Paula Wild | Paula Wild

November 2, 2019November 2, 2019

How many grasshoppers will a wolf eat?

According to a scat analysis, one wolf ate at least 181 grasshoppers and probably at one go.

That sounds like a lot of hoppers but, given that each one weighs approximately half a gram, that means the wolf ingested less than a cup of insects. Definitely a lightweight snack for a large carnivore.

It all started a couple of years ago when Brandon Barton and some buddies were hiking through Hells Canyon Wilderness, which spans the Idaho/Oregon border. They were studying elk ecology but then Barton spotted something odd – wolf scat that appeared to be filled with grasshoppers.

The trail was covered with live hoppers and the group knew wolves ate a variety of prey. But poop plugged with insect body parts seemed beyond the norm.

Despite the putrid smell, Barton, a community ecologist at Mississipi State University, triple bagged the scat for further examination in a lab. In the meantime, the group set up a couple of motion-sensor cameras.

Sure enough, the black and white film caught a lone wolf visiting the trail every night to chow down on hoppers. Because the insects are sluggish when temperatures are cool, it was as easy as a human reaching into a bag of popcorn.

The big take away from the hopper-filled turd on the trail ? It’s another example of how all creatures, plants and waterways are not isolated elements in an ecosystem; at some level they all interact to create a whole.

Photo by Eileen Kumpf

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019

Of books and bears – Harold Macy launches San Josef

The first time I hiked into San Josef Bay I was worried about bears. Didn’t even see a track. The second time, I woke up one morning and groggily wondered why Rick was making so much noise outside the tent.

Turns out, Rick had gone to investigate the sea stacks and a bear was wandering through camp. Luckily, all our food and toiletries were safely stowed in an improvised bear-hang.

I’ve explored San Josef two other times via the printed page. The first was at a week-long writing workshop at Strathcona Park Lodge. That’s where I met another wanna be writer, Harold Macy.

One afternoon, while Harold’s wife and two young sons went for a walk, I sat on the floor of their suite next to a stack of paper. Harold pounded away on an old IBM Selectric typewriter (computers were few and far between in 1986) as I read a draft of his work-in-progress.

I remember the evocative language and the strong sense of a wild, wet landscape and the haunted, hopeful characters that inhabited it. The manuscript began with a man in an oilskin coat rowing. For thirty some years I pondered the U.S. civil war deserter’s fate once he reached the struggling Danish settlement on northern Vancouver Island in Canada.

This summer I found out when Tidewater Press asked if I’d write a blurb for the back of San Josef. Harold’s story ignited memories of my visits to the remote bay and of the writing retreat that launched my career.

But most of all, I was struck by the development of the plot and personalities. Both had matured like a bodacious red wine. Within three pages, Harold captures the soul of a man and the landscape he finds himself in.

San Josef is a deep and sometimes dark novel where hope goes astray but is never lost. The characters are as complex as a spider’s web, the language poetic and the environment a tangible force.

Harold Macy is the author of The Four Storey Forest, As Grow the Trees, So too the Heart. His short stories have appeared in PRISM International, The Malahat Review , Orion and other publications.

On Saturday, Oct. 26 Tidewater Press and Harold Macy will launch San Josef at the Courtenay and District Museum at 2 pm. in downtown Courtenay, BC.

Admission is free; stories will be filled with Harold’s trademark humour and the history that inspired this novel.

September 23, 2019September 23, 2019

Takaya: Lone Wolf

In 2012, an approximately two-year old wolf suddenly appeared on Discovery Island, not far from the densely populated municipality of Oak Bay on southern Vancouver Island, BC.

He’d probably dispersed from his birth pack on Vancouver Island and was looking for a mate and territory to call his own. But somewhere along the way, he made a wrong turn and found himself in an urban area. So, perhaps confused or spooked, he swam through challenging waters to a small cluster of islands.

Wolves are highly social animals, so no one thought he’d stay. But, despite all odds, he has. For seven years he’s survived – and thrived – in a location that has no other wolves, no year-round source of water and no deer or other ungulates to hunt.

Cheryl Alexander has followed the journey of the wolf she calls Takaya with her camera and heart for nearly seven years. The renowned wildlife photographer has watched him swim from island to island, seen him feeding on seals and listened to him howl towards the lights of Oak Bay.

On Friday, October 4, the story of this remarkable wolf and woman will air on CBC TV’s The Nature of Things. Takaya: Lone Wolf is an international co-production, which will run on BBC, CBC and ARTE.

Cheryl was a wonderful resource while I was researching Return of the Wolf and I can’t wait to see the documentary featuring her photographs and in-depth knowledge about this unusual wolf.

Click here to view a trailer of the documentary.

Photo by Cheryl Alexander

June 22, 2019July 1, 2019

Small but big difference between wolves and dogs

There are, of course, many differences between wolves and dogs. Some are cognitive, such as a wolf’s willingness to be trained, while others include physical traits such as the predator’s extraordinarily long legs and huge paws.

A lot of physical characteristics have been specifically cultivated in dogs to enhance their appeal to humans. For instance, many people are attracted to dogs with floppy ears and short muzzles so breeders have selectively encouraged these traits. Wolves have these endearing features as pups but, as they mature, their ears become erect and their snouts lengthen.

A recent study found another small but significant difference between wolves and some dogs – their eyebrow muscles.

Whether they own a dog or not, many people are familiar with that sad sack stare some dogs seem to be able to summon at will. This is the look guaranteed to tug firmly on the human heartstrings. And to often foster forgiveness for any transgressions that may have occurred.

This imploring gaze is generated by a dog’s ability to move a prominent muscle that runs along the outer edge of the eye up and inwards.

Dr. Juliane Kaminski, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, discovered this while trying to understand why some dogs are adopted from animal shelters sooner than others. Apparently, it’s all in the eyes. Those who used their levator anguli oculi medialis muscle were first out the door to a new home.

Researchers then studied the facial musculature of cadavers of several breeds of dogs, as well as those of wild grey wolves. They found a pronounced eyebrow muscle in all of the dogs but not the wolves.

This arctic beauty has a typical wolfish gaze and no sign of sad sack eyes.

Unlike short snouts and floppy ears, the eyebrow muscle was not intentionally introduced by humans but evolved naturally over 20,000 years or more of the human and dog relationship.

Kaminski, who has conducted several studies on the ways humans and dogs communicate, notes that eyebrows play an important role in human body language. And though it’s not known if dogs move their eyebrow muscle on purpose, the result definitely appears to attract humans.