This
is a story of a young scientist, Mowat, who is tasked by the Canadian
government to investigate the cause of the rapid population decline among the
Caribou. He proceeds from a background of a politically popular belief that the
sharp decline of the Caribou population was caused by the wolves that were
known to hunt from the same region. After a dramatic journey and an eventful
process of settling in, Mowat embarks on his work which begins with an effort
to understand the wolves’ way of life. At the end of his research exercise,
Mowat comes to the conclusion that wolves are not the main threat to Caribou.
The
open mindedness of Mowat is first observed in his satirical views of the kind
of equipment granted to him by his bosses. In consistency with the belief that
the wolves were dangerous, he had been equipped with sufficient gear for his
protection. His views however display the fact that he’s open minded and not
necessarily convinced that he should perceive the wolves as dangerous. This
open minded approach enabled him to conduct a fair experiment characterised by
a pragmatic approach in understanding the wolves. Mowat’s discovers that the
wolf is an intelligent animal living an organised life. The female looks after
the pups while the male goes hunting. This is in addition to their preferences
for avoidance of confrontation as is evident when the wolf concedes some of its
territory to accommodate Mowat.
This
depicts the wolves as animals that live in moderation. This applies also to
their population control mechanisms where the females have “a built-in
birth-control mechanism” (Mowat 181) in which the litter is only large when the
environmental conditions are favourable. This observation was also made in
relation to their hunting habits. The wolves are observed to be moderate and
pragmatic in their eating habits. For instance, where mice invade the area, the
wolves opt to eat the mice and restrict their lower their hunting efforts. The
wolves have also been observed as animals that are not savagery and therefore
unlikely to kill for fun.
As
Mowat observes, “Once a kill has been made, the wolves do no more hunting until
the supply of food is completely gone and they are forced by hunger to go back
to work” (199). This confronts the politically popular belief that depicts
wolves as savagery and capable of clearing the entire Caribou population within
a very short time. The view that wolves are savagery is further challenged
through an observation in the manner in which they execute their hunting. The
“kill is quickly, and usually cleanly, made and I doubt very much if the deer
suffers any more than a hog suffers when it is being butchered for human consumption”
(200).
Substantive
progress in research takes place when Mowat follows the wolves to their hunting
ground. He observes that they refrain from attacking the Caribou and walks
right past them. This is an astonishing finding in view of the fact that they
were believed to be the main threat to the Caribou population. The wolves are
once more projected as wise animals that will avoid spending unnecessary energy
during hunting. They accordingly simply scare the Caribou into running so that
they can pick the weak and slow ones. Mowat describes this as follows:
“The
Caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the Caribou strong. We
know that if it were not for the wolf, there would be no caribou at all, for
they would die as weakness spread among them...” (199).
This
passage can only be explained using the wolves’ hunting habits where only the
weaker ones are hunted down. This is besides the fact that there is no
indication that the Caribou is the favourite food for the wolves. They are seen
to be willing to consume a variety of other foods such as mice and they go
hunting only out of necessity. Their capability to substantively reduce the
Caribou population is further diminished by their in-built birth control
mechanisms. This ensures that their population is contained within levels that
the environment can comfortably support. These arguments form the basis for the
belief that the earlier assertions about wolves killing Caribou were wrong.
Having established this for a fact, Mowat draws the conclusion that it is the
humans that are a real threat to the Caribou.
This
conclusion is arrived at when he makes the observation that the bones of
Caribou examined were actually healthy. His suspicions are affirmed by one of
the hosts who confirm that he has indeed killed many of the healthy caribou. In
fact, it is the wolves themselves that are observed to be under threat. Hunters
are noted to kill the wolves en masse through crude means such as the use of
traps and poison. He observes that with this impending threat, the wolves are
bound to migrate south hence leaving the area. Given that the wolves are
believed to be the ones keeping the caribou strong, it would imply that the
caribou population would be under threat. The researcher is therefore able to establish
the fact that the wolves are not the threat. Ironically, the presence of the
wolves is good for the Caribou.
On
the other hand, the humans threaten the Caribou in two ways: firstly, they kill
them directly. Humans kill both the strong and the weak caribou. This is unlike
the wolves which only hunt for the weaker ones. This means that while the
humans uniformly deplete the caribou population, the wolves play an important
role in eliminating the weak ones hence shielding the rest of the population from
the weakness. The second way in which the humankind led to the depletion of the
caribou population is by killing the wolves. Given that the wolves are able to
single out and kill the weaker caribou, they keep the population strong.
Eliminating them provides a chance for the weakness to spread from the weaker
ones to the rest of the caribou. Mowat’s finding is therefore the exact
opposite of the beliefs held prior to him being assigned the research task.
Works
cited
Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf. Boston/Toronto: Little,
Brown and Company. 1963. Print.
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