Throughout history, wolves have been depicted as violent beasts, the villain in many children's tales, and even a form of divine punishment (seen in the Mabinogion, a collection of some if the oldest existing Welsh literature dating back to the 11-12th century!) Throughout all of these stories, the true magic of wolves have been lost.
Wolves are highly intelligent animals, not the savage killing-machines that some writers would have us believe, they are extremely social and develop close bonds within their packs. This is especially true within family packs, which often begin as a breeding pair and expands beyond multi-generational members: pups, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Common Misconceptions:
- Myth: Wolves are dangerous to humans.
- Fact: On record, there have only been 2 fatal encounters with wolves in North America in the past century. A study conducted between approx. 1950–2002, by the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, identified only 8 fatal attacks in Europe and Russia combined. In the 2002-2020 update, no further fatal cases had been reported.
- Myth: Wolves kill many cattle and sheep.
- Wolves kill between 30,000 and 40,000 European livestock animals annually, of which the majority are sheep. From an economic perspective, and in comparison with the multi-billion subsidies for agriculture in Europe distributed through the Common Agricultural Policy, this is a drop in the ocean. The livestock predation problem is made worse by the fact that many European landscapes have little to no natural prey to sustain wolves. This means they are often highly dependent on livestock as a source of food.
- Myth: Wolves kill for fun.
- Fact: Known as “surplus killing” it is very rare for wolves, as hunting can often be dangerous or fruitless for wolves. Generally, wolves only kill the amount of food the pack needs to survive.
How do wolves help us?
- Population control: without wolves, prey animals (such as deer) become over populated and damage their own habitat.
- Wolves cull sick and old animals, allowing the healthiest individuals to breed and thrive without competition.
- Any carcass left behind, unfinished by the pack, help feed bears, foxes, vultures, and many other scavengers.
