Wolf literature review thread

[Dark-Hyena]

Use this thread to display and give your own thoughts on both fictional and factual books regarding wolves. If you find that someone has already reviewed a book that you've read, by all means, write your own version. Differing opinions are good.

Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez


The pride of the zoology section of my bookshelf, this book, with the exception of being slightly America-centric is practically perfect for those wanting to know actual facts on wolves and their turbulent history with mankind.

The author displays information on the biology and behaviour of wolves in detailed yet simplified ways which can be comprehended by the average reader. His knowledge on the involvement of wolves in Native American culture and their persecution by settlers is even greater, sporting numerous interviews with natives, ranchers and hunters, each giving their own unique views.

The best part of the book is that for the most part, it is very neutral and devoid of anthropomorphization. Though the author acknowledges that the wolf's ferocious reputation was largely exhaggerrated and its extermination an abhorrent act, he does not make the mistake of most other authors by claiming that wolves are totally harmless and that their coexistance with the Native Americans was completely peaceful and idyllic. Though his love of wolves is always apparent (he once adopted two red wolves) the author even goes as far as expressing some sympathy for the wolf bounty hunters who lost their livelihood when the animals became officially protected.

Easily readable, full of facts and neutral, no wolf book collection is complete without it.

[opferte]

"In the Shadow of a Rainbow". Supposedly true, of a man who befriends a pack of wolves. Really good read.

[Dark-Hyena]

The Lost Wolves of Japan


I have'nt read this, but it looks promising. Here is a snippet from Amazon.com.

Many Japanese once revered the wolf as Oguchi no Magami, or Large-Mouthed Pure God, but as Japan began its modern transformation wolves lost their otherworldly status and became noxious animals that needed to be killed. By 1905 they had disappeared from the country. In this spirited and absorbing narrative, Brett Walker takes a deep look at the scientific, cultural, and environmental dimensions of wolf extinction in Japan and tracks changing attitudes toward nature through Japan's long history. He discusses prominent Japanese naturalists, their theories of wolf extinction, and the development of Japan's scientific discipline of ecology, looking at how nation-building and industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reconfigured relationships with the natural world in ways that led to the extinction of wolves.
Grain farmers once worshiped wolves at shrines and left food offerings near their dens, beseeching the elusive canine to protect their crops from the sharp hooves and voracious appetites of wild boars and deer. Talismans and charms adorned with images of wolves protected against fire, disease, and other calamities and brought fertility to agrarian communities and to couples hoping to have children. The Ainu people believed that they were born from the union of a wolflike creature and a goddess.

In the eighteenth century, wolves were seen as rabid man-killers in many parts of Japan. Highly ritualized wolf hunts were instigated to cleanse the landscape of what many considered as demons. By the nineteenth century, however, the destruction of wolves had become decidedly unceremonious. To contrast wolf killings in the decades before and after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Walker looks at killings on the island of Hokkaido. The systematic erasure of one of the archipelago's largest carnivores--through poisoning, hired hunters, and a bounty system--elevated humans to spiritual and actual mastery over a part of the natural world.

The story of wolf extinction exposes the underside of Japan's modernization. Certain wolf scientists still camp out in Japan to listen for any trace of the elusive canines. The quiet they experience reminds us of the profound silence that awaits all humanity when, as the Japanese priest Kenko taught almost seven centuries ago, we "look on fellow sentient creatures without feeling compassion."