A History of the Wolf | Hacker News Reader

A History of the Wolf

historytoday.com

48 pointsPetiver13 comments

The wolf has and is still persecuted by man, mainly for perceived financial and political reasons today but the negative propaganda and irrational emotion from the middle ages and beyond still lingers in the general population...

https://www.wolfawareness.org/issues

I live in wolf country and in the winter have seen formed packs of 15 or more wolves doing the rounds on my property. If I am out and about walking in that woodlands it is something to be aware of and like any wildlife should be treated with care and respect but moments of brief fear and potential, rare danger is not a reason to eliminate them mercilessly.

This country is also ranching country and yes, every year, ranchers loose cattle to predators such as wolves, cougars and grizzly bear, our neighbors lost 1 cow and had another seriously injured from a wolf pack early this winter. I can appreciate their desire to protect their livelihoods and bovine charges but when it comes to wolves the response to these incidents, many times is motivated with extreme prejudice and their counter measure responses typically far disproportionaly outweigh the losses for a year.

The thing I would say is not all reintroduction programs are the same, and just generalizing "wolves" to all of them is a mistake. I grew up in a reintro area and the changes have not been for the better, but I sat down and read the scientific paper used as the justification and ours was shitty science compared to, say Yellowstones reintro program.

The red wolf reintroduction in eastern NC was not popular among land owners. The population has declined from more than 100 in 2012 to fewer than 14:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150318-red-w...

https://apnews.com/d8a127176390cecf79b7d2b3b8893046

I agree with you that modern outrage about wolf reintroduction is probably misplaced but I'd be hesitant about dismissing historical reactions.

If you're a subsistence farmer (of which there were many in the middle ages) losing a cow a year might mean starvation. And I'd wager there were more wolves around back then.

Eradication was a short sited policy, but maybe not irrational.

In modern times we have more problems with feral hogs. They will root up and destroy acres and acres of crops. They're also incredibly quick to multiply as they can breed year round and have about 2 litters a year at 5-6 piglets per litter. In many states it's legal to hunt hogs year round as a result.

For anyone interested in wolves, or who enjoyed the History Today article, there's a talk on youtube by Nick Jans about a wolf in Alaska. Jans wrote a book called "A Wolf Named Romeo". Romeo was a large, black, lone wolf that for some reason started (limited) socializing with people and their dogs, mostly during winters in Juneau at Mendenhal Glacier, where area people went for recreation. Nick Jans' talk touches on many of the issues described in the History Today article. Romeo the wolf was eventually killed by hunters, and the town erected a statue of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szhc2wEKEJE

Some scenes of Romeo are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98D23Eb9Ow

Fascinating read. It shows how effective the biblical rebrand of wolves was that I didn't know wolves rarely ever kill people. I presumed they'd be really dangerous for people.

Wikipedia: “In France, historical records compiled by rural historian Jean-Marc Moriceau indicate that during the period 1362–1918, nearly 7,600 people were killed by wolves”.

14 people a year. Doubtless more people were killed by falling roofing tiles while walking down the street over those centuries.

I guess 1 a month isn’t nothing but it is not much. Especially during a period where I’m sure people died pretty easily from a lot of other causes!

Is it just me who thought wolves were dangerous for people, or did you too until you looked it up?

To put things in perspective, death by shark attack is about 6 per year globally, since 1958.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_attack

The number of people verified to have been killed by (non-rabid, non-domesticated) wolves in North America since 1900 is just two, both of which have come in the last 15 years. There are some other cases from the 1920s that might have been wolves but since reporting was a little more lax back then, we'll never know for sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_North_...

Didn't know wolves were behind so many origin stories for different peoples around the world

Only thing missing in the article is some hard numbers, like how many there used to be and there are now

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