Farley realizes he has neglected part of his official duties. He must make a census of the wolves and detail their hunting habits. With Ootek’s help, he sets out in his canoe for nearby wolf habitats to create a census. Along the way, he learns a lot about their dens and how they raise their pups. He discovers that the female wolf does not breed until age two, and the male wolf does not breed until age three. Mature wolves have a form of natural population control that responds to the amount of food available.

Farley realizes he will disappoint his superiors when he revises down the number of living wolves in the area by 90%. Rather than 30,000 wolves, it is probably less than 3,000 wolves. During his research, he learns that when food sources disappear, the wolves also experience illnesses such as rabies. The author tells the story of a 1946 outbreak of rabies. A rabid wolf wandered into Churchill and startled a soldier. The tale of the rabid wolf expanded such that people began to say there were packs of ravenous wolves attacking the town. The military mobilized, and some went out looking for these rabid wolves, who were never discovered.