Douglas W. Smith is currently project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone National Park. He worked as biologist for the project from 1994 to1997 and has been with the program since its inception. Doug has studied wolves for 23 years. Prior to Yellowstone, he worked on Isle Royale with wolves from 1979 to 1992 and also with wolves in Minnesota in 1983. He received his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Idaho in 1985. His coursework and fieldwork from 1985 to 1988 earned him a Master of Science in Biology from Michigan Technological University. Smith received his PhD from the University of Nevada, Reno in the program of Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology. The dissertation topic which earned him his PhD was entitled Dispersal Strategies and Cooperative Breeding In Beavers.

Dr. Smith has produced numerous publications on the subject of both the wolf and the beaver, as well as contributing many hours of lecture time on both topics. Some of the publications authored and co-authored by Smith include: Wolf-Bison interactions in Yellowstone National Park, Winter severity and wolf predation of a formerly wolf-free elk herd, Wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem: Restoration of a top carnivore in a complex management environment and Denning behavior of non-gravid wolves. He also co-authored the book The Wolves of Yellowstone, a chronology of the first two years of the wolf restoration effort in Yellowstone National Park. Doug is an avid canoeist, having run many wild and remote rivers within Alaska, Ontario, Nunuvut, Yukon and Northwest Territories. He and his wife, Christine, make their home in Gardiner, Montana.