My efforts for my next bit of research are a little bit
different than my initial questions. After I had done the reasearch for my
first two sources I became curious about ways that rancher’s could live in
harmony with wolves. The following video is what I found on the topic. Also, I
took a look into the numbers of livestock wolves were killing.
My initial source is a video documentary aired on the
Discovery Channel and it was made by Jim and Jamie Dutcher. The documentary Living With Wolves does not portray the
lives of ranchers, but I thought it was important because it showed that
harmony could be established with the wolves. Jim Dutcher wanted to
know more about wolf behavior and if it was possible to interact with wolves on
a friendly basis. In order to do this he built a 25 acre observation camp so
that he was able to watch the wolves without having to hunt for them in a large
area of land. Jim received most of the wolves as pups and raised them until
they were old enough to go in the enclosure themselves. After that he and Jamie
watched the wolves and filmed their actions without interfering in the way they
behaved. The wolves themselves were comfortable with the Dutchers and would
sometimes go up and give them “greetings”. After watching this video I was very
impressed with the things I had seen. If it was so easy for the Dutchers wouldn’t
it be just as easy for ranchers? Of course I understand that the relationship
is different and certain measures would have to be taken into account, but I
still believe that something can be done to change the relationship between
wolves and people.
The other source I studied was a brief article included in
several others that had been written, but what I was focusing on were the
numbers of livestock that wolves had killed. In Wolves Misunderstood from the Oregon Wild webpage I discovered that the actual numbers of wolf
killings are far less than they have been portrayed as. In 2010 of the
4,000,000 deaths of cattle and calves in the United States only 0.1% was due to
wolves (Wolves). Other incidents of livestock death was due to disease,
injuries, labor, and even some of the livestock had been stolen. A storm in
Montana killed over 2,000 sheep compared to 188 sheep whose deaths were
attributed to wolves in the previous year (Wolves). One instance of wolves
killing a large flock of sheep in Oregon also revealed that the animals had
been kept in a small pasture right next to where carcasses of dead animals were
being kept (Wolves). Obviously it is clear that something is influencing the
inaccurate portrayal of these killings. Do
ranchers just have a large misunderstanding of these animals? Is there
something that ranchers can do to better protect their livestock and coexist
peacefully with the wolves?
Through these two sources it is clear that they are similar and yet quite different in their approach to the material presented. The Living with Wolves video is an analysis of wolf behavior, where the second source focuses on the statistics of wolf kills. I think that these are important because they show that there is false information being spread to the general public.
Through these two sources it is clear that they are similar and yet quite different in their approach to the material presented. The Living with Wolves video is an analysis of wolf behavior, where the second source focuses on the statistics of wolf kills. I think that these are important because they show that there is false information being spread to the general public.
Where is your "Wolves Misunderstood" source from? This is relevant because you are reporting stats and other "facts" from this source, and depending on the credibility and bias/angle of vision of the source, the information may be more or less accurate and representative.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, both of these sources seem like good places to begin your research on the general web. Next you might consider looking in the library databases (through D2L) to see what journalists and scholars have to say on the issue. If you are still interested in your original questions about how/why wolves have been demonized, I think you will find articles on this issue from historical, environmental, and perhaps literary perspectives.
Very interesting. I haven't watched the video yet but by your summary it sounds like the researching had interactions with the wolves since the time that they were pups. If that is the case, then they would be more friendly towards him. So I'm curious to see how a farmer would build a relationship with an already grown, and wild wolf. The way I look at it, any animal left alone their whole lives typically will be less friendly towards humans. Look at chickens for example. Everyone thinks they are mean. However, chickens are left to roam freely as a flock with little actually interaction with humans. If we did this with dogs, they also would act more wild and less friendly. Believe it or not, I have a pet chicken who is just like a dog. He's friendly and runs excitedly to me whenever I come home. So I believe any animal is capable of being tames or at least tolerant. Taking an already wild animal though is a whole different ball game. I'm interested to see where this goes! :-)
ReplyDeleteProfessor Masters, this was actually my third post, so you missed the second one. Anyway, I will have to fix that sentence. The Wolves Misunderstood source is from the Oregon Wildlife webpage.
ReplyDeleteDani, Jim Dutcher actually had two wild wolves initially that he placed there and they reacted to him about the same as the hand raised pups, but he did not keep them. The reason for that was because when he introduced the first litter of pups the female adult wolf took off and was not assimilating well into the pack so he sent them to someone else.
Also, I forgot to mention that the wolves were not like pets and they didn't approach them when they felt like it, or told them what to do. They were still very much the wild animals they were. I believe you about the chicken. I used to keep chickens too, and they were just as smart as some dogs with as much personality! We kept them in the greenhouse when they were little and would often dig in the dirt with them and they would just jump right into the hole and help us dig and pull out worms.
ReplyDeleteYeah I believe every animal should be given a chance. I do get made fun of for my chicken but I don't care.
ReplyDeleteSo, are you going to go into possible solutions for farmers and wolves co-existing together?