Attitudes To Wolves "When a man wants to murder a tiger, it's called sport; when the tiger wants to murder him it's called ferocity." George Bernard Shaw What are our attitudes to wolves, how are they changing and what might the future bring? Prehistory We do not know what prehistoric man thought of the wolf. But the persecution of wolves in recent and historic times cannot always have been prevalent. Early in human evolution our forebears probably benefited from wolf kills by scavenging them, driving away the defending wolves by yelling and hurling rocks at them. Later, when people were powerful hunters themselves, with spear and arrow, competition between wolf and human must have held within tolerable bounds as people were still few in number to cause the wolf serious opposition. Wolves and humans coexisted. Japan Westerns tend to think of the wolf as a western animal, but wolves lived throughout the northern hemisphere and have made an impression on people globally. John Knight, a British anthropologist, tells of wolf legend in the Kii Peninsula (pronounced Kee'ee), a large region of Japan reaching out into the Pacific Ocean towards the island of Shikoku. In the historic tradition of the Kii Peninsula wolves protected villagers from the misfortunes nature threatened on them. For example, solo travellers walking along lonely mountain tracks at night were sometimes accompanied by a wolf quietly walking a little way behind them until they reached home. The usual benign interpretation for this phenomenon is that wolves are protecting vulnerable sojourners from mountain dangers. The benevolent attitude people had to wolves in the Kii Peninsula may have stemmed from the help of wolves eliminating farm pests, especially wild boar, deer, monkeys and hares. Boar in particular could devastate crops. Wolves were occasionally killed after livestock depredation, but on the whole they were tolerated and someone who killed a wolf was thought to risk spiritual retribution on himself and his family. But such a favourable view about wolves did not stop the extermination of wolves in Japan around the turn of the 20th century, largely by poisoning. As Knight reflects, "Japanese wolf lore tells not of good or bad wolves but of good or bad people." Amerindians The wolf was a powerful symbol to the native people of North America just before the arrival of the European. Many tribes admired and valued the wolf and observed sacred rituals venerating them and other animals. Individuals taking part in rituals sought to absorb the wolf's qualities. Myths and traditions were associated with the wolf, whose spirit was captured in stories informing listeners how to live their lives well. Many native American cultures about the period of white colonisation exemplify the human capacity to live in coexistence with nature and predators. The native American lifestyle and traditions during this period were starkly at odds with the concurrent worldview of Europe. Attitudes of many native American tribes probably reflect the primitive European beliefs before the attitudes of both Old and New Worlds were replace by agrarian Christian values. Christianity Of all cultural traditions the one with most impact on Western beliefs about the wolf stems from Christianity. Evocations of the assumed malevolent nature of wolves are popular in the Bible and the wolf preying on domestic animals is easily turned into a metaphor for Satan preying on innocent God-fearing Christians but for the shepherd Jesus who keeps his flock safe. Even today the wolf is not understood by the Church, exemplified by this quote from a fundamentalist Christian web site: "Though often cowardly when encountered on their own, they attack in packs in the evening, when the light is fading, killing and devouring the shepherd's sheep. Hunting together in large companies, their cries resound far and wide through the night air, instilling fear in the hearts of many with their mournful howls." (Simpson) The authors of such pomposities are really writing about humans, not wolves. The clergy use the wolf as a symbol of malevolence, contrasting the wicked wolf with the good sheep. But the libel comes at the expense of trying to understand and appreciate the real wolf. "Cowardly" is an emotive description - wolves must be careful and sensible when hunting, they will attack at any time, not just at dusk, and are silent on the hunt. But why should the Church understand wolves? Clerics are not zoologists. Even so, the damage is done. The cruel and destructive image of the wolf is repeatedly hammered home century after century. By perpetuating these falsehoods the Church inspires people against wolves. Francis Of Assisi & The Wolf Not all Christianity held inimical views about the wolf. Rarely a more positive side emerged. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is particularly well known for his charity and love of animals. The story is told that Francis was visiting a village, Gubbio, in Italy, when the community was being terrorised by a wolf who was consuming their livestock. The people tried to destroy the wolf but he attacked them so they were afraid to leave their houses. Francis went to meet the wolf and firmly explained to him that he must not harm the people, that they will not try to kill him, and that past errors will be forgiven. The wolf agreed and shook hands with Francis as a pledge to the surprise of the people. From then on the people fed the wolf and in return the wolf refrained from harming them and their livestock. The story teaches us that the beast of nature and the destructiveness in man can be redeemed by compassion. The Present A growing change of opinion ushers in the wolf today. First, few people in the West nowadays are directly affected by wolves. Most people live in cities with little or no contact with rural life or with raising livestock. And for livestock raisers, wolves are no longer the threat they were, being extirpated from whole regions of Europe and North America. Second, religious attitudes play less of a role in everyday life for many people. The wolf, the original biblical prototype of wickedness and disaster, is more tradition than real. While not always necessarily the good guy in modern art, literature and the news media, the wolf's image is not inevitably fiendish and cruel. Third, the public awoke in the 1970's to the immense human pressure on nature. Nature conservation today is increasingly popular. People have made strides to acknowledge and understand the predicament of wolves trying to earn a living in a human-dominated world. Opinion surveys show more acceptance of wolves by the public in several countries in North America and Europe. With the development of the World Wide Web in the 1990's numerous sites can be found entirely devoted to wolves. Fourth, systematic scientific research on wolves started in the mid-20th century. Since the 1960's it has increased remarkably and the wolf is now one of the most researched of mammals. Fifth, with better scientific knowledge of wolves and consequent better understanding, laws have been enacted in some countries to give wolves a measure of protection from human onslaught. Sixth, the last few decades has seen the emergence of numerous organisations in North America and Europe specialising in wolf conservation and public education about wolves. The commitment to wolves by Defenders of Wildlife, in North America, is a notable example. The fund they started to compensate for livestock loss has helped smooth the reintroduction of wolves to the US. Seventh, the wolf centre has emerged since the 1990's. Neither zoo nor wildlife park, wolf centres are specialist enterprises with wolves as the star attraction educating the public about wolves. People, who may never have seen a wolf, can interact with wolves and experience what wolves are really like close up in the flesh, even though wolves may long be extinct in their country. The Future Minnesota is a microcosm and a leading model of what is happening with the blend of wolves and humans. Minnesota wolves are among the most studied wolves in the world. They were severely cut back (they never quit the state altogether, unlike other US states, because of a constant influx of wolves from Canada) but under legal protection in the last few decades their population has increased from a few hundred to least 2,500 individuals. Consequently, more people and livestock are living closer to wolves in Minnesota today than ever before, and the range of wolves is still increasing, particularly into the more populous and agricultural counties. Wolf depredation in Minnesota is presently low. But will there come a point when weight of increasing numbers of wolves and their toll on livestock begin to outweigh the present toleration of wolves? Will more parents worry about their children on the way to school on dark winter mornings? Will more sport hunters complain that wolves are taking too many of their big game? In short, will the wolf continue to be the spirit of the wild or be seen as the cause of unacceptable social anxiety and economic loss? Will the Minnesota wolf hasten to turn into a nuisance and a pest? Many non-lethal methods are employed to control wolf populations. But no single or mixture of methods can control wolves as effectively as people may sometimes want. Compensation for depredation is not a solution and can cause public opposition to wolves as spending on compensation mounts up. The only sure wolf control at present is to kill wolves. Killing wolves, however, is increasingly frowned on by more and more people as unacceptable. But where wolves are considered to be causing extreme problems, which non-lethal control cannot rectify, no other choice but killing wolves is presently at hand. Positions regarding wolf management might polarise more in the future, on the one hand urban pro-wolfers who do not want any wolves killed, no matter the circumstances or the cost, and on the other hand rural anti-wolfers who want to kill off all wolves. Scattered in between will be positions from a concerned public. In the middle will be the decision makers having to act on the issues and cope with imperfect reality. We can expect our relationship with the wolf to create many challenges ahead for wolf-human harmony. Humanity is by far the biggest destroyer of wolves, so the survival of the wolf depends very much on what humans think and do. In the West, our presently growing benign attitude to wolves could reverse should wolves ever become a bother and a hindrance to too many human aspirations. We have to think and act carefully about how we are to treat wolves. Keep an eye on what is happening in Minnesota. References Knight, John (2003): Waiting for wolves in Japan: an anthropological study of people-wildlife relations. OUP. Simpson W M R: Wolves in the Church. The LogosWord Website. www.logosword.co.uk © Wolf Trust 2004. All rights reserved.

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