Living With Wolves

[Tobi]

Living with Wolves

Jim and Jamie Dutcher, and their amazing Wolf project in the Sawtooth mountains Idaho. Of all the documentaries I have ever seen about human interaction with wild wolves, this is top-ranking. It very clearly shows the social dynamics of the wolf pack.

http://youtu.be/RWmOtXSAr1M

A full-length film documentary (one and a half hours -and worth every minute.)

If anyone wants a Christmas film, in my opinion, this is the one. This movie is so beautiful.

[Catherine]

I will have to watch this tomorrow. I will never make it through an hour and a half at this time of night.

I think I have heard of the Dutchers. When you live with animals like wolves and actually watch them you learn so much more than we even dreamed of. Wolves are very special creatures. I can't wait to watch it.

[Tobi]

Well, although they went on to live as wild wolves, they were accustomed to close contact with Jim and Jamie from being young pups. So although this documentary may not reflect the exact way wild wolves would interact with humans, it is still a very heart-warming film.
It can be hard to get the balance right when introducing a species back to the wild, which has had contact with humans in early life. I watched another documentary made by someone else, where the wolves never completely adapted, and I sensed were not quite happy. In that case, the male alpha wolf returned, of his own volition, to the man who had been his best friend. But left a female and her pups in the wild. That was not a good outcome. Although the man had good intentions.
But in my opinion, Jim and Jamie get it right.

[Catherine]

It is not easy to raise animals and then release them. It means teaching them to be wild. When you are not a wolf yourself, how do you teach a wolf to be a wolf.
I think it is admirable that people try. It is too bad that it doesn't always work out as hoped for.

I can't wait to watch the video. I ended up picking up another dove so my free time was gone, but I do have a friend for my lonely dove.

[Catherine]

Finally I had time to watch the video right through, undisturbed.
What an amazing project! I think what they did not only showed us a lot about wolves, it also proved something. They put human raised babies together and the proper wolf hierarchy still formed. It is innate in wolf nature to form such a structure.

No one has ever gotten such detailed wolf information before. I was not surprized by who became the Alpha Female. When I first saw that litter of puppies my first thought was that she would be the Alpha Female. She spent time alone as a young female, but the Alpha Female needs to be able to go off and have puppies. The other female was too much a part of the group to be the one to do it. That is my thought anyhow. The Alpha Male had his reasons for choosing her.

I love the fact that they are letting wolf packs spread across the western USA like that. We still have wolves in Canada. I have seen wolf tracks in the Rockies and I have seen a wolf crossing a mountain highway at night. There are wolves north of Toronto in the hills and woods.

Wolves seem to be the animal in the ecosystem that can keep things healthy. If only we could bring wolves back to all the places they used to live.