing,

these dogs can deal with plus 30 in the summer

to minus 30, minus 40 in the winter,

without having to change their clothes.

They're doing more work than I am

and I'm having to shed layers and layers,

and these dogs just do it naturally.

HUSKIES BARK

As Gordon approaches the summit...

..the weather closes in.

I do wonder even now whether I'm being watched

and how many occasions I've been watched by wolves.

What I want to do is just try and switch the tables on them.

I want to be the one that's doing the watching.

OK, we're still climbing up.

HE PANTS

It feels a bit like a death march, this.

Definitely not that much fun.

Back at base camp, Jasmine's had reports of a wolf sighting.

Incredibly, it's more than 100 miles further down the Cascade range.

So I'm about three hours south of base camp

and we're off to check out a sighting,

a recent sighting of wolf tracks and wolf scat.

And if indeed these are wolves,

then it'll be the first time

wolves have been documented this far south in the Cascade Mountains,

which would just be incredible.

It would mean that wolves

are not just coming back in the north part of the range,

but they're starting to move back in to the whole mountain range

that was once their home.

If these reports prove to be true,

it could change the course of wolf history

on the west coast of North America.

-Good dog.

-The huskies have made good time.

Gordon has completed stage one of his journey.

I just... I have this much energy left.

I'm really, really tired

and the dogs have slowed right down, which is good.

I mean, they're doing 99% of the work.

We're going to have to find a place to camp,

we've only got about another half an hour of daylight.

Down here.

Pretty deep.

Before Gordon beds down in a deep snow hole,

he's got an important job to do.

As night falls, he must try to make contact with the wolves.

Gordon's howl isn't as good as Isaac's, but he has backup.

HE HOWLS

HUSKIES HOWL

It seems that these wolves have moved on.

But Gordon wants to push further north.

On his final stage, he's heading up to the Canadian border,

where the tracks were reported.

This is the most inaccessible region of the Cascade range.

Not even huskies can make it here.

Gordon must continue alone.

Frozen trousers.

Local biologists have positioned remote cameras along the border.

If there are wolves here,

then the cameras should have captured images of them.

OK...open.

Lots of deer.

Deer. Deer's backside.

Deer with antlers. Deer.

I'm just...desperate to get wolves on these camera traps.

Deer.

Deer. Deer.

Oh! Wo, wo, wo...wolf!

Yes!

Yes, yes, yes!

Look at this guy.

We've got a wolf.

Very definitely a wolf.

And it's not just one wolf, there are three different wolves here.

Gordon has discovered a new pack.

This is really amazing.

This is the first visual record of wolves in this area

and it's fantastic to see

that this is a wild place where wolves can exist.

But THE most exciting thing about this place

is that this is the gateway,

the corridor that can feed into other areas -

not just into the Lookout Pack, but other areas of Washington state.

Up on the border with Canada,

Gordon has discovered a route which wolves are using

to cross into the United States.

In spite of everything, a new wave of pioneers could be on their way.

Those mountains, those trees - that's Canada,

that's where the wolves are coming from.

The Lookout Pack, those pioneer packs,

they might get completely wiped out,

but I do believe that we're seeing an unstoppable tide of wolves

returning to Washington state.

I think the wolves do have a future.

With the start of spring,

the team widen their search.

Gordon heads to a remote Canadian rainforest,

to find the ancestors of the Lookout Pack.

He has a hairy encounter...

OK, I've got a black bear

eating salmon!

..and after days on end in a soggy hide...

There's a seal coming up the river.

..he finally films a wolf.

(I'm so happy, I am so happy!)

It is a wild, wild wolf.

With reports of a new pack in Washington state,

the team push even further down the Cascade Mountains.

-Isaac strikes gold.

-HE HOWLS

WOLVES HOWL

Jasmine goes wolf hunting.

This is an AR-15.

It's a semi-automatic.

It's an assault weapon.

I've got 30 rounds.

And the team make a dramatic breakthrough

that has far-reaching consequences for the return of the wolf.

I never thought in 20 years

that I've been looking for wolves in these mountains

that I would see this.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Isaac, you're the man! I'm so thrilled!

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