Proper 6 June 18, 2017 Never Cry Wolf
The Rev. Deborah Woolsey Church of the Good Shepherd, Athens, Ohio
In 1948, a then young employee of the Canadian government’s wildlife
department was sent into the midst of wolves. His mission was to find biological
evidence that the wolves were responsible for a perceived decline in the caribou
population in the Canadian wilderness. But he wasn’t exactly a by the book scientist,
which has both helped and caused controversy for what Farley Mowat did discover
during his time among the wolves. Mowat tells about his adventure among the wolves
and the people of the artic wilderness in his book, Never Cry Wolf, which was
published in 1963, and twenty years later adapted into a movie with the same title.
Using his gifts of humor, observation skills, engaging writing style, and reasoning,
Mowat’s book is a captivating account that didn’t do what he first intended it to do.
Mowat wrote that his original intention was to poke fun at the government who
organized the study, and anyone who has worked for an institution could probably
relate to the sometimes-humorous situations that arise when you are working for an
institution. However, as Farley Mowat faced the challenges of his study with what was
then considered revolutionary and unorthodox methodology, he ended up finding a
truth humanity had forgotten, a truth that has helped broaden the field of biology and
humanity’s responsibility as stewards of the complex and beautiful creation we inhabit.
Instead of killing wolves and dissecting the dead animals to find evidence of
wolves killing caribou, which was standard operating procedure at the time, Mowat
observed the wolves in their habitat. He discovered they survived eating mostly small
mammals like mice and rabbits, even choosing to do so when caribou were available,
and the caribou they did kill were elderly or sick, which meant the wolves were
keeping the caribou herd healthy. He also met some of the indigenous people of the
artic and listened to their perspective of what was happening in their environment.
The problems of the caribou, he claimed, were not so easily scapegoated to the
wolves. In fact, the problems of the caribou were more connected to human activities
like game hunting by tourists. Because his findings challenged the established way
science conducted itself, his work was considered unscientific and was written off by
many respected scientists at the time, some of whom tried to discredit Mowat’s
observations, which by the way, have been substantiated in the years that followed.
His findings also challenged commonly held frightening stereotypes and
misconceptions of wolves as vicious killers hungry for human flesh that were mostly
based on fairy tales. He admits there can be conflict with wolves and ranchers’
