Jack Wolfskin begins working with real wild wolves

As part of its ‘We Live to Discover’ campaign, Germany-based outdoor apparel and kit manufacturer Jack Wolfskin has reaffirmed its commitment to the environment by partnering with renowned National Geographic conservation photographer, field biologist and wolf expert Ronan Donovan, in his quest to document and defend the lives of wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park., the world's original national park.

After being hunted and shunted out of existence by the expanding human population in the 18th and 19th centuries, 25 years ago grey wolves were reintroduced into the iconic national park. Jack Wolfskin’s new Discovery campaign revolves around a series of stunning films and still images captured by Donovan, who has spent years documenting what happened next, as the wolves established themselves and formed packs across the 3,500-sq-mile park. 

The star of the story Donovan originally recorded was a wolf known as Mr Blue who, very unusually, ran with at least eight different packs during his lifetime, mixing and mating with multiple wolves, and demonstrating a rare ability to adjust to lupine social structures and adapt to various situations. Now, in partnership with Jack Wolfskin, Donovan is on a mission to find and film Mr Blue’s off-spring to understand common traits between wolf and human societies. 

The reintroduction of wolves to the area is widely believed by wildlife experts to have helped bring the ecosystem back into balance, but rewilding is not universally popular, and the wolves are victims of their own success, with growing populations now venturing beyond the park boundaries, bringing them into potential conflict with humans and creating new conservation challenges.

Extending well beyond the car parks and busy tourist spots, Yellowstone National Park spans a swathe of challenging and utterly wild terrain across Montana, Idaho and Wyoming in America’s Rocky Mountains. During his project, Donovan has donned various items from Jack Wolfskins new Discovery collection of parkas, hoodies, jackets, pants, gloves and bags built to perform in the world’s coldest climates.

As part of a recent rebrand, Jack Wolfskin made a commitment to improving the environmental impact of their products, and various items from the brand feature in our guides to the best fleece jackets and best waterproof jackets, and the brand's Expedition Pack 42 recently received a 5-star review and a T3 Platinum Award. Watch this space for reviews of items from the 1995. The lightweight, tear-resistant Pertex Quantum exterior fabric used on garments in this range,  named in tribute to German explorer Arved Fuchs's crossing of the Patagonia ice sheet in 1995, is manufactured from 100% recycled polyamide, the fill is RDS-certified goose down (with a fill power of 800 cuin, suitable for the most extreme conditions), impregnated with PFC-free, hydrophobic HyperDRY, so it dries very quickly.