14th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Cursed

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park. His siblings are all gone, decimated by mange, a disease introduced by humans to control wild canines in the early 1900s. Hungry and weakened by that same parasitic infestation, the last remaining pup of the Lamar Canyon wolf pack is struggling across the soft snow of an unusually warm February in Yellowstone National Park. Global warming, another one of man's gifts to nature, has made the thick snow cover soft and treacherous. Humans have gone too far impacting wildlife and destroying its last remaining sanctuaries. Could we still reverse their fate and save a world too beautiful to die?

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 02.2016
Date Uploaded: 11.2016
Photo Location: Wyoming, United States of America
Copyright: © Michel Zoghzoghi