A reason not to take Russian wolf tales seriously?
Siberian hunters chase 400-strong wolf pack. RT Question More.
A wolf pack 400 strong? Tales from the Russian woods.
In reality there are probably several wolf packs killing some ill kept horses.
Outlandish wolf stories have come from Russia for centuries. Recently a book about Russian wolves was put together by Will Graves (Author) and Dr. Valerius Geist (Contributor). Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages. Although it is meant to be a serious study of Russian wolves, it is pretty much a collection of more folklore.
For more information on Russian wolves, may I suggest the new version of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The new vocal narration is by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev. It has a new ending too, making it as accurate as the aforementioned book.
Comments
If that is supposedly a reputable website than that is pathetic to listen to a few whining hunters and put out a story like that. I would’ve thought it was a joke if not posted here…
“It is unusual for wolves to gather in such numbers or hunt large animal like horses. However the population of their usual prey, rabbits, has decreased this year due to lack of food, so wolves have changed their habits.”
So b.c there is less food, they are going to merge into a super pack and kill food and have much less per mouth once they actually make the kill.
Yeah right…
The story sounds bogus, but when that bloodthirsty urge comes, a little sensationalism at the expense of wolves gets the point across- we must protect humans from this threat!! On to the helicopter!
Anything that comes out of Russia, you need to take with a grain of salt. They have been making up stories about wolves for generations.
The great thing about Russia is that you can pull complete BS out of it’s vastness and can’t be proven wrong as easily.
Central to the central and eastern european and russian wolf history are some very extensive and nasty rabies infestations in centuries past. We are lucky we have not seen such a thing in N.A. Remembering this will add a lot of perspective to fairy tales and other “wolf” stories originating in these regions.
Have the usual suspects Rockholm et al put this on their sites yet as “proof” for their claims?
get a load of this.
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,66273.msg839124/topicseen.html#new
Hunters in Washington believe that private citizens are secretly releasing wolves.
Gotta love the conspiracy theories.
One thing I find funny is the wolf haters keep saying they have proof that Washington is dumping wolves all over their state, but when called out to provide that proof, they can’t. I can’t wait to see what proof is given in Rockholm’s new documentary yellowstone is dead or whatever it’s called.
Those defective genes are busy at work……..
reminds me of the viral videos that turned out to be teasers for a russian ad. wonder what corporation is behind it this time?
A vodka manufacturer, perhaps? 🙂
I’ll drink to that.
Hmmmm………Pretty sure the east and west coasts of this country aren’t seeing the same kind of truck advertisements (from major dealers like Dodge, Ford or Chevy) I’m seeing here in the west on my local TV stations – on what you need to drive to haul cows, horses, 4 wheelers, snowmobiles, feed, etc. thru terrain thats often as thick and nasty as a bad bowl of pea soup.
A 400 member wolf pack, wow! I bet they have an orgchart and a total compensation benefit package with retirement and combat pay for their members and I bet they use secret wolf-code on walkie-talkies and I bet Valerius Geist is in personal contact with their high command! I bet their alphas graduated from Utah State.
So..it takes a pack of 400 wolves before WS sends a helicopter in Russia…while here in America it takes only 2-4 wolves to get WS to send a helicopter….see what socialism gets you?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,740680,00.html
Basically this smart boy quickly developed the idea behind the “RAG” Box — radio activated guard box that Carter Niemeyer, Rick Williamson and other developed in Idaho back in the day when the federal government managed the Idaho wolves, and Wildlife Services gave a sh– !
Wolves, most carnivores, are frightened by anything new.
400?
The fish keeps getting bigger every time, doesn’t it?
Kind of sounds like the teller of this tale has been taking notes from Ron Gillette’s tirades about how the wolves will eat everything in sight and eventually eat each other… not to mention the claim that they breed like rodents, have litters several times a year and continue to multiply at unimaginable rates.
So, I wonder how large a pack has to get before that starts to happen..? Most of the wolf biologists I know say that they regulate their pack sizes on their own based on prey base within their established range.
This would make a good cartoon, if it was funny.
This looks like a tall tale. However, wolves occasionally occur seasonally in very high density in parts of the Northwest Territories and, although likely segregated in many packs, they must find ways to coexist with others in high density in the presence of abundant food — probably don’t bother much with “territory” while on the move. Tundra wolves migrate with caribou herds and at times intermingle in range with boreal (resident) wolves that are genetically somewhat distinct from them. There are no total population estimates but hundreds a year, up to 633, are reported taken by 5 to 12 aboriginal hunters in a commercial hunt centered around Rennie Lake, in an area only 40% larger than Yellowstone (Tundra wolves are mostly beautiful pale gray — highly valued). That’s based only on export permits with actual total harvests from that area projected as high as 760-800. Depending on the hunting mortality rate, the pre-hunt population is likely 2,000-3,000 wolves, somewhat more than are thought to be in the entire NRM region. However, some that have been collared follow the herds hundreds of miles and disperse back over a much broader area in the summer.
Here’s a fairly comprehensive reference, but unfortunately unavailable yet on the web:
Cluff, H.D., P.C. Paquet, L.R. Walton and M. Musiani. 2010. Wolf Ecology and Management in Northern Canada: Perspectives from a Snowmobile Wolf Hunt. In: The World of Wolves, University of Calgary Press.
Strange things happen in Russia…perhaps it is the vodka..
check out this 2005 story of a dog supposedly being killed by protein starved killer SQUIRRELS!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm
Those squirrels were part of secret KGB experiment. Carefully bred and trained to kill over the course of many years, a few of them escaped their secret research compound in the Urals back in the early 1980s and have been reproducing in the wild ever since. It’s true; I read in a new monograph by Dr. Geist… published by Utah State.