SEA WOLVES

Lyrical glimpses of the little-studied wolves that live along the edges of the Northwest coastal rainforest.

As one shadowy form leaves a trail of paw prints along a sandy beach—“one more wave / and all trace will be gone”—others probe tide pools or venture through “a sea of ferns” into the thick woods to catch fish and hunt game before swimming out to a coastal island where pups tumble out from concealment with “hungry-belly yips.” Since none of the furry subjects appear as more than small silhouettes or a few misty strokes in Vickers’ expansive, atmospheric coastal scenes, the sense of how elusive they are comes through clearly. If dubbing them “sacred keepers of the rainforest” seems a bit overblown, the authors do include a note in the backmatter on how as apex predators these wolves help supply food for smaller creatures and fertilizer for trees while controlling deer populations. The backmatter also discusses how these wolves differ in diet, habit, and even looks from their gray wolf cousins. Vickers, a First Nations artist, contributes closing anecdotes about his own encounters with these distinctive creatures.

Informative as well as evocative in both art and writing.