Species
Identification
I have chosen the gray wolf (Canis lupis) as my species for this project. Grey wolves are a
wildlife species present in the northernmost parts of the United States and
most of Canada.
Social History
The relationship between humans and wolves can be traced
back longer than recorded history. Early humans contended with wolves for
animals to hunt. Later when humans gained agricultural skills, wolves posed a
threat to livestock. This in particular has helped create the concept of the
sly, deceptive wolf in the collective folklore of many countries. Over our
shared history wolves have often been persecuted and vilified by humans.
Hunting wolves has been done out of necessity, as well as for sport. To this
day they remain an often misunderstood animal.
Not
all of the interactions between early humans and wolves were competitive
however. Wolves were the first species ever
domesticated by humans. The exact timing of this is unknown, but is estimated
to be between 15,000 and 33,000 years ago. The process by which this occurred is
also unknown. However, the main theories behind this are the self-domestication
theory and the orphaned wolf-cub theory. The self-domestication theory proposes
that wolves with a lessened fear of humans could more readily approach human
encampments to scrounge for food; leading to an evolution of tamer wolves. The
orphaned wolf-cub theory, on the other hand, makes the claim that wolf cubs,
which are more easily socialized and tamed, were adopted by humans after their
parents had been killed. Both of these theories have some amount of
experimental evidence supporting them and the truth is likely that a mix of
both occurred.
Current Social
Perception
Wolves do not serve a specific
function to humankind. They are not a livestock species meant to provide meat
or milk. However the role they play in nature is much larger than many realize.
Across their vast range, wolves are often a keystone predator and vital to
their ecosystem. Wolves control populations of many species, such as lynxes and
cougars. Wolves also interact with other predators through competitive
exclusion. Wolves may sometimes try to scavenge kills from brown bears or tigers;
this can lead to both species having a limiting effect on the other’s
population.
Despite the
role they play in the ecosystem, and their relatively small part in our lives,
wolves are still often viewed as frightful or intimidating. Portrayals of
wolves in popular TV and movies such as “The Hobbit” or “The Grey” portray wolves
as violent killers. Although these are fantastical representations, they still
have an effect in shaping public perception of these animals.
Public
perception of wolves is not all bad. There is a large group of people who
understand wolves and their value. Groups such as The Wolf Conservation Center,
The NatioWildlife Federation, Wolf Haven
International, and multiple national parks work towards the conservation and
recovery of wolves in areas were their numbers have been threatened. These
groups also help to increase public knowledge about wolves and dispel negative
myths and stereotypes, giving these creatures some much needed PR.n al
Intelligence and
Emotions
Multiple reports and lab studies have demonstrated that
wolves are intelligent creatures. They have the ability to remember and
associate events as well as to learn. During the extermination of the American
bison, wolves learned to associate gunshots with carcasses that would be left
behind by hunters after skinning them. Other studies have demonstrated that
non-rabid wolves can distinguished between armed and unarmed humans as well as detect
self-confident demeanors. Wolves that have been exposed to traps have
repeatedly showed that they learn how to avoid or trigger them without harm.
 |
| Wolves respond better to hand cues than vocal cues |
Wolves also
have been shown to display emotions. The most concrete evidence of this is
their physical posturing. Wolves use multiple cues to express their mood,
similar to dogs. Barred teeth and upright, forward pointing ears indicate a
dominant threat. Meanwhile, closed mouths and pulled back ears indicate a
submissive state of being. Much like dogs, wolves also use their tails to
express themselves. Threatened wolves hold their tails up high, while submissive
wolves keep their tail tucked between their legs.
Speciesism
Wolves are subject to speciesism
through their treatment as a menace and extermination. Throughout history,
wolves have been persecuted and in some cases systematically exterminated. The
organized efforts to exterminate wolves have succeeded in several cases. Japan
killed off the last wolf on their island chain in 1905, despite the animals
being considered gods in Shinto mythology. Northern Europe also made it a point
to exterminate wolves during the middle ages, doing so in England, Scotland,
and Ireland.
To my
knowledge, wolves are the only mammal to be systematically exterminated purely
because they are considered a nuisance. Wolves have received a level of
persecution not given to other species. Despite their important role in the
ecosystem or their past relationships with humans that led to their
domestication and the creation of the modern dog, wolves have been devalued as
a species. Although species such as bovines, poultry, or fish are killed in
larger numbers, they are done so as food and considered to serve a purpose.
Wolves were not exterminated for food but because they proved inconvenient to
humans.
References
Grandin, Temple;
Johnson, Catherine (2005). Animals in Translation. New York, New York:
Scribner. p. 87. ISBN 0-7432-4769-8.
O. Thalmann et al. (2013). Complete Mitochondrial
Genomes of Ancient Canids Suggest a European Origin of Domestic Dogs. Science
15 November 2013: Vol. 342 no. 6160 pp. 871-874 DOI: 10.1126/science.1243650.
Germonpréa, Mietje; Sablin, Mikhail V. (7 October 2008). "Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites
in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable
isotopes".
Viegas, Jennifer (date = October 17, 2008). "MSNBC :
World's first dog lived 31,700 years ago, ate big". Discovery
News (MSNBC).
Fulbright, Timothy E. & Hewitt, David G. (2007) Wildlife
Science: Linking Ecological Theory and Management Applications, CRC Press, ISBN 0-8493-7487-1, p. 118
Heptner, V. G. & Sludskii, A. A. Mammals of
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Grooms, Steve (2010). "Cougar Wolf Interactions: It's a
Lot Like Cats and Dogs". International Wolf 20 (2): 8–11.
Mech & Boitani 2003, pp. 264–65
Geist, Valerius (2006) When do Wolves become Dangerous to Humans?,
The University of Calgary.
Heptner & Naumov 1998, pp. 244–245
Mech & Boitani 2003, pp. 63–65
Mech 1981, pp. 8–9
"Are wolves and wolfdog hybrids trainable?".
Wolf Park. Archived from the original on 2008-06-15. Retrieved
2008-10-30.
Zimen 1981, pp. 88–90
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