1990's Perspective
Once all but totally eradicated from the lower 48 states, the wolf is beginning to make a ®tenuous¯ recovery in just a few places. We wiped it out at an earlier time because of ignorance. We shot, trapped and poisoned it, believing that by doing so we were wiping out a bloodthirsty killer that posed serious danger to ourselves and to our livelihood as tillers of the land. Artists painted it as a savage beast with fangs bared. Storytellers made up tales of the big, bad ®wolf¯. We did not recognize its important role in the natural web of life as being beneficial to the deer, moose and elk upon which it preys. We were unaware that nature designed the ®wolf¯ to run more slowly than most healthy ®prey¯, mainly taking of the sick and the weak. We did not know that the wolf is able to regulate its own numbers through a complex social system, and that it has been able to maintain a balance with its prey over hundreds of thousands of years.
As the veil of ignorance is lifted, the ®wolf¯ is being perceived in new ways among a growing populace. Many see the wolf as a symbol of wilderness. Artists have begun to paint it with a brush that more accurately captures the spirit of the ®wolf¯, not as a savage beast, but as a sensitive, highly intelligent animal. At a time when so much is being lost, our ability to save the ®wolf¯ has become synonymous with our ability to save the last remaining wild places.
