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Mice-Eating Wolves

Customer Rating:
I really enjoy Mowat's stories. They are so conversational they read like novels. "Never Cry Wolf" is of Mowat's personal experiences with a pair of Arctic wolves. As such, it is a pro-wolf book for pro-wolf people. I include myself in that number but, whereas not disputing Mowat's work, I like hard cold facts and realism.

It is true, as Mowat discovered, that wolves eat a lot of small animals, including mice. Logically, this is more true on the denning grounds, a time when small animals are abundant and large animals--especially migratory animals like caribou--are relatively scarce. Wolves are obliged to hunt for prey within a reasonable distance of their dens i.e. they can't migrate dozens or hundreds of miles in pursuit of large animals.

Predictably, when the cubs leave the den and are able to move long distances, the adult wolves do, too. They tend to pack up and hunt really large animals. Right now the island of Newfoundland is experiencing a catastrophic decline in Woodland Caribou populations...but they have no wolves. Evidence supports the thesis, however, that the decline is due to the relatively recent arrival of that wolf relative, the coyote. Coyotes don't ordinarily attack adult caribou but a newborn fawn is at real risk.

Conservation practices should be realistic. Wolves are wonderful predators and a major asset to wilderness ecosystems. They aren't, however, sacrosanct. Sometimes ballooning wolf populations hurt populations of othr desireable wildlife. In these cases, it is perfectly appropriate to cull excess wolves.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

The Amazing Lives of Wolves

Customer Rating:
The author is a master storyteller; combined with his narrative, the information about the social lives of wolves was indeed fascinating and compelling to read. The folly of man is also a point of interest certainly worth some contemplation....

Love the book. Hate people.

Customer Rating:
I'm very glad I finally read this, because I've wanted to read it since I saw the movie when I was a kid and loved it so much -- and I wonder now just how much influence this movie had on me and my feelings about animals. I never saw Old Yeller or Free Willy and I barely remember Bambi; this was the one that made the impression. Maybe it's why I feel such an affinity for wolves. Interesting. But I digress.

This book is great. Not only is Mowat an excellent writer, but it gave me some insight into wolves that I didn't know, about their hunting patterns and their family units and such. I would love to see (Or write, if I ever get that far with my writing career) werewolves written to match this vision of wolf life, with the inclusion of uncles in the family units, the main pair mating for life and practicing abstinence when the environment can't sustain another wolf pack, and treating humans as an object of curiosity as much as potential danger. And so on. It was incredibly depressing to read about the destruction of the Canadian caribou herds, just like the Great Plains buffalo, by a bunch of heartless bastards (I was going to say something else, uncharacteristically profane for me -- but the sentiment is there) who shot them by the hundreds for small purposes -- like killing a caribou to use as bait to trap foxes. What the heck is that? I hated reading how those same trappers blamed wolves, while the fat, stupid government backed them and allowed them to continue killing the world while blaming someone else, and then using that as an excuse to kill more. Kind of like drilling in the Alaskan Preserve: since we have destroyed the natural habitat of our country by paving over it, now we should destroy one of the last natural habitats in order to keep driving on our lovely pavement. Man, we suck.

Despite the rage, I loved reading the book. Made me like wolves even more than before.

A taste of real arctic adventure

Customer Rating:
This is an excellent book by and excellent author. Having traveled much in the arctic by kayak and canoe, I was thrilled to read a book capturing some of the idiosyncrasies that I've experienced myself. The joys and tragedies of the arctic come through brilliantly and only those with a hatred of wolves could fail to see the obvious conclusions Mowat makes concerning the fate of the caribou. I bicycled the Dempster highway in 2005 and found the landscape littered with caribou remains; a slaughter empowered by a gravel road. Time has proven Mowat right in his conclusions. Man, a relative newcomer, is responsible for the declines in wildlife, not the wolves who have lived on the land for countless centuries. The old saying of wolves and caribou: 'the caribou feeds the wolf and the wolf makes the caribou stronger' seems obvious now. Man on the other hand hunts the strongest in the breed, weakening the herd, kill by kill.

I don't think they would print what I would like to say

Customer Rating:
I read this ...how do you say "NOVEL" pretending to be non-fiction when in grade school years ago.
Since then I have learned that Sir Mowatt doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.

I will never read any book by him again. ...I give it a negative 5 stars.

save your money and buy a comic book.