Wolves, Please Don’t Cry

Wolves, Please Don’t Cry

In 1940, the Canadian arctic has turned into a sight of biological calamity. The great caribou herds have plunged into extinction. Dominion Wildlife Service, a department of Canadian government, asserted that murderous wolves’ depredations were responsible for the diminishing of caribou herds. The naturalist Farley Mowat was sent to northernmost Canada to investigate if wolves were the main threat of the caribou herds. The narrative, Never Cry Wolf, is Farley Mowat’s reminiscence while he was studying the habitual behavior of wolves in Canadian arctic. The title of this book was in Russian since the book was published in the Soviet Union, and it was literally translated back to English as WOLVES, PLEASE DON’T CRY. Based on the book title, Mowat was hinting the readers that wolves were treated unequally by human. As human assume wolves were cunning and ferocious, they always kill without purpose, therefore wolves directly correlated to the increase in caribou murders. In fact, during Farley Mowat’s observation, he found out that the wolves only eat sick, aged, or weak caribous; their diet chiefly consists of small animals like skinks, voles and mice. Thus, the wolves are just a natural part of the ecosystem. Instead, the true ecological threat is humankind. A single human being with a rifle is much more destructive than a wolf pack. Due to human activities, it is not difficult to ascertain why that the caribou herds were in danger of extinction.

I suppose it was only because my own wolf indoctrination had been so complete, and of such a staggeringly inaccurate nature, that it took me so long to account for the healthy state of the wolves in the apparent absence of any game worthy of their reputation and physical abilities. The idea of wolves not only eating, but actually thriving and raising their families on a diet of mice was so at odds with the character of the mythical wolf that it was really too ludicrous to consider. And yet, it was...