![]() But wolves don’t know about the imaginary borders between countries, states, inhabited and uninhabited land, “civilisation” and “wilderness”. Humans act as though wolves should respect “our” spaces – that they should recognise areas where they should not go. This indignance at the expectation that humans should adapt to live alongside wolves (“we have been farming in this way for centuries, why should we change that now because of something we don’t even want here?”), epitomises an attitude that is problematic not only for wolves, but for all species of animals: that humans should have primacy over the earth. Grazing sheep will be impossible if wolves are in the area, and fences won’t keep them out… We live in a country of 17 million people, not the Serengeti. Once a wolf has tasted sheep meat it won’t be running after deer. So as much as I want this aspect of my feelings to go away, it’s just not something that I think ever will. Yet it is as if a primal fear of wolves is simply built into human DNA. Rationally, we know from scientific evidence that wolves pose very little threat to humans (in fact, because of our long-standing persecution of them they tend to avoid us – so much so that even sightings are rare, let alone attacks). I am fiercely pro-wolf and strongly advocate for their return, but I can’t pretend that there isn’t a little part of my brain that sends out danger signals whenever I think about them actually being on my doorstep. While protected in many areas, the wolf is fighting a losing battle, because in the war against them we’ve recruited something much more deadly than guns, traps, or poison, a more powerful and effective tool for wolf extermination than all of these things combined: the human imagination.Įven though we’re all aware of what real wolves are like and can picture them very clearly, perhaps even find them majestic and beautiful, lurking within our collective psyche is the nightmarish Big Bad Wolf whom we came to know so well as children, and who stays with us into adulthood with the fictionalised killers of television and film. Wolves are returning to their former ranges across Europe and North America, resurrecting a centuries’ old war with humans over land, hunting opportunities, and livestock.
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