Never Cry Wolf

For the film adaptation, see Never Cry Wolf (film).

Never Cry Wolf
Author(s)	Farley Mowat
Country	Canada
Language	English
Subject(s)	Autobiography
Publisher	McClelland and Stewart
Publication date	1963
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	256 pp
ISBN	0-316-88179-1
OCLC Number	48027680

Never Cry Wolf is a book by Canadian author Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1983. It has been credited for dramatically changing the public image of the wolf to a more positive one. It is presented as a first-person narrative of Mowat's research into the nature of the Arctic Wolf. There is some debate over the factual nature of the book.

Plot

In 1948-1949, Canada's Dominion Wildlife Service assigns the author to investigate the cause of declining caribou populations and determine whether wolves are to blame for the shortage. Upon finding his quarry near Nueltin Lake, Mowat discovers that rather than being wanton killers of caribou, the wolves subsist quite heavily on small mammals such as rodents and hares, "even choosing them over caribou when available." He concludes that "We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be — the mythological epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself." Mowat comes to fear an onslaught of wolfers and government exterminators out to erase the wolves from the Arctic.

Mowat's book established that:

• Arctic Wolves usually prey upon Arctic Ox, Caribous, smaller mammals, and rodents but since they rely on stamina instead of speed, it would be logical for the wolves to choose a smaller prey than a large animal like caribou, which is much faster and stronger, and therefore a more formidable target.
• A lone arctic wolf has a better chance of killing large prey by running alongside it and attacking its neck. The wolf would be at a disadvantage if it attacked large prey from behind, because the animal's powerful hind legs could kick the wolf, possibly causing injury. However, a group of wolves may be successful in attacking large prey from a number of positions.
• Since arctic wolves often travel in a group, the wolves' best strategy is not to kill any surplus, since the whole group could sate themselves on just one or two large animals. There are, however, exceptions to this.

Impact

Never Cry Wolf was a commercial success in Canada. Shortly after its publication, the Canadian Wildlife Service received a deluge of letters from concerned citizens opposing the killing of wolves. Though generally well received by the public, Mowat's allusions of the Canadian Wildlife Service as an organisation set out to exterminate wolves was met with anger from Canadian biologists. CWS staff members argued that the agency had never demanded the extermination of the wolf, which was recognized as an integral part of the northern ecosystem. They further countered that Mowat's remit had not been to find justifications for wolf extermination, but to investigate the relationship between wolves and caribou. The locals were actually hunting the caribou, for a sport and a food source.^[1]

As with Mowat's other books, Never Cry Wolf was translated into Russian and published in the Soviet Union.^[2] The book's message that wolves were harmless mouse-eaters became influential, leading to popular reaction against Soviet wolf-culling efforts.^[3] According to Soviet biologist Mikhail P. Pavlov, writing after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party exploited this message to justify restrictions on firearm ownership in wolf inhabited areas.^[4]

Reception

Positive

Naturalist Barry Lopez in his 1978 work Of Wolves and Men called the book a dated, but still good introduction to wolf behaviour.^[5]

In a 2001 article of The Canadian Historical Review entitled Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canis Lupus, Karen Jones lauded the work as "an important chapter in the history of Canadian environmentalism";^[1]

The deluge of letters received by the Canadian Wildlife Service from concerned citizens opposing the killing of wolves testifies to the growing significance of literature as a protest medium. Modern Canadians roused to defend a species that their predecessors sought to eradicate. By the 1960s the wolf had made the transition from the beast of waste and desolation (in the words of Theodore Roosevelt) to a conservationist cause celebre....Never Cry Wolf played a key role in fostering that change.

— Karen Jones, Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canis Lupus, The Canadian Historical Review vol.84 (2001)

Negative

Canadian Wildlife Federation official Alexander William Francis Banfield, who supervised Mowat's field work, characterised the book as "semi-fictional", and accused Mowat of blatantly lying about his expedition. He pointed out that contrary to what is written in the book, Mowat was part of an expedition of three biologists, and was never alone. Banfield also pointed out that a lot of what was written in Never Cry Wolf was not derived from Mowat's first hand observations, but were plagiarised from Banfield's own works, as well as from Adolph Murie's The Wolves of Mount McKinley.^[6] In a 1964 article published in the Canadian Field-Naturalist, he compared Mowat's 1963 bestseller to Little Red Riding Hood, stating that;

"I hope that readers of Never Cry Wolf will realize that both stories have about the same factual content."^[6]

— Frank Banfield, Canadian Field-Naturalist 1964

In the May, 1996 issue of Saturday Night, John Goddard wrote a heavily researched article entitled "A Real Whopper", in which he poked many holes in Mowat's claim that the book was non-fictional. He wrote

"As for the authenticity of his wolf story, he virtually abandoned his wolf-den observations after less than four weeks."

— John Goddard, A Real Whopper from Saturday Night May 1996

Mowat excoriated Goddard's article as "bullshit, pure and simple," but did not refute Goddard's main claims. ^[7] Journalist Val Ross of The Globe and Mail agreed that "Mowat, more passionate polemicist than rigorous reporter, painted federal bureaucrats in darker colours than many deserved," but that Goddard's piece erred in the same way against Mowat.^[8]

Ethologist Dr. Valerius Geist of the University of Calgary Alberta, who had himself experienced aggressive behaviour from wolves in his home on Vancouver Island and was heavily involved in investigating the Kenton Joel Carnegie case, called Mowat's book "..a brilliant, literary prank..".^[4]

L. David Mech, an internationally recognized wolf expert who has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale, stated that Mowat is no scientist and that in all his studies, he had never encountered a wolf pack which primarily subsisted on small prey as shown in Mowat's book.^[9] In his 1970 publication The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species he wrote;

"Whereas the other books and articles were based strictly on facts and the experiences of the author, Mowat’s seems to be basically fiction founded somewhat on facts. It appears to have been compounded by his own limited adventures with wild wolves plus a generous quantity of unacknowledged experiences of other authors; a certain amount of imagination and embellishment probably completed the formula for this book."^[10]

— L. David Mech, University of Minnesota

Linguist and former veterinary biologist Will Graves, who spent 42 years reading and compiling information on wolves in Russia from news reports, scientific articles, and interviews with Russian biologists, game managers and hunters flatly stated in an interview with journalist Peter Metcalf "His [Mowat's] book is fiction".^[11] In his book Wolves in Russia: Anxiety throughout the ages, Graves expressed similar views to those of David Mech, citing numerous cases in the former Soviet Union indicating that wolves feed heavily on medium sized ungulates, contrary to what Mowat wrote.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Karen Jones, Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canis Lupus, The Canadian Historical Review vol.84 (2001)
2. ^ Black, Joseph L. (1995). "Canada in the Soviet mirror: English-Canadian literature in Soviet translation". Journal of Canadian Studies (Summer 1995). ISSN 0021-9495. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199507/ai_n8718950/. Retrieved 2009-06-28. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Graves, Will (2007). Wolves in Russia: Anxiety throughout the ages. pp. 222. ISBN 1550593323. http://www.wolvesinrussia.com/. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Statement by Valerius Geist pertaining to the death of Kenton Carnegie
5. ^ Lopez, Barry (1978). Of wolves and men. pp. 320. ISBN 0743249364. 
6. ^ ^{a b} A.W.F Banfield, Review, "Never Cry Wolf", Canadian Field Naturalist 78, (January-March 1964): 52-54
7. ^ Burgess, Steve (1999-05-11). "Northern exposure". Salon. http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/05/11/mowat/index1.html. Retrieved 2006-03-24. 
8. ^ Ross, Val (1996). "A smile for the ages, a legacy in words". globeandmail.com. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080222.wval23/BNStory/Entertainment/home/?pageRequested=4. Retrieved 2008-09-17. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ Shedd, Warner (2000). Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife. pp. 336. ISBN 0609605291. 
10. ^ Mech, L. D. 1970. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. Natural History Press (Doubleday Publishing Co., N.Y.) 389 pp.
11. ^ Metcalf, Peter (2008-07-19). "A Perspective on the Russian Experience with Wolves". New West Books and Writers. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/a_perspective_on_the_russian_experience_with_wolves/C39/L39/. Retrieved 2008-10-18. 

External links

• Never Cry Wolf at the Internet Movie Database
• The making of Never Cry Wolf at the Internet Movie Database