September 23, 2011

How to Run With Wolves

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


This post courtesy BBC Earth and the Deadly 60 Team. For more wildlife news, find BBC Earth on Facebook and Posterous. 

Travelling to the frozen north, Steve and his Deadly 60 team met an animal whose ability to survive in sub-zero temperatures has made the creature one of many Norwegian success stories. But how close could they really get to this hardened predator?

Well, sorry, you can’t. No matter what the Twilight movie says!

Wild wolves are extremely hard to get close to, and it’s not sensible to try. They are top predators, the largest of the wild dog family living in complex social groups and in remote inhospitable places. They are incredibly hard to see and track in the wild, travelling over long distances and running at speeds of over 30 mph in pursuit of prey. They are ferocious hunters tackling prey many times their own size like elk, bison, and musk ox. Wild wolves are not to be messed with.

But on Deadly 60 Steve wanted a close encounter with this apex predator. So we found a place where a “socialised” group of grey wolves were kept. This doesn’t mean the wolves are tame, but they are accustomed to humans. The team travelled to the most northern animal park in the world, a place called Polar Zoo. Located in the Salangsdalen Valley, Norway, the park is home to the Salangen wolf pack which is the first wolf pack in Norway that is socialized to people. In order to stay safe the team enlisted the help of expert Tess Erngren, a dog psychologist who has interacted with this pack since they were young.

So how do you behave around a (socialised) wolf pack?

  • Wolves can sense fear. Their recognition of fear is seen as a social non-starter and they won’t want to interact. Steve had to remain relaxed, calm and confident.
  • Don’t threaten them or invade their confinement. Never threaten a wild animal, even a socialised one.
  • Move slowly and don’t make any sudden movements, this could startle them and they may react defensively.
  • Don’t approach them, remain calm and they may approach you out of curiosity.
  • Take advice from the experts–Tess knew these wolves well and could guide Steve on how to behave around them.
  • Try to leave a positive impression–for example, if you step on a wolf’s paw, try and divert their attention and don’t react to it.

For more great tips and moving moments, check out the Deadly Diaries, direct from Steve and the Deadly 60 Team. 

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate