The Tasmanian wolf is Australia's mysterious predator. Wolf - a mysterious predator Mystical wolves
The Tasmanian wolf, also called the thylacine or marsupial tiger, is one of the most mysterious animals to ever live on our planet. Three and a half centuries ago, a large island was discovered by a Dutch navigator off the southwestern tip of the Australian continent, which later received the name of its discoverer. The sailors sent from the ship to explore this piece of land talked about footprints they saw that looked like tiger paw prints. Thus, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the mystery of marsupial tigers was born, rumors about which persisted over the next several centuries. Then, when Tasmania was already sufficiently populated by settlers from Europe, eyewitness accounts began to appear.
The first more or less reliable report about the marsupial wolf was published in one of the English scientific publications in 1871. The famous naturalist and naturalist D. Sharp studied local birds in one of the river valleys of Queensland. One evening he noticed a sand-colored animal with clearly visible stripes. The unusual-looking animal managed to disappear before the naturalist could do anything. Sharpe later learned that a similar animal had been killed nearby. He immediately went to this place and carefully examined the skin. Its length was one and a half meters. Unfortunately, it was not possible to preserve this skin for science.
The Tasmanian wolf (the photo confirms this) has, in some respects, a certain similarity with representatives of the canine family, for which it received its name. Before white settlers appeared on the Australian continent, who brought with them their beloved sheep, the thylacine hunted small rodents, wallabies, marsupial possums, bandicoot badgers and other exotic animals then known only to local aborigines. Most likely, the Tasmanian wolf preferred not to pursue game, but to use ambush tactics, lying in wait for prey in a secluded place. Unfortunately, today science has too little information about the life of this predator in wildlife.
Forty years ago, based on numerous expert reports, scientists announced the irretrievable disappearance of this animal. Indeed, one of the last representatives of the species was a Tasmanian who died of old age in 1936 at the zoo in Hobart, the administrative center of the island of Tasmania. But in the forties, several fairly reliable evidence of encounters with this predator was recorded. Consequently, it still continued to exist in its natural habitat.
True, after this documented evidence, this animal could only be seen in photographs. But even less than a hundred years ago, the Tasmanian wolf was so common that visiting farmers were obsessed with genuine hatred of the thylacine, which gained among them the bad reputation of a sheep thief. There was even a considerable prize placed on his head. Over the last twenty years of the century before last, the authorities paid 2,268 such rewards. Thus, the thirst for easy money gave rise to a wave of real hunting for the thylacine. It soon turned out that such zeal led to the almost complete extermination of this predator. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Tasmanian wolf was endangered. The law on his protection came into force only when, in all likelihood, there was no one left to protect...
But, apparently, the marsupial wolf still did not suffer the fate of the tarpan, and in 1985, amateur naturalist Kevin Cameron from the town of Girraween, Western Australia, suddenly presented to the world community quite convincing evidence that the thylacine continues to exist. Around the same time, evidence of occasional fleeting encounters with this beast in New South Wales began to appear.
Eyewitnesses noted a strange wagging with the tossing of the back of the body, which, according to experts who studied the skeletons of representatives of this species, is quite consistent with the morphological and anatomical structure of the marsupial wolf. Moreover, of all Australian animals, only he is characterized by similar features. So isn’t it time to exclude the Tasmanian marsupial wolf from the “martyrology” of the animal world and once again add it to the list of living, albeit not thriving, contemporaries?
Remember, R. Kipling in his wonderful book “Mowgli” talked about a formidable wolf pack? So, we were talking about red wolves - mysterious, still poorly studied predatory animals from the canine family. Note the annoying oddity: the animal disappears almost unrecognized. It is among the first to be included in the Red Books of both the International and the Soviet Union.
In appearance and size, the red wolf occupies an intermediate position between the ordinary gray wolf and the fox. It is larger than the latter and smaller than its gray counterpart, its tail is long and bushy, its body is somewhat elongated, and although its legs are moderately high, it is squat than the gray one. The head is sharp-faced, wide-cheeked, with sideburns, the ears are round, protruding large, set high and very close at the base, the skull is relatively large.
The muzzle of a red wolf is very unique, it does not look like either a fox or a gray wolf; it is enough to look at it once to remember it for the rest of your life.
The color of winter fur is actually red, or more precisely red, rusty-red, ocher-reddish or fawn-rusty. Color varies from light yellow to intense red-red; the throat, chest, sides, belly and upper legs are always lighter. Winter fur is thick, lush, long, summer fur is sparse and coarse, brown in color.
The body length is about 1 meter, weight is from 14 to 21 kilograms, it is impossible to distinguish a male from a female from a distance.
This is a mentally highly developed animal with complex social connections. Strong discipline, hierarchical relationships and mutual assistance reign in the red wolf pack. Information is conveyed by coughing barks, shrill howls or howls in a high-pitched voice with overflow. The “language” of body movements and facial expressions are well developed compared to other types of animals.
The habitat of the red wolf covers the mountain-forest regions of Central and South Asia - Hindustan, Indochina with the Malay Peninsula, the islands of Sumatra and Java. In the Soviet Union, it probably spread only to the extreme south - the taiga mountains of the eastern part of Central Asia, Altai, Sayan, Transbaikalia, and the Amur-Ussuri region. But the beast has previously populated the territory of this generally vast range extremely unevenly; there are many places within it where it has never been seen. The red wolf is more or less common in India and Indochina, but even there there are few left.
In our country, this predator was most often found in Primorye and the Amur region, but in the last 10-15 years it has become so scarce here that traces are not found every year. Probably, before in our country it was noted by temporary visits, since no one discovered a den with wolf cubs. The famous explorer of the Far East V.K. Arsenyev met him only once during all his long travels. Even in zoos it is rare. There are very few skulls and skins of this animal in zoological museums.
The red wolf lives mainly in mountain forests up to the alpine zone, but due to its high mobility and nomadic lifestyle, it is found, perhaps at transitions, in forest-steppes, steppes and even on the outskirts of deserts. It goes out into the subalpine zone and onto high mountain plateaus - of course, in search of prey: Siberian goats, argali and other mountain animals.
Like most members of the canine family, this typical predator is well adapted to actively obtaining animals, mainly by stalking or hiding. Hunts in flocks, sometimes large - up to 20-30 animals, but more often 5-10 - and mainly from dawn to dusk. The main victims are ungulates, and in packs red wolves hunt not only roe deer, musk deer, goats, mountain sheep, antelope, sika deer and wild boar, but also such large and strong animals as deer, banteng bull, gaur, domestic buffalo or horse.
Favorite hunting methods are pursuit to starvation and driving: most of the flock, having discovered the prey, hides, and 2-3 predators run in from the opposite side and drive it into ambush.
The red wolf is cautious, secretive and bold to the point of insolence. He is not very fast, but extremely durable in running, easy to jump, swims well, and deftly climbs rocks and mountain steeps. With undoubted strength and strong teeth, these animals in a large pack are so aggressive that they even attack leopards and tigers, putting them to flight or even tearing them apart, although they themselves suffer great losses. They are not afraid of bears either.
There were times when red wolves caused significant damage to reindeer husbandry, destroying dozens of sika deer in Primorye, but it was difficult to fight the robbers. Being very daring, they are also extremely cunning and cautious, attack unexpectedly and decisively, and easily escape pursuit. It was much easier for reindeer herders to fight leopards, tigers and other predators than to fight the red wolf. It also happened: these mysterious animals would suddenly appear, commit robberies, and then disappear through the ground - invisible and nothing more.
Red wolves are monogamous, firmly maintaining marital fidelity to their partner throughout their lives. Their mating season is at the end of winter, and it usually passes without fights or noise. Pregnancy is 62-64 days, the litter ranges from 5-6 to 8-10 puppies. Lairs are made in rock crevices, caves, stone niches, and shallow earthen burrows.
The male always lives amicably with his girlfriend when she is “pregnant” - he often feeds her regurgitated meat, takes an active part in feeding, raising and protecting his offspring.
Puppies are born like dogs, wolves and foxes, and develop in much the same way. While raising young animals, the flock leads a sedentary lifestyle; everyone, including mothers, are friendly with each other. It happens that dens with puppies are very close, and even 2-3 litters live together in one nest.
They begin to wander when the wolf cubs become playful. At six months of age they are almost the size of adults.
The red wolf, like the gray one, leaves areas inhabited by tigers. At the same time, due to his very great caution, he avoids cultivated landscapes. On the other hand, he needs lands where there is little snow and enough ungulates. And finally, tense interspecies relations are quite likely between the two species of wolves; in incidents, the gray wolf undoubtedly wins. As we can see, the red wolf’s life opportunities are very limited and are continuously deteriorating over time.
The red wolf as a species is now apparently experiencing old age. In times gone by, it was much more widespread. Paleontologists find his remains in the Southern Urals, Ukraine, and in many European countries, where they have never heard of him. Such a sharp reduction in the range indicates that the biological species is dying out. This is happening before our eyes, and we can do nothing to prevent his death.
Human activities also worsen the living conditions of the red wolf. It is also greatly inferior to the gray one, which has high adaptability to changes in the natural environment.
Look at the red wolf sitting in the zoo: he seems to be asking for help, looking for a more merciful attitude from us, asking for protection. And we can probably help him only in his captivity.
It should be added that even temporary visits of the red wolf to the territory of our country have become less and less frequent since the 60s, and in the 80s they, one might say, stopped.
Message quote The mysterious world of wolves....
What do people know about wolves? That they are fierce and dangerous, treacherous and treacherous. That they must be destroyed. This is how those who know nothing about wolves think about wolves. In fact, wolves very rarely attack people. Like all predators, they hunt to feed themselves and live their lives, trying to stay away from people. I invite you to lift the veil of secrecy and plunge into the mysterious world - the world of the Wolf.
They are fierce and dangerous. This is probably what someone who knows almost nothing about wolves will say about wolves. In fact, wolves very rarely attack people. Like all predators, they hunt for food and live their lives trying to stay away from people.
Wolves have lived on Earth for more than a million years. They originated from carnivorous predators who lived 100 million years ago, and about 20 million years ago dogs originated from the wolf.
The genus Lupus includes wolves, coyotes, jackals, wild and domestic dogs - the largest representatives of the wolf family. In addition, all foxes, arctic foxes, raccoon dogs and maned wolves belong to this family.
Like dogs, wolves are very intelligent and easy to train. In addition, each wolf has a special character: some are cautious, daring or self-confident; they behave freely and naturally in wolf society, while others are not seen or heard.
Wolves live in the mountains, forests and plains of the Northern Hemisphere. Like all living beings, they, as biologists say, occupy their own ecological niche in the wild. In their habitats, wolves are the largest group of predators that hunt large mammals.
Is the wolf big? “Big” is not a very suitable description for a wolf. Typically, a male wolf weighs about 50 kilograms, a female wolf weighs 5 kilograms less. Their height at the withers is about 75 centimeters, and the length from the nose to the tip of the tail reaches 1.5 - 2 meters.
Life in a pack... Wolves are social animals: they live in families. Any flock has its own “table of ranks,” and in it everyone has their own place. Strong and aggressive wolves rule, and those who need a firm hand obey them. A wolf pack - a group of animals related by kinship and mutual sympathy - is led by a wolf and a she-wolf. The rest of its members are their offspring (from tiny puppies to 2-3 year old teenagers). Usually there are 6 - 7, and sometimes 15 animals in a wolf family.
The strongest wolf in the pack becomes the leader. His friend, a she-wolf, helps him rule. Leaders must have strong character in order for others to obey. All decisions concerning the life of the pack are made by this pair. In a pack where the leader keeps order, wolves usually do not fight among themselves. However, clashes with strangers or lone wolves who trespass often occur.
Each wolf pack hunts only in its own territory. The owners strictly guard and mark her, warning neighbors that they should stay away. Any uninvited guest will be punished. In large packs it often happens that one wolf is poisoned by all his relatives. Sometimes the outcast becomes completely unbearable, and he is forced to leave the pack.
Why is an unsociable person called a lone wolf? Because he resembles a wolf who left the pack and lives on his own. Over time, changes occur in the flock. Candidates for the role of leader remain in the pack and wait in the wings. Other wolves, having matured, leave to wander alone. But they can also create their own pack if they are lucky enough to meet a lone wolf.
If the wolf and she-wolf want to rule the pack, they must subjugate all the other members of the pack to their will and force them to unquestioningly carry out their laws. The leader dominates the males of the pack, and his mate maintains order among the she-wolves. The leaders constantly remind their “subordinates” who is the boss of the pack: they growl at them, bite them, chase them and even knock them down, preferring to do this in front of the whole pack. One stern, intent look from the leader or his girlfriend is enough for those he targets to submit. Grinning ingratiatingly, the wolves fall to the ground, and then, if possible, sneak away. Sometimes they lie on their backs, as if to say: we know who is the most important here.
The way a wolf holds its tail indicates its position in the pack. Among the leaders it is raised high, among their “subjects” it is lowered, and those at the lowest level in the wolf family have their tail between their legs. Members of the pack show love and respect to the leader in a welcoming ceremony. Crawling, with ears flattened and fur smoothed, they approach the leader or his mate, lick and carefully bite his face.
Wolves are one of the most loyal animals; they form strong bonds with their pack mates. They express their feelings through facial expressions and body movements. "Wolf's tongue" unites the pack and helps it act as one. In a surge of tenderness, the wolves lick each other and rub their muzzles. The wolf also needs a tail to express its feelings. If the tail is raised and its tip is slightly curved, this means that the wolf is quite confident in itself.
A friendly wolf has a lowered tail, but its very tip points upward. A wolf with its tail between its legs is either afraid of something or is communicating its sympathy. The faces of wolves are very expressive. Frightened, the wolf presses his ears back and pretends to smile. An angry wolf bares his teeth and turns his erect ears forward. Sensing danger, he pulls his ears back, bares his teeth and sticks out his tongue. Companions understand how to behave in order to maintain peace in the pack.
Born hunters... Wolves are created for hunting by nature itself. In winter, a wolf leaves a neat chain of footprints in the snow - he places his hind paw exactly behind his front paw. Thanks to this gait, he can run on any terrain and even in deep snow. The wolf's weapon is teeth. There are as many as 42 of them in his mouth. Four sharp, crooked 5-centimeter fangs stick out in front - two on top and two on bottom. With them the wolf can bite through the thick skin of the victim. And with predatory, or carnivorous, teeth - this is what the molars of all predators are called - an adult wolf even gnaws the femur of an elk. A hunter needs keen hearing, and wolves are lucky in this regard. When they hear a noise, they move their ears and determine where the sound comes from. The sound source may be several kilometers away.
Wolves hunt almost silently, because they run on the very tips of their fingers. Just like horses and cats, a wolf's heel does not touch the ground. He has strong, muscular legs and a sweeping gait, and can trot for long periods at a speed of 9 km/h, and can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h when chasing deer and elk. When hunting, the nose, and not the ears or eyes, is the first to tell wolves where to look for prey. In the wind, they catch the smell of even the smallest animal located 1-2 kilometers away from them, when it is not yet heard or seen. Thanks to their keen sense of smell, wolves can follow the tracks of their prey. Thick fur up to 8 centimeters long protects the wolf from frost. The layer of fur closest to the body is the undercoat, and the outer layer is formed by hard, long, black-tipped guard hairs. They repel water and the undercoat does not get wet. In such a fur-lined cloak, the wolf is not afraid of the weather.
A pack on the hunt….Wolves are carnivorous (or predatory) animals. They hunt in groups. To satisfy a hungry wolf, sometimes a small animal is enough - a beaver, a rabbit, a mouse or a bird. But this is not enough for the whole flock; it needs large prey - deer, elk or ram. It is not for nothing that they are called orderlies - after all, as a rule, their victims are old, sick or inexperienced animals. With a sick animal, the focus of the disease disappears; if an old animal is killed, the young and strong get more food. This biological regulation of numbers promotes the survival of strong, healthy animals, both among hunters and among their possible prey. Although wolves are considered merciless, only every tenth of their hunts are successful.
It happens that, after spending three days tracking and chasing a herd of deer or elk, wolves manage to kill only a few animals. Why? Fleet-footed deer can run away, and moose can give a worthy rebuff: these 600-kilogram giants with sharp antlers and heavy hooves can easily break a wolf’s skull. Wolves can go without food for two weeks, but if they are lucky on the hunt, they will eat to their fill. An adult wolf can eat up to 10 kilograms of meat at one time!
Sometimes wolves hide part of the uneaten prey in reserve - they drag it into a hole and throw something on top. If the hunt is unsuccessful, they will return to this cache and dig up the hidden lunch. The survival of a pack depends on the size of its hunting grounds, so wolves protect them tooth and nail. Wolves mark the boundaries of the territory (it can be 50-1500 sq. km, depending on what animals the pack hunts) with odorous marks - they spray stumps and large stones with urine - and notify neighbors about their rights by howling.
Wolf games and fun... Wolves do not always hunt, growl and be ferocious. The first thing a wolf will do when its stomach is full is curl up and take a good nap. When he wakes up, he will frolic with pleasure. If he wants to play, he will invite his relatives to join him. Crouching low to the ground on his front paws, he will approach them and, wagging his tail, say: “Well, please!” No answer? Then, in order to attract attention, he will begin to jump from side to side, just like a dog.
Wolves and people... Who is not afraid of the evil wolf? Since childhood, when we were read fairy tales “The Three Little Pigs”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”, we learned that wolves are evil and scary. They don't actually harm people. But despite this, people kill them...
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She Wolf (Falling to Pieces) (Explicit)
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The 50th North American Wildlife Management Conference proceeded as such a gathering should - tedious, measured and monotonous. Guys in “monkey suits” (this is what democratic Americans call an ordinary jacket with trousers and a tie; and, by the way, it is considered an attribute of gangsters and government officials) stood at the microphone and uttered truths in a drawling, nasal voice.
“Stabilization of the ecological system”, “public control over the use of natural resources”, “government management of the national wealth of the States” and other intricate phrases were habitually sung into the well-known motif of “I love me” and “Good, bless us” (“I love myself” and "God bless us"). If an American official cannot find anyone to teach how to live, he will teach himself.
I was habitually dozing off to the muttering of bosses from various departments, completely lulled by their zeal for the environment, when suddenly I was thrown out of this state by a wild, hysterical female squeal. I was very familiar with this sound - just as a front-line soldier is familiar with the whistle of an artillery shell - this is exactly how frenzied women screamed at rallies ten years ago, yes, exactly those who still make up the main echelon of any political party.
But it was not the aunt who was squealing.
“Murderers,” he screamed, “managers!” Do you control all living things through death?
The man to whom these words were addressed looked like the type that is presented to us in large numbers by the Anglo-Saxon administrative apparatus - a ruddy, healthy man of about sixty, in a gray suit and with unshakable common sense. With unspeakable surprise, I heard his voice falter, deepen, and say something like: “rabid fools.” And then, like his opponent, he lost his human form and hissed.
The hall of the respectable Eagan Center seemed to have been shocked. Squeals and hisses began to be heard from different ends of it, and the chairman madly banged his spoon on the decanter.
“Attention,” he shouted, trying to shout through the growing bedlam. - You all, everyone - remember! The discussion on wolf control will take place in the evening, not now - in the evening! Save your emotions until the evening!
It was only then that it dawned on me that these two words - WOLF CONTROL - provoked the scene that took place.
And is it always like this in discussions on wolf control? - I asked my colleague from Kenai Park, the phlegmatic big man Steve Bisham, who was sitting next to me.
“Where is it,” he said gloomily. - Last year, at the same Conference in Oklahoma, the police broke up a fight...
Wolf... Why is he so popular and inspires such strong feelings - literally from fierce hatred to frenzied love, that he can drive an unshakable American bureaucrat crazy?
So, wolf... Friend or foe? Forest orderly or killer maniac? A bloodthirsty monster or an inconspicuous ordinary inhabitant of the forest? And what to do with it?
Exterminate with snares, poisons and helicopters or, conversely, deliver them to those places where it was difficult to get rid of them, spending thousands of man-hours and dollars on this? Lumberjacks and game wardens speak about the total dominance of wolves in the North. And the damned Russian question “What to do?” pops up again in our difficult times.
“Oh, wolves,” says Tom Seaton, a graduate student at the University of Alaska, “I love them so much, it seems to me that these creatures are the closest creatures that live in the world.” And his blue eyes twitch with a slight glaze.
“We once found a wolf’s den,” says reindeer herder Pyotr Dyachkov from the Omolon state farm, “all the puppies were drowned in a bucket of gasoline and burned.” And his black narrow eyes twitch with the same sweet darkness.
What, I wonder, was the wolf for our ancestors? And what do numerous legends say?
The entrance to Valhalla - the Halls of Heroes of the ancient Germans and Scandinavians - is guarded by two giant wolves Geri and Freki. These beasts accompany Odin to war, and it is they who fight his enemies. “Dogs of War” are not “Soldiers of Fortune” by Frederick Forsyth, and certainly not the ugly Rottweilers of dog clubs - these are the wolves of Odin, and not a single mortal survived having met them on his way!
..."The end of the world will come as soon as the giant wolf, the guardian of Hell, gnaws his chain. He has languished on the chain for too long, and, freed, he will tear the entire upper world to pieces," says the Edda, the epic of the ancient Scandinavians.
The devil turns people into werewolves - werewolves. Bitten by a werewolf, he himself becomes a werewolf, and when there are more werewolves, they will stop hiding, turn into wolves and fill the world. This is where everything will end,” says the German legend.
It is difficult to find an animal in the life of the northern peoples that would occupy such a large place in it as the wolf. Only elk, bear and reindeer can compete with it. But these animals were, for the most part, sources of food, and only in one case - with the bear - was fear at the basis of their deification. This fear, however, did not prevent our ancestors from eating bears, although with some (sometimes quite significant) caution. What made a person first place the wolf at the very top of the pantheon of pagan totemism, then anathematize it as Satan’s first assistant, and then again compose poems about it, write books and even bring it back to the places where the same person once found it? destroyed with great difficulty and hatred? This is not calculation, not love and not hatred - it seems that the genus Homo is connected with the wolf by stronger feelings, of those that the Chinese talk about - unnamable.
The Germans of ancient times dressed as wolves on campaigns, and ancient Germanic texts speak of wolf warriors and warriors in wolf skins. Iranians and Aryans, Greeks and Arabs compared their military units to wolf packs. Wolf heads adorned the banners of Turkic squads.
Among other tribes, it was customary to call a military leader a wolf. The courageous Georgian king Vakhtang I had the nickname Gorgasal, which means “wolf head”. The name of one of the heroes of the Bhagavad Gita - Bhima - “body of a wolf” had a similar meaning.
There are many legends about a person or people being raised by wolves. Many of these legendary personalities laid the foundations of major states, empires, and hordes. The founders of Rome Romulus and Remus, the first Persian king Cyrus, the Slavic heroes Vyrvidub and Valigora, the German hero Dietrich, the founder of the Mongol state Genghis Khan - all of them were fosterlings of the wolf's lair. The Chinese chronicle about the origin of the Turkic tribe says: the people of the Huns, the power of Attila, were completely exterminated by their enemies. Only a nine-year-old boy survived, and then only conditionally. His enemies cut off his arms and legs and left him to die in the swamp. There, a she-wolf became pregnant from him. The boy was eventually killed, and the she-wolf ran all the way to Altai, hid in a cave, where she gave birth to ten sons. After several generations, a certain Arslan-shad came out of the cave and recognized himself as a vassal of the Rouran Khan. He foolishly believed him, for which he was killed. From this Arslan-shad came the dynasty of Turkut rulers - Ashins, which means noble wolf.
And in the Eskimo fairy tale "Kikmirasik" wolves act as fair judges who punish relatives for their cruel treatment of their nephew. The wolves take in their poor orphan nephew and raise him, having previously slaughtered all the deer of his cruel uncle, as a result of which the latter died of hunger. I personally have no doubt that my nephew grew into a most worthy man.
According to our ancestors, wolves not only saved human cubs from death, but also from time to time poured fresh blood into the human tribe. The Kamchadals, for example, believed that wolves were not at all indifferent to women. If they had twins, then one of them, in any case, was a wolf child. One man cannot give birth to two children at once! To satisfy the interest of the wolf male tribe in the irresistible Kamchadal women, they even kept a special stuffed wolf, which demonstrated to the living wolves that the local women were already occupied, and was a dusty and smelly example of a sexual amulet.
When a clan or an entire tribe derived its ancestry from any animal and felt its blood connection with it, this animal became the totem of the tribe. The totem differs from God in that it is not the Almighty of Fate. His role is more modest and closer - he is a relative, he is constantly nearby, he cannot be offended, on occasion he can help, and in case of bad attitude he can do mischief. God has a lot to do, and only occasionally can he cast a sidelong glance at a little man - a Tlingit or Huron hunter. And the totem - he is always right there - either peeks out from behind a bush, or catches a deer, or steals meat.
The list of tribes that considered (or consider) the wolf to be their immediate ancestor is very impressive. It is worth talking about some of them. These are the most warlike and merciless Indians of Russian America, the Tlingits and the Iroquois, glorified by F. Cooper, these are 11 clans of Turkmen. The wolf was considered the ancestor of the Uzbeks and Chechens. Some researchers say that the Eskimos of the Bering Strait also considered the wolf to be their direct relative.
Admirers of the totem think that they can count on the support of their “relative” in many situations. Among the Uzbeks, for example, this was associated with the desire to preserve newborns. In those families where children died early, the child was usually wrapped in wolf skin. Wolf teeth, claws and dry paws served as amulets and amulets; they were hung from the headboards of cradles. Adult Uzbeks and Chechens also use wolf amulets. To save themselves from misfortune, men carried wolf fangs in their pockets. Teeth and claws in leather bags were sewn to clothes. When going to bed, people covered themselves with wolf skin to protect themselves from the evil eye. To protect the home from evil forces, wolf paws, teeth or claws were hung in the front corner. Buryats considered the most effective treatment for “nettle fever” to be wrapping a person in wolf skin. Kazakhs and Kazan Tatars rubbed any rash with a wolf's tail. If a person considered this or that creature to be his relative, then he naturally treated him and the deceased with respect. In ancient Greece, a person who killed a wolf was obliged to give it a human burial. The Uzbeks made sure to bury the wolf. The Yakuts, who considered the wolf the son of the ancient deity Uluu-toyon, also did not leave the killed wolf to its fate. They wrapped him in hay and hung him on a tree. The Chukchi and Koryaks, in order to avoid the revenge of the killed wolf, organized a special holiday. At this holiday, the Chukchi skinned the wolf. The owner of the house dressed it so that the head of the beast was on his own head. Then he began to dance, sing and beat the tambourine. The Itelmens also had similar holidays. At the Koryak wolf festival, when the killed wolf was carried to the house, women came out to meet it with torches. One of the men put the skin and head on and danced around the fireplace, saying that it was not they who killed the wolf.
Since time immemorial, people have believed that animals are not only able to understand human speech, but can even read minds, and that what they themselves do not say is, most likely, they themselves do not want to. According to the beliefs of many peoples, a predatory beast, like a demon, could not be called by name: “Don’t call the devil, otherwise he will hear and come.” To avoid this unpleasant moment, there was a whole system of false names for the most powerful inhabitants of our world. Estonians, for example, called wolves “shepherds”, “long tails”, “uncles” and for some reason – “one-legged”. Among the Lithuanians, the wolf earned the nickname “field”, among the Abkhazians - “happy mouth”. The Koryaks had a long and incomprehensible name for the wolf - “the one who stays away.”
The man looked for the wolf and relatives among the animal world, also to match him. The coastal Chukchi and Eskimos found so much in common between wolves and killer whales that they believed that in winter the killer whale turns into a wolf, and in the summer it puts on its skin again, that is, in fact, it is one and the same creature. A similar opinion was held by the Haida Indians, who inhabited the islands off the coast of Canada and Alaska. On their totem poles they placed sacred animals like this: on top - a bald eagle, below it - a wolf, and below - a killer whale, thus symbolizing the unity of sky, earth and water.
Many peoples who once felt family ties with wolves had many beliefs associated with this beast. Kazakhs, for example, still believe that a dream about a wolf is a sign of good luck and prosperity. Abkhazian hunters were more demanding and believed that seeing a wolf not in a dream, but in reality meant good luck - they say, there was a greater chance of being lucky. The Uzbeks had a belief that if there were a lot of wolves around, then the year would be happy - this is not very clear for the people who also lived by cattle breeding. According to Belarusian beliefs, if a wolf ran through or near a village before sunset, then for all the villagers the night would be calm (it’s also not entirely clear why?). A meeting with a wolf wedding was considered especially favorable.
It is interesting that all these, in general, beliefs and beliefs favorable to the wolf were inherent in peoples who had a nomadic lifestyle or hunting tribes. When people converted to Christianity, they were overcome by some kind of wolf phobia, bordering on hysteria. It was especially characteristic of the late Middle Ages, when the wolf was recognized as a practical accomplice of Satan.
To some extent, this can be explained by the fact that at that time a storm of most destructive wars swept across Europe. In peacetime, the number of wolves was reduced to one degree or another by special wolf hunters, shepherds, and feudal lords who poisoned them with dogs. But as soon as the war began, the armed man instantly had no time for the wolf. Corpses littered the fields, drowned in roadside ditches, covered the ashes of cities...
The wolf and the raven became the masters of this harvest. And both were terrifying.
To people, the wolf and the raven seemed to be direct messengers of Hell, “postmen of Satan.”
The German lands suffered the most from destructive religious strife. Tilly and Wallenstein, Moritz of Saxony and Gustav Adolf, Alexander Farnese and Turenne - for which warriors did this land not become a training battlefield! Burnt forests and cities, devastated villages, twisted priests, corpses, corpses... And everywhere there was a wolf, creating legends.
The most common wolves in Germanic mythology should probably be considered werewolves. But in addition to werewolves, the German principalities were inhabited by an abyss of all kinds of evil spirits in wolf form. Just remember the Brandenburg Huntress, aka the Lady of the Mist! The Brandenburg Huntress (her real name was tabooed and subsequently forgotten) lived in a well-fortified castle in the middle of a swamp somewhere in central Germany. The castle was, naturally, secluded; there was, again, only one road past it. As expected in such a story, people began to disappear. A certain valiant knight volunteered to ride along it at night and barely fought off a huge pack of wolves. However, having fought off her, he did not prudently run away as fast as he could, but, showing Teutonic cunning, hid and followed the flock to its very lair. This lair, accordingly, turned out to be the notorious castle. Gathering a detachment of brave warriors, this knight went on an assault and discovered; that the castle is inhabited in great numbers by wolves, which were sent to battle by the mysterious mistress. Using all sorts of tricks, he managed to fight this mistress, after which she and her entire army caught fire and flew up. The castle was burned (either by burning corpses, or by valiant knights), but the matter did not calm down there. From time to time, on the road through the swamps, a white lady on a white horse began to be seen. Seeing a lonely traveler, she waved her sword, and wolves gradually emerged from the fog swirling over the swamps. These wolves silently (for now) surrounded the traveler, and through the whitish foggy flesh their green eyes burned with a bright fire. Rushing at once from all sides, they seemed to strangle the man in a foggy ball, and only then a triumphant wolf howl was heard over the swamp.
The literature devoted to werewolves, in its volume, can, perhaps, compete with all the works on the wolf in general. Almost everything is known for certain about werewolves, except for one thing; do they really exist? Werewolves-incubi and werewolves-succubus are known, werewolves are known who were knights and peasants, counts and beggars, judges and lawyers, landsknechts and merchants... Moreover, the werewolf is probably the only creature of the mystical world who could be and was a priest . Well, okay, the mullah is still all right. But the werewolves were priests of Catholic and Lutheran, Orthodox and Uniate, Anglican and Calvinist faiths!
There was even an entire town inhabited exclusively by werewolves - Zinkleicht in Lower Swabia. Everyone in it were werewolves - old people, infants, guards and artisans. There is no way to verify this statement, since the town with its entire population was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War by the famous commander of the Holy Roman Empire, Count Tzerklas Tilly. It was he who established with the necessary certainty that all the inhabitants of the exterminated town were werewolves.
The transformation of a man into a wolf among the Germans was directly associated with lunar cycles. For example, new werewolves did not appear on a new moon. How long a person could remain in wolf skin also depended on the magical power of the moon. For example, the full moon helped keep the werewolf in his wolf form during the daytime.
It is curious that among the Slavs the notorious werewolves did not have the same gloomy glory as among the Germans. Vilktaki - they were called by the Lithuanians. Vilktak, according to Lithuanian beliefs, could be a wolf with human teeth and a white spot on the throat. Among the Litvins, people for the most part became werewolves not due to the depravity of human nature, not for sins and not out of malice, but because of the witchcraft of special local sorcerers - Burtininki. Burtininka mastered the art of transforming a man into a wolf in secret and before his death he was obliged to pass on his sinister skill to at least someone.
One could become a Vilktak of one's own free will, by somehow throwing oneself over an elm stump. This category of Vilktaks was considered the most disgusting. If the Vilktaki, who became them not of their own free will, ate livestock just so as not to die of hunger, then the Vilktaki volunteers deliberately robbed, attacking people.
Among other Slavic tribes, wolf werewolves were called wolfhounds, later changed to “ghouls”. (The word “ghoul” was first introduced into use in the Russian language by A.S. Pushkin.) Here, too, the evil intent of sorcerers could not be avoided, and sorcerers especially disliked newlyweds, and in Samogitia, as well as in White Rus', entire wedding trains were turned into wolves.
Among the werewolves of the Slavic lands there were also heroes, such as the Serbian hero Vuk - the Fire Serpent, born from a woman of royal blood and a dragon - the Fire Serpent. This one could not only turn into a wolf himself, but also turn into his warriors, which probably only benefited them.
However, all these legends and beliefs only partially shed light on the almost mystical connection between man and the wolf.
Indeed, let’s take a closer look: the wolf is not the strongest animal (no comparison to a bear or elk), and as a predator it is also not very good (an adult lynx, in any case, defeats ANY wolf one-on-one). In size, it also does not rank at the top of the animal kingdom. There is, however, a point of view that the wolf is the smartest of all our forest neighbors, but in the future I will allow myself to challenge this opinion.
Many people believe that a person's love for a wolf is a form of love for dogs, which, according to one version, descended from wolves and are one of the first domestic animals.
Another explanation (rational, of course) says: like a person, a wolf is a social creature. Of course, on occasion, he can dine on his neighbor, fight with him over a female or prey, but such a trifle hardly bothered our ancestors. They saw and understood one thing - these creatures, like us, live in families and hunt in packs.
In the 17th century BC, the Hittite king Hattusilis, addressing the army, said: “I wish you to be united, like a wolf pack!”
The wolf is a tribal totem of the Vainakhs - Chechens and Ingush. Moreover, this is precisely a totem in its pure form - a common ancestor, whose descendants feel spiritual unity with it. It could not have happened here without the she-wolf, who fed the runaway orphans in the mountain caves of the North Caucasus, and without bloody revenge, and without a fratricidal war, in a word, all the attributes of the “wolf legend”. However, the main thing here is not the legend, but the fact that the “wolf” worldview, apparently, actually prevails among the Chechens. Much of what we know about these Caucasian people is very similar to what we know about the biology of the wolf as a species! This is a curious fragment; in it you can observe, as in a magic crystal, how things were one and a half thousand years ago, when the bearers of this worldview (and totem!), such as the Cumans, Avars and Saxons, dominated in Europe. By the way, the remnants of totemism cannot coexist with traditional Islam, which is why a huge number of Muslim sects have found shelter in the Caucasus.
In the understanding of people like the Chechens, the wolf was primarily a warrior. But a warrior - not a lone hero, but a warrior - a member of a detachment, capable of maintaining discipline and being a comrade.
Jungle covenants are eternal
And imperishable
Like the firmament of heaven,
Good for the law-abiding Wolf,
The fate of the disobedient is Death.
Like a vine. Cloaking the tree,
The Law runs back and forth,
In the Wolf alone
the power of the Pack,
together with the Flock, he is omnipotent and...
Probably, the structure of a wolf pack best suits the worldview of modern man. We, apparently, have not yet matured to a more advanced form of social organization.