Keep Wolves at bay and pets and livestock safe
Consultation ● Funding ● Design ● Education
The Wolf Protection Service is based on the premise that it is possible to coexist peacefully and safely with Wolves, and even have them be an economic asset. At the same time, there are sometimes “problem Wolves” who have to be removed, and we can help you with that. But by and large, Wolves are creatures of habit, which means your local Wolves can be trained to avoid your livestock, pets, and property. Then—believe it or not—they go to work for you by training their offspring to steer clear of your animals and property as well. And their work for you doesn’t stop there: they protect your animals from marauding outside Wolves as well. In essence, your local Wolves have been transformed from livestock raiders to livestock guardians.
Wolves can be trained in this way because they possess a little-known trait called food imprinting, which means that they typically eat only what they have been trained to hunt by their parents and other elder packmates. Food imprinting works in reverse as well: if they had negative experiences with a potential food source, they continually avoid it. They train their offspring to do the same, as they do not consider it a safe food.
For the Wolves to continue training succeeding generations for us, it is important not to kill or displace the trainers, i.e., the elder Wolves in the pack. Wolves who prey on livestock and pets are nearly always young animals who are hungry and desperate because they have not had elders to train them in how or what to hunt — and not hunt.
Managing Wolves cheaply and effectively takes knowing Wolves. Tamarack Song, the Wolf Protection Service director, knows Wolves. He has made them his life study, starting in the 1970s when he lived with a pack of Wolves for five years. He founded the Brother Wolf Foundation, which runs a research project on Wolf communication, workshops on Wolf behavior, Wolf-based tourism, and the Wolf-Human relationship. Tamarack is the subject of an upcoming book titled The Wolf Whisperer, he is authoring a definitive work on Wolf behavior, titled What Would Brother Wolf Do? and he is editing a Wolf management book by Frank Fass, Europe’s eminent Wolf control expert.
The Wolf Protection Service employs a three-step process to Wolf management:
Step I – Know your enemy. When there is conflict, the intelligent thing to do is to first know what you are up against. We teach you everything you need to know about Wolves: their pack structure, behavioral patterns, hunting techniques, and more.
Step II – Take charge. You need to make the decisions that work best for you, and our job is to help carry that out in the most efficient, effective, and legal way.
Step III – Get help. There may be state and federal assistance available, along with funding. We do the research and give you the options
A Case History
By getting to know your “enemy,” you might be able to use his natural tendencies to create a win-win, such as with food imprinting, which is one of the many tricks used by the Wolf Protection Service. Fighting against something usually ends up being a costly never-ending battle, where everybody loses.
Here is a win-win story from Kenny Kenner, who works with a sister organization of ours, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union. Kenny tells about a sheep rancher he knows who is quite proud of what he calls “my Wolfpack.”
“The seven Wolves live very close by,” says the rancher. “Every now and again I see them walking past the sheep and marking their territory. One of the Wolves had once tested the electric fence and got ‘bit.’ He made the ‘bite” threat clear to his family, and the rancher didn’t lose a single one of his sheep to the Wolves. And they defended ‘their’ territory against Wolves from outside their territory. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. I take great care to ensure that no one does my Wolves any harm.”
Kenny asked the rancher what he would do if a Wolf did kill one of his sheep. “I’d be ashamed of myself,” he replied. “What do you mean that you would be ashamed?” Kenny asked.
“I would feel ashamed in front of the other ranchers, because it would mean I wasn’t a good herdsman. I’m responsible for the animals and must make sure that nothing happens to them.”
Rather than being victimized and blaming the Wolf, the rancher took personal responsibility. He realized that the predator was only doing what he was designed to do. Accepting the fact that this is how life is, and that Wolves are part of that life, helps create a win-win for everybody, and that is the goal of the Wolf Protection Service.
For further information on the Wolf Protection Service, or to contract with them, contact the Brother Wolf Foundation.