The food chain begins with the tiniest swamp creatures, insects, tiny reptiles,  rodents, the smaller birds, then to the larger reptiles, larger mammals, birds, both waterfowl and land based birds. From there to the largest mammals, the deer, the moose, the goats, the elk, all preyed upon by both wolf and man.

Man, being the more indiscriminate predator, often taking the very finest trophy animals as opposed to the wolf's being unable to prey upon this category of game animals as this game has evolved to outrun, outfight, and evade them.  The vital difference is the weapons used by man.

Predators all from the tiny shrew, weighing a quarter of an ounce to the timber wolf weighing from 75 to 100 pounds at maturity.

The wolf is an animal that is most humanoid. He bonds permanently with his  playmates from his youth. He mates for life, accepts his pack leader for their lifetime. He expresses hurt, grieves, and worries as does man. He protects his children, feeds his family and can suffer from some of the same little phobias as man. Only in most of these seeming humanlike behavioral traits, he usually excels the human race.   He has the ability to adopt a human family. He doesn't kill his pack leader; his parents, brothers or sisters, aunts, uncles, or cousins.

The wolf is not an industrious animal.  He would much rather loll around camp all day, playing, pestering the more dominant ones, getting into little squabbles, getting his neck chewed for pestering the wrong one. The wolf is lazy, as man can be. He will take the easy way out going back and scrounging bones, hides, cleaning up the last tidbits from their last kill before  hunger forces the more submissive to dare the wrath of the leaders and nag he or she into going on another hunt. However, when there are cubs to feed or a den tied new mother, he is not so lazy and will exert himself to the utmost to care for and feed the young and their mother, as will most of the rest of the parent pack. He is industrious only as need arises.

What is it about the spirit of the wolf that attracts some of mankind and repels others?  From the early Ice Age man bonded and domesticated the wolf and from these animals comes "Man's Best Friend".  Yet the wolf has been seen as being dangerous to man.  Is it those similarities with man that stirs the greatest fear in the hearts of those who dislike him?

The wolf is a survivor, not greatly changed from his ancestors.  He has an established set of laws that each member is taught to observe.  He is family oriented and shows concern and compassion.  He has lived and traveled across the continents.  His eerie howls can be heard as a melody to some or send a chill into their very being of those men that fear him.

Man is a curious animal, as is the wolf.  We fear what we do not know or understand, as does the wolf.  Those who have studied and learned to appreciate put aside their fears, as does the wolf.  Man and wolf will come together when each meets the other on equal grounds.  When neither has to be the aggressor, when respect is displayed, confidence is increased and barriers constructed of fear are replaced with acceptance.  The struggle of the wolf to survive is meeting the same kinds of prejudice as man displays towards his own kind.  Knowledge is the key to living in peace with all that live on this planet.

Look into the eyes of the wolf do you still see the same dangerous creature?

                                            Cheryl C. Helynck

                                                       1999