Wolves - the mis-understood "bad boy"

Ellis Perkins (Intern)

02.12.2021

The Wolf – Humanities longest companion but also humanities longest villain. ‘bloodthirsty’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘cunning’ some of the words used to describe wolves in everyone’s favourite fables, such as little red riding hood, three little pigs and the boy who cried wolf. However, unbeknownst to most people this is simply a defamation and injustice to the majesty of these beautiful creatures. As an intern in my short time here; coming from England where wolves were hunted to extinction, you only ever hear about these creatures in eery fables where guess who is the villain? However, I have quickly learnt that this is fictitious and one look at the big fluffy marshmallow that is Nanuk will surely change your mind.

This is why I feel the WSC does such a fantastic job in educating the public that these sentient beings are not out to hurt anybody; they are just acting upon their instincts built throughout generations; just as any other species – including humans – do. Not only does the WSC gain scientific knowledge into how wolves became man’s best friend in the first place, there is also the opportunity from people of many backgrounds, whom may know it all about wolves or those who might not know anything, can have the opportunity to walk with a wolf, visit a wolf pack and meet a wolf in person for the first time and quickly come to know that this bad-boy image is merely a mis-understanding from made-up fairy tales.