The “Wolf Palace” shelter is located behind the village of Misheronsky in Shatura District and covers an area of 30 ares. Although not so vast, each animal in the shelter has a cage with pine trees and grass, which is much more spacious than living in the Moscow Zoo. THE WOLF TRILOGY: Call of the Wild, White Fang & The Son of the Wolf-Jack London 2017-12-06 The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable.
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Few wild animals have captivated the human imagination like the wolf (Canis lupus), considered to be North America’s dominant carnivore. Other than the great apes, there are few animals that are as similar to humans in terms of their social organization and family structure. The indigenous peoples of the Americas understood this, frequently depicting the wolf in their art and oral histories. Their paintings and stories often displayed wolf and human joined as one powerful creature. In some legends, the wolf is given healing powers, and in others, the wolf saves people from a great flood. Most Native Americans believed in a strong kinship with the wolf and depicted it in a positive light.
For thousands of years, humans and wolves coexisted in this manner. There was a time when, excluding our own species, the wolf was the most widely distributed land mammal in the world. Although we cannot say with certainty, there were at least 250,000, and as many as two million, wolves inhabiting what would become the continental United States. This relationship drastically changed as European colonization began.
The Destruction of the Wolf
There are many sociocultural and political factors that cast the wolf as the enemy in the European colonists’ eyes. Practically speaking, Europeans had more established agrarian townships and settlements. The livestock, such as cattle and sheep, that they depended on for food and economic resources was potentially threatened by the overwhelming presence of wolves and other predators in the “new world.” In contrast to the lore and mythology of Native Americans, the wolf was almost categorically represented as a ravening, bloodthirsty killer in the Judeo-Christian tradition and in Western culture as a whole. The wolf became a symbol of the untamed and the unknown — of the violent and rapacious wilderness. It elicited connotations of the demonic and satanic in the European psyche. The hunting of wolves in America far predates the founding of the U.S. The first documented wolf bounty was instituted in the colony of Massachusetts in 1630; this signaled the beginning of a nearly 400-year campaign to wipe wolves off the continent.
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Photo courtesy of NPS/Jim Peaco
With the advent of industrial technology and the livestock industry, humans began waging a war against the wolf worldwide. The U.S. government was the most zealous in its persecution of the predator, implementing a nationwide policy of wolf control. Wolves were seen as evil killers that posed a threat to the continued safety and prosperity of the American people. President Theodore Roosevelt, a man who is generally renowned for his environmental activism, declared the wolf “the beast of waste and desolation” and called for its complete eradication. Wolves were shot, trapped, poisoned, tortured, and burned alive. Wolf skulls and pelts were piled high for victory photographs and to claim the lucrative bounties. Most hunters believed they served God and country by clearing the countryside of such vermin. The wolf is arguably the only species to be deliberately driven to the brink of extinction by humans.
Through the systematic, vehement extermination of every wolf to be found, the U.S. won its war against wild nature. Over the course of a few centuries, the wolf population was reduced from the millions to the hundreds, with the last few survivors in the lower 48 states retreating deep into the woods of present-day Michigan and Minnesota for safety.
The fanaticism and scope of the crusade against wolves by the U.S. cannot be overstated. Naturalist writer Barry Lopez asserts that Americans persecuted wolves almost pathologically, and that, “wolf killing goes much beyond predator control…the history of killing wolves shows far less restraint and far more perversity.”
Keeping this dark history in perspective, it is truly miraculous that there are any wolves left in the U.S. at all. To be clear, the federal government incentivized the killing of wolves as late at 1965, and many hunters still combed the Great Lakes region for the elusive packs that had taken refuge there. Despite the hunters’ best efforts, the northern timber wolves held their ground and actually began to make a slight comeback. With the cover of a vast, dense forest, and the recolonization of dispersing wolves from Canada, Michigan and Wisconsin’s wolves persevered. By 1970, there were a few reports of wolf sightings farther from the Canadian border than there had been in over a decade. The last of America’s wild wolves were starting to win more public interest and concern, and talk of endangered species conservation and legislation had just begun in the environmentalist movement.
The Protection of the Wolf
It was only after the monumental declaration that the gray wolf would be protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1974 that wolf recovery truly became possible. The public’s interest and fascination grew in leaps and bounds as modern Americans became further removed from nature. As so often is the case, it was only after wolves had vanished that we began to value what we had lost.
The northern gray wolf took a huge step on the road to recovery when the first pack of wild wolves crossed the border from Canada to Glacier National Park, Montana. Wolf conservationists and advocates, in their joy and disbelief, dubbed them the Magic Pack. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes population grew steadily, spreading into northern Wisconsin. By 1990, Montana’s Magic Pack had company, as other packs continued to migrate from Canada, and the first wolves were born on Glacier National Park soil. The first substantial reports of wolf sightings in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State came in, and the U.S. could now boast a possible population of wolves in seven states, including Alaska.
The Mexican Gray Wolf
As the northern gray wolf made great strides toward reestablishing itself, its smaller cousin, the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) faced oblivion. Smaller than the typical gray wolf, the Mexican gray is usually sandy or tawny colored, and lives in smaller packs better adapted to high desert environments. This species had already been extinct in the American Southwest by 1970, and the last few in Mexico were under serious attack. The year 1980 marked its complete extinction in the wild. However, due to pressure from the ESA, the last seven wild individuals were captured and placed in a captive-breeding program. Through a breeding registry, biologists hoped to preserve the genetic diversity of the animal and save this unique subspecies.
The Red Wolf
In the American Southeast, the red wolf (Canis rufus) was also faced with dire prospects for survival. The red wolf is a completely different species from the gray wolf, and the only distinctly American wolf. It is smaller, with reddish and brown coloration, and almost has the appearance of a wolf-coyote cross. In historic times, the red wolf lived across the East Coast and Southeastern seaboard. However, like the gray, the red wolf was hunted to extinction throughout its range. By 1980, red wolves survived only in captivity, their breeding highly regulated in order to preserve precious genetic diversity.
Yellowstone and Other Reintroduction Programs
Eager onlookers watch as wolves are transported to Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of NPS/Diane Papineau
The watershed moment in wolf policy and recovery over the past century was undoubtedly the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in 1995. After years of political battles and grassroots efforts to win support from local ranchers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought wild gray wolves from Canada to Yellowstone and the Frank Church Wilderness of Idaho.
The reintroduced wolves in Idaho were “hard released” directly into their potential habitat from their transportation crates. One female wolf traveled over 60 miles in the first day looking for her Canadian homeland. In cooperation with the U.S. government, the Nez Perce Nation took over the reintroduction effort of wolves that roamed into their tribal lands.
The first wolves to inhabit Yellowstone were reintroduced more gradually. They spent three months in acclimation pens in the back country, until the alpha male of the Crystal Creek pack mustered up the courage to take his first steps of freedom in the U.S. Despite the disappointment of wolves being illegally poached as they roamed around the fringes of the park, biologists were overjoyed when the pack established territory and gave birth to the first litter of pups to be born in Yellowstone in nearly 70 years.
Over the past four decades or so, the wild wolf population in the contiguous U.S. has grown from less than 300 to approximately 5,500. Even in the 1990s, it looked like wolves would eventually disappear entirely from the plains and forests of America. Yet, as people searched ever more desperately for a true connection to nature, we slowly and painfully learned the value of wild ecosystems and the animals that inhabit them. In the years since the Yellowstone reintroduction, astounding research has been conducted on wolves and the vital role they have as a keystone species. We have learned that they catalyze an ecological phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade.” As ecologists Christine Angelini and Brian Silliman concisely put, this term refers to a predator’s impact “trickling down one or more feeding levels to affect the density or behavior of the prey’s prey.”
Wolves are coursing predators, meaning that they make their prey run. Photo courtesy of NPS
Yellowstone is a unique ecosystem, but similar effects have been noted elsewhere. All this is to say that the wolf plays an extremely important role in the environment, and is an animal to be respected, not feared. Gray wolves now inhabit 13 different states, with California the most recently recolonized. The wolf’s endangered species status continues to fluctuate at both the federal and state levels, but their numbers are slowly stabilizing.
Inspired by the success of Yellowstone, the Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced in Arizona in 1998. Roughly 100 wild Mexican grays now inhabit the wildlands on the border of Arizona and New Mexico, with a few having roamed south back into Mexico as well. Despite this great success in reviving the Mexican gray wolf, further reintroduction efforts continue to be hampered by extremely partisan politics.
The state of the red wolf, now the most critically endangered wild canid in the world, is even more precarious. In 1990, the first red wolves were reintroduced to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. For a time, the program was quite successful and peaked at more than 200 wild wolves. But now, due to lack of public support, lack of public lands, and political infighting, that number has plummeted to less than 50. Red wolves are under constant threat of being de-listed from the ESA by political lobbies who claim that it is a mongrel coyote-hybrid rather than a distinct species. De-listing would almost certainly be a death sentence for red wolves.
Wolves Today
While the future of some wild canids (like the red wolf) is grim, there is heartening news from around the world for wolves. Populations in Canada remain strong and largely consistent, despite being hunted by humans. Overseas, the European gray wolf has slowly made a comeback in Italy, Switzerland, France, Poland, and even Scandinavia. The endangered but resilient Iberian wolf has also greatly benefited from conservation efforts and reintroduction programs in Portugal and Spain.
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Here in Colorado, the state government currently will not allow an intentional reintroduction of either gray wolves or Mexican gray wolves. Colorado is obligated, however, to extend protected status under the ESA to any wolves that naturally range into the state and establish territory.
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A wild wolf in Lamar Valley. Photo courtesy NPS/Jim Peaco
The recovery of wolves is no longer a distant dream, but there is still much work ahead. Despite a growing body of scientific research that clearly shows wolves are not a threat to humans or the livestock industry, excessive wolf culling still occurs frequently across the country. Wild wolves are often hunted and killed for allegedly killing cattle and sheep. There are documented incidents of this, which should be properly addressed by local authorities — but the reality is that wolves account for a startlingly small amount of livestock death; mountain lions, bears, dogs, and most of all coyotes, kill livestock much more than wolves ever have. Many studies have concluded that killing wolves actually causes more livestock death.
Although we will almost certainly never see wild wolves in their historic numbers, they have made a remarkable comeback over the past 50 years. If recovery efforts continue, we may one day see wild wolves coexisting with humans in over 20 states. With the wolf’s return, we are learning that it is possible to live in close contact with wild wolves and other large carnivores. With collaboration from politicians, environmentalists, and ranchers, we may not be forced to choose between people, wildlife, and livestock. The wild habitat that is currently left across the nation could easily support all three. How we choose to value America’s natural heritage, and wildness as a whole, will determine whether this becomes a reality. Despite the great challenges ahead, we remain confident and hopeful that wolves and humans can once again live in harmony across all of North America, and the world.
By Austin Hoffman and Annie White. Graphics provide by Annie White, Mission: Wolf archives, and the National Park Service.
Pokemon A Wild Appeared Generator
References
A Wild Wolf Appeared As A
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
“Gray Wolf Biologue”
“About Red Wolves”
National Park Service:
“Yellowstone Science: Issue number 24-1: Celebrating 20 Years of Wolves”
International Wolf Center:
“Wolves of the World”
The Wolf Almanac, Robert H. Busch (1995)
Decade of the Wolf, Gary Ferguson and Douglas Smith (2005)
Of Wolves and Men, Barry Lopez (1978)
Wolves: Behavior, Conservation and Ecology, David L. Mech and Boitani Luigi (2003)
Wolf Nation, Brenda Peterson (2017)
Predatory Bureaucracy, Michael Robinson (2005)
The first wild wolf-Zorro
“A man captured Zorro with a trap and chained it to his yard, and then abandoned it.” The veterinarian and owner of the “Wolf Palace” Nastya Recalled.
Many volunteers have taken in Zorro, whose paw was severely injured and skinny at the time, but no one knew what to do next with this genetically pure wild wolf. Zorro’s tragic fate touched Nastya. She spent half a year collecting all the documents and checking in to the Yaroslav Zoo for Zorro. In the past six months, she discovered that there are still many wild wolves in Russia that need to be rescued. So she decided to rent a piece of land with her good friend, a canine expert, near the forest on the outskirts of Moscow, to temporarily take in the unfortunate animals and help them find new owners. However, with more and more animals being taken in, this place became a real animal sanctuary in 2017.
“Wolves are complex animals that are not easy to be tamed and live in groups as a family unit, so the zoo is not willing to accept them.” Nastya sighed, “They called us and asked us to house the rescued wolves. We also know that, Apart from here, where else can they be sent? Who else will take them apart from us? We take them for nothing else, because they have nowhere to go in Russia. ”
Return to the forest?
The “Wolf Palace” shelter is located behind the village of Misheronsky in Shatura District and covers an area of 30 ares. Although not so vast, each animal in the shelter has a cage with pine trees and grass, which is much more spacious than living in the Moscow Zoo. A baby fox and three foxes lived alone. They were rescued from the animal farm and escaped the bad luck that might be made into fur coats. There are currently nine wolves in the “Wolf Palace”, most of which have their own guardians.
“Guardians pay 6000 rubles for their animals a month for food,” Nastya explained. “These wolves generally eat very little. A meal is 1.5 to 2 kilograms of meat on average. , As well as eggs, apples, mushrooms and seasonal berries, watermelon and cantaloupe.”
“Wolf Palace” has its own webpage, and there are always some compassionate netizens who say: “What a beautiful scenery, but they have no freedom! Can’t they be returned to the forest?”-This is indeed not possible.
“Sending a man-bred, sick or old adult wolf back to the forest is equivalent to sending it to death. They will be hunted soon after returning to the forest,” Nastya said, “or because of poor feeding And die.”
Nastya will also adopt wolves that are “abandoned”. A Moscow couple bought a wolf pup from a “merchant” in the Chechen Republic. The two innocent people decided to domesticate it like a pet dog, but gave up this stupid idea after half a year: “Wolves have their own nature, they will jump back and forth on the cabinet, tear up everything, even concrete. It can be crushed, and there is no response to human orders. It can no longer be said to be dangerous!” The
shelter is next to a lush forest. For a while, the people in the shelter tried to put electronic collars on the animals. , Cage mouth, tied with a hard rein to go for a walk in the forest, but the unfamiliar environment made them panic and eager to return to the familiar cage. Nastya said: “It takes two years to release captive wolves into the forest. They must be prepared to return to nature through professional methods. You can’t just open the cage and shout:’Go ahead. , Wolf kids!'”
“Sometimes wolf pups must be able to adapt and deal with the new environment in which they may be hunted. We must teach them to hunt rodents and small birds, track large beasts, and learn to find with experienced people. Edible berries and mushrooms, as well as the skills of living in the forest. But even then, it is difficult for them to survive in the wild. Because wild wolves are not willing to accept’outsiders’. So we can only raise them artificially.” Sijia added.
And wolves living together
now shelter run by Nastya and her husband Jaroslav business together.
At first, Yaroslav took care of the paralyzed wolf, Leona. In order to cure Leona, the sanctuary performed muscle stimulation therapy on it, and also invited the best orthopedics and plastic surgery experts for consultation, but in the end it was determined that Leona could not accept surgery. At that time, some caring people initiated fundraising on the Internet, and spent 32,000 rubles to customize a car that could assist Leona to walk on his hind legs.
“Levona would roar at first to keep people away from him,” Yaroslav said, “but I slowly found the language to communicate with it, lay on the ground with my arms around it, and comforted it to calm it. Now, It loves me very much.”
But Yaroslav’s favorite is Nastya. This is not their first marriage. Human beings will not stick to a marriage all their lives like wolves. But in fact, wolves sometimes turn around. For example, two wolves, Altai and Radha, were sent from the temporary wildlife breeding base of the Soviet National Film Foundation in Vladimir Oblast. They chose a den for themselves to live in for a few months, but they did not become a couple. Lada quietly observed other similar species, sent out a date request, and finally chose the wolf-Severstal as his partner, and quickly dug a tunnel to find it, although Severstal loved the Czechoslovakian wolfhound before that. Yuru (a mixed breed of German Shepherd and Karpatsky wolf, also lives in a shelter). Although Viju has been sterilized, it will still excite all the wolfhounds and wolves in the “Wolf Palace”. The “boys” will look at it intently, while the “girls” will grin and become angry. So far, every time Vijuru passes by Severstal’s house, Severstal will be very happy, and Lada will be very angry, as long as she sees Vijuru from a distance, she will put on a bad face.
The shelter wanted to send the baby wolf to the biological experiment station, where it happened to be doing wild training and reintroduction experiments.
“We have no place to accommodate new members,” Nastya sighed. “Therefore, during the mating period of wolves this year, we can only separate the couples, including Mira and Holt, although Holt will Very unhappy, but there is no choice.”
This is the hall of wolves, where they enjoy the treatment of their masters, but they have no choice in the biological world: hunting wolves does not require any permission, and people can hunt them with any weapon throughout the year. The state and hunting companies often set up bonuses for “forest killers.” For example, in Dagestan, there are always wolf hunting activities during festivals. There are not many wolves left. In other regions, the enthusiasm for hunting wolves is also very high.
Because of this, there are no purebred wolves in many places. “Swedish and Norwegian experts were shocked to see our wolves!” Nastya exaggeratedly said, “In their country, the only wolves that are crossbred with dogs, whether in captivity or in the wild, are bred! Including Canadian wolves. They have dog genes, so they are so big. Russian wolves have pure blood, especially wild wolves in the central region. That’s why I am so afraid of Holt. Some people question their small size, but purebred wolves are It should be like this!”
There are not only Russian wolves in the shelter. The wolf-Skifa, who had participated in the movie “Old Man” (Oscar nominated by Kazakhstan in 2013), his daughter Lager was also sent here, and Lager was once imprisoned in a tourist attraction in Kazakhstan In the small cage. There is also the oldest wolf-Vanya, which was also sent from the temporary wildlife breeding base of the Soviet State Film Foundation. At that time, it was dying, and now it is not only alive, but also fattened, and often puts on airs in front of the wolf pups.
Wolf friends
Wolf Wei Liesa is the protector of animals rescued from Dagestan down – it was being held in a cage on the sun exposure, has been ordered soon: a narrow space that it appeared osteodystrophy. Knowing that their “comrades” were suffering, the enthusiastic Dagestan silently donated nearly 80,000 rubles to build a cage for it. But in the North Caucasus, there is often a different attitude toward wild animals. It is common for people there to give each other wolf cubs or lion cubs on birthdays. It’s not just UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) champion Habib Nurmagmudov who will play videos of him fighting a bear chained up. Many Caucasians will show off on the Internet the tamed tigers and wolves in their backyard cages. In fact, as long as the animals grow up, it will become difficult to feed. People will shoot and slaughter these animals in their cages, or call friends and neighbors to join the “battle”, and they will instigate Alba to protect the sheep. The dog persecuted the wolves who had smashed his legs, and used his mobile phone to record while making happy shouts. The owner of “Wolf Palace” admitted that people often send them videos like this, asking them to do something for these animals.
But what can be done? Buying all the animals from the abuser-this is undoubtedly a reward for the abuser. The new “Law on the Management of Animal Responsibility”, which is well received, has no way of doing this.
“In the Caucasus or in private houses on the outskirts of Moscow, bears and wolves are often poisoned, and this phenomenon will continue.” Yaroslav said firmly. “Any inspection agency will ignore these being abused and killed at home. The new law does not prohibit’baiting stations’ and hunting in animal cages.”
The new law stipulates that the breeding of wild animals on private farms is prohibited from 2020-the “Wolf Palace” shelter happens to be one of them. But the owner of “Wolf Palace” does not want to go through the formalities to become a legal person or private business owner.
“This means that we must not only implement strict financial management, but also deal with endless inspections,” Nastya said firmly. “The layman will also make comments on what kind of meat we give animals and which brands of meat we eat. “It’s
a nonsense! I’m a veterinarian, and of course I will give my animals the best meat! The inspectors think that as soon as the wolf eats lunch, we should clean up the bones in the cage. It’s ridiculous. Isn’t it? First of all, it’s impossible for us to always walk around the animal cages in order to cope with the inspector’s sterility check. Bones are toys! We moved Mila temporarily during the renovation, and when she went back, it would immediately check every small bone to confirm if anyone had stolen its baby. We should make dears for these stupid regulations Is Mila depressed? Do you want to keep these wolves nervous? By the way, even the smallest changes in the familiar environment can make wolves nervous. What’s more, there are hundreds of such absurd regulations! Inspectors never care. The life and death of animals, whether they live comfortably, health, and their feelings will only sway back and forth with the rules and regulations printed in the office.”
Not long ago, Nastya and Yaroslav served as guests in the State Duma and studied how to get it right. Experts in the protection of wild animals met to discuss the new legal regulations.
“The speakers at the meeting, as well as biologists and zoologists from all over the world are very concerned about species and biodiversity, but no one wants to listen to us!” Yaroslav said angrily, “our proposal None of them were adopted or even considered. I really don’t understand, if everything is in their charge, why do they pretend to call us here!” The
wolf is enjoying the treatment of a master in the “Wolf Palace”, But there is no choice in the biological world, and there are no pure wolves in many places.
Groundless accusation
People in surrounding villages are very alert to shelters far away from them. There are often rumors: the wolf ran out, the wolf bit someone.
“Someone called in panic a while ago and said:’Your wolves are hunting our cows.'” Nastya laughed, “Some people even sent photos saying that our animals were grazing by him. A ditch was dug in the field. I said: “This beast in your photo is too small?” And he plausibly said: “Who doesn’t know that there are small wolves in your shelter, although I have never seen them either. “”
In fact, the animal cage is very strong, and no wolf has ever run out of the “wolf palace”. But even the dogs of the Nastya couple are not liked by the villagers. Because they always walk with their owners, not chained.
“But we never wanted to be close to the villagers!” Nastya said angrily. “We bought the land far away from the residential houses, just to not disturb others.”
Fortunately, the villagers in the shelter were not useless. For example, prudent farmers began to drive cattle around the city, and horned cattle no longer stepped on the vegetable garden and destroyed the fence as often as before.
The only thing that can’t be locked into the cage is the howling of the wolf, which can spread to places up to one kilometer away. At first the dogs in the town were angry, but now they even try to bark from a distance. By the way, Czechoslovakian wolfhounds will respond to dog barking in one dialect, but another bark for wolves. Maybe they are acting as translators?
In addition to wolves of pure blood, the offspring of wolves and dogs live in the shelter. The latter are now called “exotic species to be excluded” on the Internet, and because of this title, people often abandon them.
These animals with wolf blood have joined the big family of “Wolf Palace”. They are fed by compassionate caregivers. They also talked about love with local watchdogs, and their lives are very good.
“These children should also have a good place to go,” Nastya said thoughtfully. “Now we are helping them find their owners. We are not asking people to take them away quickly, but we dream of raising them. For a person with an animal of wolf descent, this is indeed an opportunity. Look at how beautiful they are, and look more handsome than wolves and Czechoslovakian wolfhounds.”
However, the Nastyas are most concerned about pure Russia. Wolf.
“We don’t need these animals to kiss us or listen to us,” Nastya said. “They have all been mutilated by humans, so we have to take care of them. But ideally, wolves should stay away from humans. They live in their own natural habitat. The land will live better.”
So the Nastya couple dreamed of building a national wolf center. This requires a large area of land: in nature, a wolf family covers an area of 100 to 200 square kilometers. At present, the shelter can only provide 100 square meters of habitat for a wolf couple.
“Give us a piece of land!” Nastya looked at the forest outside the window, “Even if it is a game reserve or a garbage dump! Look at Italy, the state will provide land for private ecological centers to protect these animals. And we We don’t even need state funding. We raise money to buy land and build a real wildlife protection base! Isn’t that bad? Isn’t it very valuable to protect the true and pure Russian wolf like a fairy tale?”