FOLLOWING THE MONKEY-PATH

Nothing that is hidden is lost

In Norway about 30 wolves roamed the North. It was decided, for all kinds of reasons, that 15 of them had to be shot. The government sold over 7000 permits to shoot a wolf.

This is not stupid and cruel, but a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Norwegian wolf-population.

They won't succeed. Why? They, the hunters and their supporters, see wolves not as animals, but as trophys. Something to nail against the wall.

As a result, they don't see, that wolves, like elephants or deer, function as a collective. This “organisation” functions within a certain goal-oriented matrix.

The pack has hunting rules, scouting rules, feeding rules, rules to protect the young and so on and the pups remember fast and function from a year onward. This social group always has a visible leader, known as the Alfa-male, who has a mate, the Alfa-female. She runs the group and the underground den and is literally the mother of all, the She-wolve. In ideal circumstances a pack of wolves can grow exceptionally fast.

The female wolves, the Aunts do the hunting. While the Uncles help protect the cubs or wander around in search of new huntingtargets and -grounds. Wolves are scavengers and can go without food for several weeks. That is as long as they can follow a track. Wolves are long-distance travellers ( also messengers) and are afraid of nothing. A few years ago a young European wolve wandered through the East and North of Holland. In broad daylight, clearly visible, using main-roads and photographed, filmed and followed, till this uncle disappeared into Germany. Where he was killed by a car. This young animal, 2/3 years old, was probably a scout, otherwhise he drifted far from his “rudel”. But like I said, wolves (like dogs), like to travel, like to run.

So we have the 2 Alfa's, a number of Aunts and Uncles, and the young ones + 1 litter a year. But that is not all, there also is an invisible hierarchy, consisting of Mothers of Mothers and Father of Fathers. These are the “Old Ones”, who mostly live and survive outside the group, but can profit from the kills made by the psck. They live, so to say in the mountains.

Human beings are afraid of wolves, from the moment of creation, I don't know. At the same time I know that there are strong, spiritual ties between humans and certain animals, especially wolves, dogs and birds of prey.

I think, that this archetypal emotion dates from the time that wolves hunted humans and we concluded that wolves had to be exterminated. The wolfpack was unstoppable.

As a result, a centuries long hunt in which millions of wolves were shot in North-America, Siberia, Europa and this crusade drove this species almost to extinction.

But the human fear of wolves, goes further. What if this beautiful animal remembers, what we have done to his ancestors; a primitive animal genocide.

What would he or she do? What would you do?

If you were a wolf.