Final Comments

After examining the possible reasons for the demonization of wolves, I have concluded that wolves are a feared creature universally, and this seems to be most often due to the killing of livestock. I believe that the losses caused by these animals have created a hatred of them which led to fear when people began telling folktales of wolves that would “eat your grandma.” These stories have often played a highly negative light on wolves casting them as bloodthirsty creatures that are bent on nothing else, but to kill you. For example, the movie The Grey just recently came out and it portrayed a pack of wolves as these ravenous animals that systematically killed and ate everyone in the movie. From my research these awful claims have appeared to be false, but I still intend to explore further on the matter.

My points of research were all varying and most often seemed to complement each other rather than oppose. However, for my first set of research it was clear that the video of the wolf reintroduction into Wyoming was different from the PBS article. For instance, the article in PBS was more focused on the history of wolves, and their eradication from our nation as a result of mass killings in the late 19^th and 20^th century. The video on the other hand showed that ranchers were uncomfortable with the idea of wolf reintroduction and wanted to kill the animals. In my second post I talked about a video of wolf behavior in a pack and around humans and an article that focused on the statistics of wolf kills. Both these sources showed that wolves have been portrayed rather inaccurately and could benefit from a better analysis. My last post was entirely different from all my post because it focused on measure of coexistence with wolves.

As I continue with my exploration, I will need to do a lot more research in order to fully understand this situation. I believe that there is a lot to learn from this and as such I have not developed a thesis to follow yet. I haven’t answered a lot of my questions and I think that the answers may surprise me. As I look towards crafting my argumentative essay I know that I have a pretty solid foundation for making an argument, but I would like to make it even better with more research.

I do not know the photographer for this picture, but here is a link to the website I found it.