After reading Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, I learned many things about human nature and wolves. In this book, Mowat recounts his arctic summer studying the wolves for the Canadian government. It has been said that the ferocious wolves were massacring large numbers of caribou every year. However, through this journey Mowat and the reader discover the truth of the situation and have to reform their idea of the typical wolf. .
One of the basic things that is always assumed of wolves is that they are ferocious beasts ready to kill every moving object. The truth is far from that. For example, after seeing Mowat staring at their den through a telescope for hours, the wolves do not attack him but merely look at him. Even after he threatens them with his pistol, do they just condescendingly stare. I would have expected them to lunge forth and tear him to pieces, the typical behavior of wolves in movies or on television. .
I was also surprised at how their attitudes and behaviors resemble those of humans. Wolves are firm believers in monogamy. Sometimes, when mates or land is not available, wolves remain single and help raise the offspring of the "married" couple. The way they take care and play with their cubs also merits attention. Angeline, a female wolf, would give up going hunting with her husband to take care and play with her cubs. After they were older, the family moved to another den where the children could safely learn how to hunt and be a wolf. .
Unlike what the government reports suggested, wolves were not responsible for the demise of the caribou; Humans were. Mowat soon discovered from a half-Eskimo that hunters kill several thousands of them a year. I was very shocked at hearing what wolves did sometimes eat - mice and fish. I would have never imagined that such powerful creatures would eat mice. I also did not think that they would resort to fooling ducks to come near them in order to eat them.
