Medicine of the Wolf Page #6

- and even if it's a thousand,

which would be a third

of the population...

- which it could be.

- That's still within the range of...

of what's been identified as, um...

a number that...

that may be sustainable.

Has anybody ever stud...

studied long-term effects

on wolves and wolf packs when you go in

and you start taking out pack members?

There's been studies looking at...

at wolf pack dynamics, not specifically,

not necessarily, you know,

measuring this influence

of hunting or trapping, but, you know,

through radio-collared

studies of wolves,

there's been, um,

documented, high turn-over rates

in wolf packs.

So there is a high

mortality level there,

there already without

hunting and trapping,

wolves can get hit by cars,

they can get trapped

for depredation control,

they get killed by other wolves,

and there is this

you know, pretty steady change-over

in wolf pack structure.

But I've never...

I've never seen,

and you may have something,

but I've never seen,

you know, long-term research done.

'Cause we're talking statistics,

we're talking... right.

Numbers...

Yeah, I mean it's... and I...

and yeah, there... that has not,

like I said, has not been

studied specifically.

Whether or not hunting and trapping

has an influence on the

stability of wolf packs,

population wide,

I mean certainly on an individual level,

you're gonna kill a breeding animal,

but there's other animals

in the population

that come in and replace those animals.

The DNR never, um,

brings any attention to that fact that,

you know, it's not just

blatantly killing animals,

it's... it's actually wiping out

this very cohesive system

that packs have.

We've lost sight of that

a bit in our thinking

about management

of wildlife and management

of wolves today.

Clearly with the wolf hunt mentality,

and talking to Dan stark at the DNR,

you know, they think about...

they think about the wolves

as, you know, just numbers.

They don't think about them as being

feeling, sentient beings who,

if you take out... certainly if

you take out the top member,

the breeding pair,

it's devastating to the pack,

but even if you take out

other members of the pack,

it's... it's not like you

come in and replace these,

you can't replace a relationship.

You can't... you can't replace the value

that that one wolf has in the pack.

Here is an array of portraits,

wolves from the past

in the neighborhood.

It was a core pack of eight or so,

with 19 wolves that we counted

over the years when this was done.

These I think around 15,

with just personal names

for me to remember.

Broken foot, crooked ear,

blind one-eye, beautiful one,

this one was the papa.

This was the Alpha male that was shot

before the hunting

started, illegal hunting,

it was shot illegally not far from here.

I was very familiar with 19 wolves

here on Ravenwood, one year,

when they were really doing well.

Lots of deer around.

I photographed each one,

gave each one a name,

had a little portrait of each one

with a little name underneath.

The Alpha male was killed by a hunter

less than a mile from here.

I know who did it.

I asked them to be careful,

I talked to them before the hunt.

They were setting up their hunting camp,

I said, please be careful, there

are a lot of wolves here,

I know it's tempting.

This is long before the wolf hunt.

It's hard to talk about this.

This was about three years ago.

And, uh... we found that, uh...

the Alpha male, blackie,

was killed of this pack,

the wolf I'd been

photographing and watching

for three, four years.

Biggest footprint I've ever seen on

a wolf. Interesting looking wolf.

He was pure black,

and I watched him turn grey.

But he'd been radio-collared.

The hunter didn't want

anyone to find out

where he killed the wolf,

so he snipped off the radio

collar and dropped it off

near Ely to throw off the signal.

I know, basically, who did it.

Uh, changed my life,

changed the wolf... the wolf pack

was totally different after that,

totally, they seemed to disperse.

Everything was different.

I couldn't make hide nor hair of it.

They... they disappeared.

Uh, everything changed.

I changed.

I have not really photographed

wolves since then.

It broke my heart.

It really destroyed me, in some sense.

I've not been the same.

It... it broke... it drove me to tears.

Stop the hunt!

Stop the hunt!

Stop the hunt!

Stop the hunt!

Stop the hunt!

We know in Minnesota the one

survey that was conducted

by the department of natural resources

before the hunt began.

In that single survey,

79% of the respondents

opposed the season, yet

they went ahead with it.

Stop the hunt!

Minnesota is special.

We are special here because

we have always had wolves.

When they were down in 1970,

the endangered threatened species act,

in my opinion, was written

with the wolf in mind.

And we were the only state that had 'em,

and the reason we had 'em, wasn't

'cause of anything we've done,

it was because we had wild lands

where they could find refuge.

You know who I feel like

I'm fighting to protect

the environment from?

The DNR!

Hello, this is Jane Goodall.

I really wish I could be in Minnesota

to greet you in person,

but I am thinking of you.

There you are, gathered

to make your views known

to those who have the power

of making decisions.

They're absolutely neat, your wolves.

The only population

in the lower 48 states

that wasn't exterminated.

I personally have

a real love for wolves.

They show all the characteristics

of loyalty and courage

that we admire in our own domestic dogs.

They have similar emotions,

such as contentment and fear.

They know suffering and pain.

It's time that recreational

hunting of wolves

and other forms of

persecution came to an end.

And you, in Minnesota,

by insisting on a just

wolf-management plan,

can lead the way.

I would not kill a wolf.

I know that, because

he's here for a reason,

just like I am.

We all are here for a reason.

But we need to acknowledge that.

And then we went to

the fond de lac reservation

and we had a ceremony honoring the wolf.

Um, it... actually,

that was extremely moving.

Um, it was sad to me, because the...

the Ojibwe culture

really values the wolf,

and the people there, um...

they were talking about how

the wolf would hide in caves,

the wolf would escape. They were...

they were trying to think

of any way that they could

cope with the fact

that these wolves were gonna be killed.

By the time we drove back

to the twin cities that day,

November 3rd, 2012,

we'd already had seven wolves killed.

I think it was Edward Abby

said something about

if we destroy the last

of the wilderness,

I mean, we destroy the very,

we're threatening the very idea

of freedom itself.

It's what makes us a people.

It's not just some

abstract thing out there

for recreation to go visit in a canoe,

or backpacking or something,

it's what we are as a people.

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