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Never Cry Wolf
Never Cry Wolf
Never Cry Wolf
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Never Cry Wolf

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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This international bestseller that changed the way we look at wolves “opens new horizons in understanding animal nature and intelligence” (Newsday).

In 1948, Farley Mowat landed in the far north of Manitoba, Canada, a young biologist sent to investigate the region’s dwindling population of caribou. Many people thought that the caribous’ conspicuous decline had been caused by the tundra’s most notorious predator: the wolf. Alone among the howling canine packs, Mowat expected to find the bloodthirsty beasts of popular conception. Instead, over the course of a summer spent observing the powerful animals, Mowat discovered an animal species with a remarkable capacity for loyalty, virtue, and playfulness.
 
Praised for its humor and engrossing narrative, Never Cry Wolf describes a group of wolves whose interactions and behaviors seem strikingly similar to our own. Mowat humanizes these animals that have long been demonized, turning the widespread narrative of the “savage wolf” on its head and inspiring many governments to enact protective legislation for the North’s most mysterious creature.
 
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 4, 2015
ISBN9781504014137
Author

Farley Mowat

<p><b>Farley Mowat</b> was a Canadian writer, environmentalist, and activist. After serving in the military and exploring as a field technician in remote areas of Canada, Mowat published his first book, <I><b>People of the Deer</I></b>, in 1952. Over the next half-century he published dozens of titles and is best known for <I><b>Never Cry Wolf</I></b>, an account of his adventures with Arctic wolves in northern Manitoba, <I><b>The Dog Who Wouldn't Be</I></b>, a book for young adults, <I><b>The Boat Who Wouldn't Float</I></b> about his adventures sailing along the Newfoundland coast.</p>

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Reviews for Never Cry Wolf

Rating: 4.081156902611941 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Received via NetGalley and Open Road Media in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
    Also posted on Silk & Serif

    I have such a complicated opinion when it comes to Never Cry Wolf. On the one hand, Mowat changed the way people looked at the the mysterious wolf and developed the understanding that wolves are more in tune with nature than our own species seems to be. Unfortunately, Mowat goes about writing his novel in the wrong way: his tone is condescending, his stories meant to be entertaining only make him sound incapable and his constant complaining about his superiors "refusing" to help him do his job make him look rather pathetic. Regardless, Mowat's book is one of the first books to really capture a sliver of the social, predatory and familial behaviours of the enigmatic wolf and thus deserves some level of respect.

    Never Cry Wolf is an easy read filled with what appear to be anecdotal tales of a man's experience living near a wolf den while on a government contract to study the "vicious beasts" that are wolves. Mowat explains to the reader how the initial understanding of the wolf was shaped by the political climate of the time rather than fact. He also links the violence that man enacted on the Caribou whose dwindling numbers were blamed on the insatiable wolf to this political struggle. He then provides stories and experiences as evidence of a kinder, gentler wolf with keen intelligence and anthropomorphic behaviours.

    Upon some research it seems that Never Cry Wolf is a semi-ficiton which was written based on Mowat's experiences while studying various species in the Canadian arctic as a civil servant. I'm uncertain if this makes the book any more palatable for me considering the effects it had on the media image of the wolf. If anything it makes me concerned that people are naive enough to believe anything they read before doing some research or critical thinking.

    Did I find it humourous? Definitely not. Do I think this belongs in education? Perhaps. The novel has value in educating people about the poor critical thinking skills our society fosters and it is a decent tale to dispose of bad image issues wolves seem to still inherit today. Was I entertained? Yes. I feel Never Cry Wolf is a fictional novel that change the way people looked at wolves and highlighted the errors in political thought during its years of publication. I think its an important book to read, but I also don't know if I would leap to the conclusion "classic".

    This book will appeal to nature and animal lovers, conservationists, students and people who enjoy a good story with a flair of the dramatic. Although not a classic novel, there is wealth in reading this novel at least once in a lifetime.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    self-deprecating author writes of his observations of the wolf. Humerous,
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Unappealing. Seemed to plunge into 70's hippie philosophy with alacrity. Wolves are great, but people philosophizing...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many of the chapters describing the author's adventures studying the wolf are hilarious.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Farley Mowat's based-on-a-true-story book about spending a year in the company of a family of wolves in northern Canada has been a favorite of mine for decades. Almost every chapter is devoted to revealing another aspect of real wolf behavior. For example, Mowat is sent to the wilderness to find out how many caribou are killed by wolves so that more effective means can be devised to limit the wolves' predation. Instead, he discovers that (at least during summer months) the wolves subsist largely on mice and other small rodents, which are plentiful. Even when the wolves do prey on the migrating caribou later in the season, they are not wasteful killers, and often they are able to pick out an old or unhealthy animal to target, thereby actually increasing the survival of the remaining deer.Of course, Mowat concentrated on a single family of three adult wolves and their pups, and he stayed only a very short time with them, so criticisms of the accuracy of his facts may be warranted. However, when read as I think the book was intended, to suggest to us that wolves are not merely vicious and bloodthirsty monsters, but rather clever, social, highly developed, and beautiful animals, a person can gain insight into why wolves deserve our understanding and sympathy instead of hatred.The book remains beloved because it is full of humor. Sometimes the jokes are subtle, as when Mowat is wistfully talking to an Inuit friend about the loneliness of a spinster female wolf who visits the local group and the friend gives him a long look and says, "I guess you been here too damn long already." At other times, as when Mowat finds himself running after a group of hunting wolves while wearing nothing but boots, readers cannot help but laugh out loud.Despite being written in the early 1960's, this book is still relevant. It is a classic that has hardly aged and will never go stale.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great simple read of one of Canada's most loved authors. Never Cry Wolf is a fun and educational story which resounds well with anyone who has experienced the north first hand. After 15 years this book still reads great and I would recommend to most people.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Never Cry Wolf" is about the year the author spent in the Canadian barrens, observing wolves as part of a government project. The young biologist/naturalist finds in his study of the wolves and the surrounding fauna contradictions of what he has been taught...and what the anti-wolf bureaucrats want him to find.Never preachy, but humorous, touching, and always entertaining, I enjoyed this look into the illogic of government, the beauty of natural science, and the lamentable nature of man.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Farley Mowat heads off into the Canadian wilderness in search of wolves. He knows everything people have learned about wolves and everything he knows is wrong.I wasn't expecting this to be such a clever and funny book. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this long time ago - not too long after the movie, I think. I do recall I liked it. Probably should read it again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    How did I fail to read this book before now? Certainly I knew of it and that there was controversy about whether it was factual. But somehow I had neglected actually cracking open the pages. When I saw that it was one of the Canadian audiobooks my library's streaming service was highlighting for this special birthday year I decided it was time to remedy my dereliction.Mowat tells a story of his journey on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Service to study wolves in the subarctic and their responsibility for the cataclysmic fall in the number of caribou. Contrary to the then current thinking he found that the wolf pack he studied rarely killed caribou and instead much of their diet was small mammals such as mice and lemmings. He discovered that trappers and hunters were responsible for the slide in caribou numbers. He also saw that the family life of the wolf was quite social. There was a bachelor male who acted as "uncle" to the wolf cubs in addition to the mother and father. As well other wolves came to visit, something that astounded Mowat but was treated as commonplace by the resident Inuit. His book turned public opinion in favour of wolves and changed management practices such as offering bounties for wolves which resulted in wholescale poisoning of wolf packs (plus other animals).If you read (or listen to) this book as a fictionalized amalgam of many researchers' findings written in a humourous and entertaining fashion in order to make a point then you will get out of it what Mowat wanted you to. On the other hand if you want every word to be true then you will be disappointed because, although Mowat did go to the north on a similar study, he did not go alone and he employs hyperbole with a heavy hand.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Bleh. One of the most uninteresting and horribly written book I've read in a while.

    Want proof? It took me nearly a month to read this book.

    Not only that, but its filled with blatant lies about wolves.

    Example: According to this garbagebook, apparently wolves live off of mice. Coming from someone who knows little regarding wolves prior to reading this novel, I know for a fact that wolves do NOT only eat mice. What a ridiculous lie.

    All in all, this book was a waste of my time. I appreciate that it tried to make people less afraid of wolves, but it sadly failed in that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book in one day in a Cordova Alaska Hotel room. It was pouring rain outside and we were exhausted from a couple of high adventure travel days. I devoured this book in the comfort of that warm hotel room. Later while at Denali we were able to observe a pack of wolves moving through a river drainage. It made reading the book and observing the wolves all the more incredible to have these insights about them from Farley Mowat. I think I understand the idea of the wolf pack much more now.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is one of the main reasons that I read. By living with Farley for six months plus and his wolves, I learned that most of what mankind believes about them is scat. I alost dropped this because it was sloooow taking off. I think if he had put more of the wolf study in and taken out the first few chapters it would have been better, but then, it wouldn't have been him. I look forward to reading more of his prodigeous work (some 30 books I understand) and especially hope that sense of humour he uses, mostly on himself, holds up in other books.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Never Cry Wolf was a "must read" book in the 1970s, and I can't think of a person I knew who would admit not having read it. This new edition will not have the same broad reach or cultural importance, but a reader coming to it in 2015 should know that it is on many people's "Great Books" list, and that Farley Mowat (I have always loved that name.), primarily with Never Cry Wolf, helped shape the environmental movement (or perhaps "movements") that we know today. Mr. Mowat's work is controversial because it is fictionalized. Many of his books, including Never Cry Wolf, are like films "based on a true story." Estimating the degree of fictionalization depends a bit on the politics of the critic and the Wikipedia article on NCW outlines the controversy. More detailed discussion of Mowat's background story can be found with a quick web search that will also bring up many obituaries and memorial tributes. Mowat was vocal and pugnacious about his ideas. He was denied entry to the USA in 1985, purportedly for his leftist leanings. He tells that story in the 1986 "My Discovery of America," now out of print. Never Cry Wolf became so important in part because it is so very readable. Laugh out loud funny in places, it is warmly appealing to even the youngest reader. It is the kind of gift to give a child to induce book addiction. Anyone with any love of nature will like it, in part because it is so exotic.Never Cry Wolf is set in a world we can't remember and can hardly imagine, one where naturalists retained direct methodological links with 19th century luminaries. A world where it is normal for naturalists and explorers (and, latterly, Peace Corps volunteers) to revel in fieldwork that kept them out of sight for months and years at a time. Today communication is too easy and our fear of the world is out of control. Grant-making agencies, and the organizations they fund, impose strict fieldwork safety guidelines, and Peace Corps has been sued into becoming a nanny agency tasked with reporting every time a Volunteer burps. It is nearly impossible to imagine naturalists and anthropologists who preferred, and were able to pull off, an uninterrupted scientific life.This new edition of Never Cry Wolf includes a nice little Farley Mowat biography with photos that makes it even more appealing as a gift for a young person you are trying to subvert. It ignores the controversy surrounding the book and I think this is a bad choice by the publisher.I received a review copy of Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (Open Road) through NetGalley.com.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This delightful memoir is based on two summers and a winter that Farley Mowat spent in the subarctic regions of southern Keewatin Territory and northern Manitoba as a biologist studying wolves and caribou. Sent there by the Canadian government to, as he describes it, confirm the hateful myths then firmly held about wolves, Mowat instead learned about the symbiotic relationship between wolves and caribou and the terrible toll being wrought on both populations by white man's intrusion into the ecosystem. With humor and respect, Mowat tells the story of one family of wolves. Through this storytelling, he captures the vast beauty of the region, the majesty of both the wolves and the caribou on which they depend (although he illuminates the fact that the wolves primarily eat mice when such are plentiful), and the bemused innocence of the local natives as they worked to understand this white man's behavior. I chuckled out loud more than once and finished this quick read with a resounding sense of satisfaction. Four happy stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Farley Mowat worked for Canada's equivelant of the Dept. of the Interior. He was asked to go into the wilderness to prove that wolves consumed vast quantities of game animals so that they could justify killing the wolves. Instead, Mowat got the wolves to trust him enough that he could follow them and understand their secrets. In fact, he found, wolves eat vast quantities of voles/mice/lemmings, not the carabou etc. that everybody 'knew' they ate. Facinating reading and beautifully written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating and often hilarious story of his study of wolves in Northern Canada. From an unceremonious beginning, he soon finds all of his preconceptions about the species shattered.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Farley Mowat has never disguised the fact that he's a man with a wagon of axes to grind, and that comes across clearly in his 1993 preface to the 30th anniversary edition of Never Cry Wolf. Happily he was drawn away from his originally intended depiction of "bureaucratic and scientific buffoonery" to tell this engaging story of his experience among the wolves of northern Manitoba's barrens in the 1940s. There's no question wolves have been given a bad rap over the centuries in everything from Little Red Riding Hood to Dracula, etc. Mr. Mowat would have you believe you have far more to fear from an unfamiliar dog in your own neighbourhood. At one point he even shoos several of them away from one of their fresh kills he wishes to examine - this while he's completely naked and unarmed. The Canadian government hired him with the expectation he would return evidence of the beast's decimation of wild caribou, but what he discovers is just the opposite. The wolf is being vilified for the reckless hunting practices of men (largely for sport) that are quickly driving the caribou herds towards extinction.This book has had a worldwide influence on how wolves are perceived, including a Russian piece of legislature I'd like to know more about. It reminded me of similar efforts to redeem the reputation of other animals such as sharks. Some facts are hotly debated, for example his claim that wolves live mainly on a diet of mice. How far to interpret Mowat's story as non-fiction (from the preface: "it is my practice never to allow facts to interfere with the truth") is a question inviting every reader to research and ponder.A quick read with the right mix of insight and humour; alternatively a great book to read a chapter of now and then, easy to come back to.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Never Cry Wolf is a very entertaining story of about wolves. Farley Mowat, the author, tells of how he spent the better part of a year living in the arctic tundra studying wolves and their habitat for the Canadian government. This was during the late 1940’s and in those days, wolves were still considered one of man’s greatest enemies.Although slightly dated, for example Mowat refers to the indigenous people as Eskimos, I found this a fun read. His descriptions of wolfish life are interesting and observant. This book, originally published in the early 1960’s helped to stir an interest in the preservation of these fascinating animals, who were taken almost to the brink of extinction before we overcame the myths and realized these creatures deserved their place in the food chain and were not a threat to mankind at all.Never Cry Wolf is a fine example of an adventure book that promotes the environment and wildlife preservation. I believe it’s light-hearted humorous approach makes it appealing to people of all ages and this is one of the reasons that it is still used in schools today.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Mowat lived among the wolves. He slept and ate as they did (waking every few hours to walk in a circle, and settle down again; yummy mice).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Farley Mowat set out to discover how wolves in colder climates survive the winter, especially since their primary food source has migrated away. He set up camp near a family of wolves and began observing, and also began to adopt wolf-like traits.While criticism of this book indicates that by all reasoning Mowat's other activities while investigating the subject matter of this book would lead some to believe that he spent more time studying things (or persons) other than wolves, and pulled much of the content of this book from assorted metaphorical orifices.Whether or not this is true, the book is still very interesting. Mowat discovers the secret: the wolves eat mice. And to determine if it is truly possible for a creature with a wolf's mass to, in fact, survive solely on mice alone, he too performs musophagia, and shares a recipe he devised while doing so.The book is an interesting look at wolves, whether factual or not, and is recommended for fans of Jack London, or with a general interest in wolves, or even fans of Mowat's other books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very entertaining (and slightly frightening) look at how Canadian bureaucracy sends Farley as a young biologist off into the true northern wilderness to spend perhaps one to two years alone studying wolves. From the supplies they send with him you know they expect him to report that wolves are bad bad bad and you should kill kill kill them all so the hunters can have their caribou. Farley expects to find what he has been told he will find, the "Big Bad Wolf." Instead, very quickly, he finds something different.Farley's time there is transformative. You could say he goes native a bit. His observations, research and studies were ground breaking. This is absolutely a book worth reading 50 years after it first came out.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mowat's writing is wonderful, full of careful observation and clever humor, but what's more wonderful in this particular book is that we're allowed to see one individual undergo the slow move from being entirely influenced by society's superstitions and fears regarding wolves on to being someone who sees how unfair those fears and superstitions actually are. As Mowat learns about the wolves, his amazement comes through in the writing, as does the beauty of the wolves he so closely observes. And, in the background of the book, other characters and government blunders make the book frighteningly comical.Overall, this is simply an enjoyable and informative read, beautifully written, and hinged on an understated argument for the need for conservation and understanding. Anyone who enjoys nature writing or animals of any kind should read this book. Absolutely recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be...”Mowat, a naturalist/biologist is given an assignment: spend the summer in the subarctic and study wolf behavior, particularly, their feeding habits. Mowat discovers one wolf family and follows them closely, for several months. It is an eye-opening experience, giving him a deeper understanding and compassion for this misunderstood animal.This is a terrific read. Funny and adventurous. I have heard much of it is fictionalized, but as a story, it really resounds. Surprisingly, it was written, about 50 years ago but still remains fresh and entertaining.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book when I was camping and wished I had a pack of wolves to observe. A touching and fascinating book. A must read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Intending to write a satire on bureaucracy and those that perpetuate it this charming little book instead turned into a charming account of the author's time spent studying Arctic wolves in their natural habitat. It was the firm belief of the time that wolves were responsible for systematically decimating the herds of caribou recently qualified naturalist, Farley Mowat, is sent on a mission to discover the exact relationship between the wolves and caribou for no documentary evidence of this well known fact actually exists.Departing from Ottawa he heads out to Churchill and after a brief stay there proceeds into the Barren Lands and is quickly fortunate in meeting Mike, a local trapper, and establishes a base camp at his nearby cabin. Unfortunately, Mike is rapidly scared off by a demonstration of the scientific experiments that he intends to carry out and so he is left alone to pursue his studies once again.Upon making contact with a family of wolves, the author is repeatedly disabused of the established facts as he discovers not the blood-thirsty killing machine he expects but a playful group that are skilled providers that are extremely caring and protective of their young. Contrary to belief it seems the wolves feed mainly on rodents with only the occasional deer taken from the sick or young of the herds. As part of his experiments he undertakes to prove a large mammal could survive on such a diet and provides a recipe for the reader if they feel inclined to do the same.Told in a similar style to that of Bill Bryson's travel books this is both a poignant and humorous tale and recommended to anyone who wants to discover just a little bit more than the common knowledge.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Never Cry Wolf Review (Review)“Never Cry Wolf” is about Farley Mowat and his love for biology. Farley Mowat begins an interest in biology when he is as young as five years old, when he sees two catfish at his grandmother’s pond. As he grows older he is educated in biology and fulfills his dream of being a biologist. He is then called up by the Canadian Wildlife Service to investigate the problem for decreasing caribou population. The wildlife service blames this on the artic wolves. Mowat is sent to the Barren Lands where he finds out the real problem. He discovers the hunters are killing the caribou and soon realizes how much different the wolves really are. “Never Cry Wolf” is more than just a biologist project. The book shows the true side of artic wolves. The book shows their behavior and how they live their lives in the Barren Lands. The hunters were the true antagonists of the decrease in deer population. Wolves were the public expectation of the problem. This shows that people are too quick to judge someone or something by its looks and by what others say about it. This novel is trying to show the external and internal purpose. The external purpose shows that wolves are not evil killing animals. The internal purpose shows that we can’t assume anything about a person, place, thing, or idea. The biggest quote that stuck out for me was, “We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be-the mythologized epitome of a savage ruthless killer- which is, in reality, no more than a reflected image of ourselves.” This quote is the statement the book is trying to get across. That are perception on the wolf just shows how mistaken and evil we can be. I have many likes about the book. I like how this book is written in a way that not just a biologist can read it, but all people can relate to his obstacles. His humor shown in the book makes it entertaining and keeps you interested. I also liked the main storyline of the novel. I liked the adventure from being a little kid and growing up to be a biologist, studying wolves in the Barren Lands of Canada. I do not have any dislikes; the only thing I was upset about was the hunters in the novel killing the caribou. I recommend this book to all people interested in biology, wolves, and wildlife. This book is also good for people who are looking for a good read. The book is humorous, adventurous, and thrilling. This book is suited for kids in middle school and all the way up to senior citizens. I enjoyed this book and I know you will too!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very fun adventurous book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Though I'm not sure how accurate Mowat's tale is, the story whether true or not is very entertaining. He is sent by his government pretty cluelessly into the barren lands of Canada to observe wolves, under the assumption that he will collect evidence that the wolves are killing off huge numbers of caribou deer. What he discovers is that all of his (and humanity's) assumptions about wolf behavior are wrong. Farley Mowat is a humorous and easygoing fellow. His opinion about government bureaucracy is obvious. Even if some of his conclusions about wolves may strain credulity, his experiences among the wolves are enlightening.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really loved this book. I really enjoyed both Mowat's voice and what he had to say. It is sad to watch humans destroy the beauty around them.

Book preview

Never Cry Wolf - Farley Mowat

Preface

When I began Never Cry Wolf thirty years ago, I intended to cast the wolf in a rather minor role. My original plan was to write a satire about quite a different beast—the peculiar mutation of the human species known as the Bureaucrat who has become the dictatorial arbiter of all our affairs. I also thought it might be fun to take the mickey out of the new high priests of our times, the Scientists, who now consider themselves the only legitimate guardians and interpreters of Truth.

With malice aforethought I deliberately set out to expose these new would-be rulers of our world or, rather, to let them expose themselves in the pages of a book. But somehow I found myself losing interest in their bureaucratic and scientific buffoonery and becoming increasingly engrossed with what had originally been my secondary character—the wolf.

Never Cry Wolf was not kindly received by some human animals. Because it is my practice never to allow facts to interfere with the truth and because I believe that humor has a vital place in helping us understand our lives, many self-ordained experts derided the book. Some dedicated wolf haters, including the far-flung network of those who kill for sport, went so far as to claim it was an outright work of fiction. Others brushed it aside, claiming it was invalid because its author was not a bona fide scientist with at least a doctoral degree. For the most part I ignored this yapping at my heels, but perhaps now is a good time to turn, if briefly, upon the pursuing jackals—which is what a proper wolf would do.

Never Cry Wolf is based on two summers and a winter that I spent in the subarctic regions of southern Keewatin Territory and northern Manitoba as a biologist studying wolves and caribou. For most of that period I was employed by the federal government of Canada, and a report on the wolf studies I conducted has been on file with my employer since 1948. As to my qualifications: I possess six honorary doctoral degrees, which suggests that at least six universities consider me and my work worthy of academic recognition.

While it gives me pleasure to have earned the right, on the basis of these honors, to be called Dr. Sextus, it gives me even greater pleasure to note that almost every facet of wolf behavior described by me has since been rediscovered by the selfsame scientists who called my studies a work of the imagination. Some imagination!

Unfortunately, my major contention—that the wolf does not pose a threat to other species and is neither a danger to nor a real competitor of man—remains largely unaccepted.

Until about four hundred years ago the wolf was second only to man as the most successful and widespread mammal in North America. There is extensive evidence to show that, far from being at enmity, the wolf and hunting man worldwide enjoyed something approaching symbiosis, whereby the existence of each benefited the existence of the other. But after European and Asiatic men began divesting themselves of their hunting heritage in order to become farmers or herdsmen, they lost this ancient empathy with the wolf and became its inveterate enemy. So-called civilized man eventually succeeded in totally extirpating the real wolf from his collective mind and substituting for it a contrived image, replete with evil aspects that generate almost pathological fear and hatred. European man brought this mind-set to the Americas, where, spurred on by bounties and rewards and armed with poison, trap, snare, and gun (together with new weapons provided by an enlightened technology, including helicopters and fragmentation grenades), we moderns have since waged a war to the death against the wolf.

Of the twenty-four wolf subspecies and races inhabiting North America at the beginning of the European invasion, seven are now extinct and most of the remainder are endangered. The wolf has been effectively exterminated in all of the south-central portions of Canada, in Mexico, and in almost all of the United States south of Alaska. However, until quite recently an estimated 20,000 still shared the forests and arctic tundra with multitudes of moose, deer, caribou, and elk. Now the use of aircraft, snowmobiles, and all-terrain vehicles has enabled such numbers of sport killers and resource exploiters to penetrate this relatively inaccessible region that the stocks of big game animals therein have been dangerously depleted. This has ignited a furious and duplicitous outcry from hunters, outfitters, guides, lodge owners, and other financially interested parties against the wolf: "Wolves are destroying the game animals—our game animals! The wolves have got to go!"

Who listens to this accusation? Governments listen. Most, if not all, provincial and state departments of fish and game are little more than Trojan horses of the sport-killer lobby. And that lobby is extremely well organized and funded. Its members bring almost irresistible influence to bear on governments to protect game animals from their natural predators so that sport killers can continue to find a sufficient number of live targets for their weapons.

The preponderance of expert, independent opinion (as distinct from that of hired-gun biologists employed by government game departments) agrees that the wolf serves a vital role in maintaining the long-term well-being of its prey species, is not a threat to human beings, is responsible for only minor losses of domestic stock, and for the most part will not even live in proximity to human settlements or agricultural enterprises. This is the truth of the matter.

We have doomed the wolf not for what it is but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be: the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer—which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself. We have made it the scapewolf for our own sins.

As 1993 draws on, it is clear that a massive and concerted new effort is being made by the sport killers to apply a final solution to the wolf problem. The last refuge of the species—the forests, mountains, and tundra of the North—is to be swept clean of this plague. In 1993 in Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and northern Alberta alone, terminal massacres of wolves from the air and on the ground are being planned or conducted by captive fish and game departments, supported by the hunting fraternity and by those others who make their profits from letting the blood of wild creatures.

There is a considerable likelihood that the unholy conspiracy of government game managers, self-serving politicos, and self-styled conservation organizations devoted to enhancing the supply of big-game targets will succeed. Only the most resolute and implacable resistance to this cabal of death dealers can now prevent the commission of one more major atrocity against life on earth—the annihilation of the wolf.

Farley Mowat

Port Hope

1993

1

The Lupine Project

It is a long way in time and space from the bathroom of my Grandmother Mowat’s house in Oakville, Ontario, to the bottom of a wolf den in the Barren Lands of central Keewatin, and I have no intention of retracing the entire road which lies between. Nevertheless, there must be a beginning to any tale; and the story of my sojourn amongst the wolves begins properly in Granny’s bathroom.

When I was five years old I had still not given any indication—as most gifted children do well before that age—of where my future lay. Perhaps because they were disappointed by my failure to declare myself, my parents took me to Oakville and abandoned me to the care of my grandparents while they went off on a holiday.

The Oakville house—Greenhedges it was called—was a singularly genteel establishment, and I did not feel at home there. My cousin, who was resident in Greenhedges and was some years older than myself, had already found his métier, which lay in the military field, and had amassed a formidable army of lead soldiers with which he was single-mindedly preparing himself to become a second Wellington. My loutish inability to play Napoleon exasperated him so much that he refused to have anything to do with me except under the most formal circumstances.

Grandmother, an aristocratic lady of Welsh descent who had never forgiven her husband for having been a retail hardware merchant, tolerated me but terrified me too. She terrified most people, including Grandfather, who had long since sought surcease in assumed deafness. He used to while away the days as calm and unruffled as Buddha, ensconced in a great leather chair and apparently oblivious to the storms which swirled through the corridors of Greenhedges. And yet I know for a fact that he could hear the word whiskey if it was whispered in a room three stories removed from where he sat.

Because there were no soulmates for me at Greenhedges, I took to roaming about by myself, resolutely eschewing the expenditure of energy on anything even remotely useful; and thereby, if anyone had had the sense to see it, giving a perfectly clear indication of the pattern of my future.

One hot summer day I was meandering aimlessly beside a little local creek when I came upon a stagnant pool. In the bottom, and only just covered with green scum, three catfish lay gasping out their lives. They interested me. I dragged them up on the bank with a stick and waited expectantly for them to die; but this they refused to do. Just when I was convinced that they were quite dead, they would open their broad ugly jaws and give another gasp. I was so impressed by their stubborn refusal to accept their fate that I found a tin can, put them in it along with some scum, and took them home.

I had begun to like them, in an abstract sort of way, and wished to know them better. But the problem of where to keep them while our acquaintanceship ripened was a major one. There were no washtubs in Greenhedges. There was a bathtub, but the stopper did not fit and consequently it would not hold water for more than a few minutes. By bedtime I had still not resolved the problem and, since I felt that even these doughty fish could hardly survive an entire night in the tin can, I was driven to the admittedly desperate expedient of finding temporary lodgings for them in the bowl of Granny’s old-fashioned toilet.

I was too young at the time to appreciate the special problems which old age brings in its train. It was one of these problems which was directly responsible for the dramatic and unexpected encounter which took place between my grandmother and the catfish during the small hours of the ensuing night.

It was a traumatic experience for Granny, and for me, and probably for the catfish too. Throughout the rest of her life Granny refused to eat fish of any kind, and always carried a high-powered flashlight with her during her nocturnal peregrinations. I cannot be as certain about the effect on the catfish, for my unfeeling cousin—once the hooferaw had died down a little—callously flushed the toilet. As for myself, the effect was to engender in me a lasting affinity for the lesser beasts of the animal kingdom. In a word, the affair of the catfish marked the beginning of my career, first as a naturalist, and later as a biologist. I had started on my way to the wolf den.

My infatuation with the study of animate nature grew rapidly into a full-fledged love affair. I found that even the human beings with whom the study brought me into contact could be fascinating too. My first mentor was a middle-aged Scotsman who gained his livelihood delivering ice, but who was in fact an ardent amateur mammalogist. At a tender age he had developed mange, or leprosy, or some other such infantile disease, and had lost all his hair, never to recover it—a tragedy which may have had a bearing on the fact that, when I knew him, he had already devoted fifteen years of his life to a study of the relationship between summer molt and incipient narcissism in pocket gophers. This man had become so intimate with gophers that he could charm them with sibilant whistles until they would emerge from their underground retreats and passively allow him to examine the hair on their backs.

Nor were the professional biologists with whom I later came into contact one whit less interesting. When I was eighteen I spent a summer doing field work in the company of another mammalogist, seventy years of age, who was replete with degrees and whose towering stature in the world of science had been earned largely by an exhaustive study of uterine scars in shrews. This man, a revered professor at a large American university, knew more about the uteri of shrews than any other man has ever known. Furthermore he could talk about his subject with real enthusiasm. Death will find me long before I tire of contemplating an evening spent in his company during which he enthralled a mixed audience consisting of a fur trader, a Cree Indian matron, and an Anglican missionary, with an hour-long monologue on sexual aberrations in female pygmy shrews. (The trader misconstrued the tenor of the discourse; but the missionary, inured by years of humorless dissertations, soon put him right.)

My early years as a naturalist were free and fascinating, but as I entered manhood and found that my avocation must now become my vocation, the walls began to close in. The happy days of the universal scholar who was able to take a keen interest in all phases of natural history were at an end, and I was forced to recognize the unpalatable necessity of specializing, if I was to succeed as a professional biologist Nevertheless, as I began my academic training at the university, I found it difficult to choose the narrow path.

For a time I debated whether or not to follow the lead of a friend of mine who was specializing in scatology—the study of the excretory droppings of animals—and who later became a high-ranking scatologist with the United States Biological Survey. But although I found the subject mildly interesting, it failed to rouse my enthusiasm to the pitch where I could wish to make it my lifework. Besides, the field was overcrowded.

My personal predilections lay towards studies of living animals in their own habitat. Being a literal fellow, I took the word biology—which means the study of life—at its face value. I was sorely puzzled by the paradox that many of my contemporaries tended to shy as far away from living things as they could get, and chose to restrict themselves instead to the aseptic atmosphere of laboratories where they used dead—often very dead—animal material as their subject matter. In fact, during my time at the university it was becoming unfashionable to have anything to do with animals, even dead ones. The new biologists were concentrating on statistical and analytical research, whereby the raw material of life became no more than fodder for the nourishment of calculating machines.

My inability to adjust to the new trends had an adverse effect upon my professional expectations. While my fellow students were already establishing themselves in various esoteric specialties, most of which they invented for themselves on the theory

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