Tyler demonstrates a trick he has learned: by playing certain notes on his bassoon, he can imitate a wolf howl, calling other wolves in.

Ootek takes him on a three-day hike to where the caribou will be, and Tyler observes the wolves make several unsuccessful attacks.

One day Tyler encounters Rosie and two investors, who have bought the lakefront and mountain slope to develop a hotel.

Believing that Rosie killed George and Angeline, Tyler shouts at him to leave and fires his rifle to scare him away.

Some time later, as the first snow begins to fall, Tyler plays the wolf call on his bassoon, bringing in other wolves from George and Angeline's pack.

Ootek returns, and he and Tyler break camp and trek across the fall tundra to the south, enjoying each other's company.

Never Cry Wolf blends the documentary film style with the narrative elements of drama, resulting in a type of docudrama.

The actor Charles Martin Smith, who had previously worked with Disney on films such as No Deposit, No Return and Herbie Goes Bananas, devoted almost three years to Never Cry Wolf.

[3] The film locations for Never Cry Wolf included Nome, Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and Atlin, British Columbia, Canada.

When Never Cry Wolf was released, a review in the Los Angeles Times called the film "... subtle, complex and hypnotic ... triumphant filmmaking!

"[5] Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, wrote, "I find it difficult to accept the fact that the biologist, just after an airplane has left him in the middle of an icy wilderness, in a snowstorm, would promptly get out his typewriter and, wearing woolen gloves, attempt to type up his initial reactions.

[6] He called the film "a perfectly decent if unexceptional screen adaptation of Farley Mowat's best-selling book about the author's life among Arctic wolves."