I photographed this black wolf many years ago with a medium format film camera (the Mamiay RZ 67 II and Fujichrome 100 film), and I used a hand held Sekonic light meter on incident mode to determine the exposure. Today, with the ability to tweak highlights and shadows in the post-processing of RAW images, exposure isn't as critical as it was with film. However, you still want correctly exposed images. The technique I use now is to take a picture of the scene, look at the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to assess the exposure, and if it needs adjusting I then use the exposure compensation feature built into the camera. With wildlife, though, you may only get one shot before the animal moves, changes the pose, or is simply gone. Therefore, it's best to adust the settings in the camera before that once in a lifetime shot happens. Assuming the light isn't changing, such as on an overcast day, fill the frame with a middle toned subject like a gray rock, tree bark, etc., take a reading, setting the aperture and shutter speed accordingly, and put the camera on manual exposure mode so the exposure values don't change. When you see a great shot, you'll be ready.
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