Episode 23 Jim & Jamie Dutcher

In THE WISDOM OF WOLVES authors Jim and Jamie Dutcher share the knowledge and life lessons they gleaned from wolves during the six years they lived with multiple generations of a wolf pack in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho as well as nearly 30 years of wolf conservation and educational outreach.  The trust the Dutchers were able to build with wolves gave them unprecedented access to every aspect of wolf society and allowed them to witness the intimate family-oriented side of wolves never before seen by people. Their book is endorsed by Robert Redford and Jane Goodall, among many other animal behavior experts, biologists and conservationists.

In the years since living with wolves, the Dutchers have worked tirelessly with scientists, researchers and other wolf experts to provide a deeper and current understanding of wolf behavior.  They have appeared on Morning Joe, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show and been featured in The Washington Post and The New York Times among other outlets.

JIM DUTCHER is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer whose extraordinary camerawork has led audiences into places never before filmed: inside beaver lodges, down burrows to peek at wolf pups, and into the secret life of a mother mountain lion. His work includes the National Geographic special, A Rocky Mountain Beaver Pond, and ABC World of Discovery's two highest-rated films, Cougar: Ghost of the Rockies and Wolf: Return of a Legend.

JAMIE DUTCHER, who won an Emmy Award for her sound recording of the Sawtooth Pack’s vocalizations, is Jim’s co-producer and a still photographer. Since she has worked in the animal hospital of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., she was able to bring her knowledge of animal husbandry and medical care to film and quickly gain access to the sensitive and secret inner lives of wolves.