WOLF CHRONICLER'S `TOP DOG' A HERO
Author offers another homage to his beloved beasts
Wolves are not humanity's favourite animals. We use “wolf” to designate a man who is an inappropriate sexual aggressor, and when Hollywood needed a menacing image of an amoral stockbroker, it created “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Folk tales around the world are full of wolves as figures of dark menace. Human history is full of attempts to “exterminate the brutes,” including the campaign that saw U.S. National Park Service rangers kill the last known wolves in Yellowstone National Park in 1926.
As chronicled in Rick Mcintyre's earlier The Rise of Wolf 8, 1995 saw an attempt to introduce Canadian wolves into Yellow
stone. Mcintyre, a devoted naturalist who has spent a lifetime observing wolves, continues his epic account in a newly released second volume The Reign of Wolf 21. A final, third volume will appear soon.
Wolf 21, the hero of Mcintyre's story, was raised by Wolf 8, who had joined a pack in which 21 was a pup. Mcintyre argues that 21's long and unusually successful reign as the alpha male of the Druid pack (Yellowstone's largest) owed much to what he learned from watching his “stepfather.”
Like Wolf 8, Wolf 21 was a fearless hunter and a fierce protector of his pack. Also, like Wolf 8, Wolf 21 was unusually engaged and playful with younger members of the pack, and visibly affectionate and flirtatious toward his longterm mate, Wolf 42.
Some of the most vivid writing in this book can be found in the author's descriptions of Wolf 21 in full warrior mode battling rival wolves, leading epic hunts of huge elk and then, without missing a beat, turning into a delightful playmate for the young, chasing, being chased, hiding from and then “ambushing” the pups. 21 often let younger and lower status wolves “win” in the play fights and mock hunts that filled much of the pack's free time.
Readers who love dogs will be pleased to learn how many of Rover's best loved behaviours are inherited from wolf ancestors.
At a time when human beings face so many challenges that demand rigorous co-operation and punish hostile and excessive competitiveness, Mcintyre's stories of mutual aid among the wolves will remind us that all life is poised in an ever-shifting dance of competition and co-operation.