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Crying Wolf! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-11
I relatively recently wrote a diary on Coyotes and said that I had chosen them as a totem animal when asked by a therapist to pick one. They are survivors and that has to a great match with my own life. However, I have always liked wolves and took part in several demonstrations in support of the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf to Arizona and New Mexico. In the process I was able to speak briefly with government officials in a public comment session in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. One of the other commenters was a rancher who said that she could learn to live with wolves. Most of the others brought up imaginary spector of lonely school bus stops where children would be subject to wolf attack! As of the latest report, over 250 Mexican Wolves are documented for Arizona and New Mexico (See: en.wikipedia.org/....), although individuals are killed occasionally and the population is not safe.
In Washington state, where I now live, the wolves have re-established themselves from Idaho and British Columbia, and there are now over 200 wolves in the state. While there have been predictable conflicts with ranchers in the eastern part of the state, the wolves seem to be at least holding their own. Thirty years ago there were no wolves in Washington state.
While my wife and I were living in Mesilla Park, New Mexico, we would often walk the canal banks to Mesilla. On our route we would pass by a heavy fenced yard in which there were several wolf-dog hybrids. One was over 90% wolf according to the owner and looked it. The animal was huge, had a distinctive prancing gate and always looked at us with deep intelligent interest. Sometimes on moonlight nights you could hear a low, but very deep, howl in the direction of the canal path. At some point the owner moved, along with his animals. I’m not sure how legal they were anyway. However, we always enjoyed seeing them in any case.
We also saw Mexican wolves at the Alamogordo Zoo. I took the girls there fairly often, sometimes on trips that included Cloudcroft, where we used to buy the most delicious pies. On one visit I overheard a local rancher talking with his granddaughter. Granddaughter: “Grandpa, are those the animals that kill little lambs?” Rancher: “Yep, and little fawns as well.” He was thus poisoning her view of wolves and ignoring the fact that he himself might well eat little lambs, as well as grown deer.
The Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah (See: www.cougarmountainzoo.org/...) has several Canadian Gray Wolves (as well as Bengal Tigers, and of course Cougars) and the only photos that I’ve gotten of these animals come from there.
Gray Wolf, Cougar Mountain Zoo, Issaquah, Washington.
Dark Gray Wolf, Cougar Mountain Zoo, Issaquah, Washington.
I much prefer a world where all living things are respected and where wolves, tigers, cougars, lions, coyotes, and even crocodiles and cobras still exist. I’ll take my chances with them, and even more so now that humans have continued to prove themselves unreliable and often cruel.
Photos by me as usual.
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