[Emily Graslie, on the phone, in the passenger seat of the car] Hi, I’m Emily Graslie, I’m on my way to pick up a wolf that Liz said she was holding for us?

[EG pauses, then responds to phone conversation] A wolf? Um, it’s in the freezer?

[EG pauses again] Oh, sorry, thanks. [Hangs up]

[EG] I accidentally called Lenscrafters. [Laughs]

[EG] This is James, he’s a volunteer. Um, works in our prep lab with us. We’re gonna go pick up – well, we have connections with a wolf specialist who does a lot of tracking of these different wolf packs around Montana, and apparently this large male, uh, grey wolf was hit by a car up between here and Seeley, somewhere near the Blackfoot river. So someone hit it with their car; they contacted GWNP, and then they got in contact with us, so we’re gonna go pick it up right now. We’re gonna tan the hide, we’re gonna process the whole skeleton, which we’ll have to do in installments, because it’s too big to fit in the bug box. We have to skin it out – once it’s thawed a bit, probably on Thursday or Friday this week – and then we’re gonna have to dismember it, and, um, disembowel it, and store the various parts in the Herbarium freezer, which is hilarious because botanists don’t [James laughs] really take kindly to, uh, to animal remains in their plant remains freezer.

[EG, outside now] Which way do I go in?! I don’t know where I’m going.

[EG, inside the building] It smells like you’re at the dentist, and, I don’t know, it’s got that like, metallic, bloody, but like a stale, bloody thing–

[James] Iron, iron in the blood that you can smell.

[James, looking at the wolf] Wow, he’s large.

[Female voice (Liz?) in the background] Yeah, he’s a pretty wolf.

[EG, looking at the wolf] He’s gorgeous.

[Female voice] And I was hoping you could, uh, do something with it...

[James] Really large. Oh my gosh, good shape too.

[Female voice] Yeah.  

[EG, as James is maneuvering the wolf through a doorway on a rolling caddy] It’s gonna hit his foot. He’s just massive. How much do you think he weighs?

[EG, having put the wolf in a large weight scale] Ninety pounds! It’s just a big dog – it’s the biggest dog! He has burrs in his fur. [EG sniffs the wolf] He doesn’t smell too bad. He did poop a little bit, though.

[James, having finished loading the wolf into the truck] Yeah, alright.

[EG] Wow, yeah.

[Female voice] Thanks, I just need to do a property transfer form with you guys.

[EG] Sure.

[Female voice] And that’ll have his ID number on there–

[EG, new outside location] I’m really excited about this. It’s not every day that we get wolves; it’s especially not every day that we get an entire wolf. We get to do some necropsy stuff! I love me a good necropsy!

[James, smiling] I’m very excited.

[EG] Findin’ out the cause of death. That’s pretty cool. It’s been a good day. It’s gorgeous out here. The birds are chirping, the sun is setting, and we’ve got a dead wolf in the back of a truck.  

[EG, while walking] I still can’t get over the fact that I accidentally called Lenscrafters, and was like, [laughs] yeah, I’m here for my wolf.

[EG, back in the passenger seat of the truck] Yeah, I want you to get rear-ended and for a 100-pound frozen wolf to fly out –

[James] Onto their windshield?

[EG] No, not onto their windshield; I don’t want them to get hurt. I just kinda want it to like, flop on the hood of their car.

[James] Mm-hm.

[EG] It would make a pretty big dent, but... that’d be bad for the wolf, that it got hit by a car twice.

[Credits.]

...It still has brains on it.