I love wolves!! Went to a wolf sanctuary once and got to pet and feed them carrots. The sanctuary operators keep some of the mellower ones inside their home and watch tv with them. Also had lots of stories about the wolves detecting tumors or pregnancies in visitors by shoving their snouts places
lesbians have incredibly potent relationships with wolves, the conceit of the werewolf as a female power fantasy has been horrifically underused in mainstream horror
Wolves are “””charismatic””” in that we appreciate their physical power/threat as well as their beauty/the charm of being similar to domestic dogs; but meeting one irl gives you a really primal instinctive feeling, awe and wariness imo
We’ve endangered them because of economic issues with zero regard to ecological issues. They are martyrs (in the US) and symbols of our blinding anthropocentrism.
as a puerto rican emo boy with a multitude of wolf tshirts when i was 10, i can say i feel very strongly and positively about them. feeling blab? ur a lone wolf? wanna hang with your friends? oh you’re a pack animal. wanna howl at the night sky? count me the fuck in.
I am suspicious of anyone who brings up wolf behaviour to describe human society, but wolves themselves are great! It makes sense that they got domesticated since they’re team critters and pretty smart
Wolves rock and should be reintroduced back into the ecosystems they’ve been removed from but that’s probably not gonna happen bc most people are huge babies about it
They're very complex mammals that have had a false social system attributed to them which has led to multitiudes of misunderstandings. Also the should be more widely reintroduced because the benefits of having them around greatly outweigh the negatives. Ranchers and farmers just fucking suck though
It is sooooooo sad that they are wild animals because they are SO cute and I have two hands that were made for petting animals. But alas I will admire from afar.
Don’t think about apes much. They’re cool but have a fear of them due to unpredictably as animals. Love wolves super cool. Weirdly fear apes in close proximity more than wolves.
i feel both a mystical feminine connection to wolves and a pragmatic, healthy fear of ever encountering one irl.
and!! i think apex predators are [yet another] important part of our ecosystem that humans have attempted to remove/control/tame with disastrous results. let them wolf
Domesticated dogs have poisoned my view of wolves. My body wants to pet them, but my brain knows that they are very efficient predators of things much larger than me. I see them as magnificent creatures which I can never interact with. They feel like the cromulent embodiment of predation.
I am enchanted by wolves. Accomplished predators that lure you in with fluffy coats and attentive eyes. Hearing them howl feels so ancient and primal. It’s magic in a world cleansed of it.
I want to snuggle the wolves, I want to play with them, I want to go out and just hang out with them. But they got their own thing going on and don't want people all up in their business so I'm going to respect that.
Being metaphoric has harmed the wolf. They're iconic predators, which leads to overhunting. All the 'alpha' bullshit. People love their wildness, then take them out of the ecosystem to be pets (talking modernity, not domesticated dogs).
People are awed by wolves, and the wolves suffer for it.
wolves inspire in me a terrible habit of needing to correct anyone who tries to talk about alpha behavior. Alpha bullshit is obnoxious, but so is my need to be right.
I knew it! It was never about monkeys! Always the same, I get lured in with monkeys and then… boom: wolves. Well, I guess shame on me for getting fooled over and over again and never learning…
Wolves are sick and they should be out in the wild not in cages. Ranchers have convinced themselves that they should be able to kill any wolf they come across and they're wrong. Wouldn't like to encounter a wolf in the wild for the same reason I wouldn't like to encounter any animal in the wild.
my toxic trait is thinking I could raise a wolve pup and it wouldn't grow into the type of wolf who would hurt humans. logically I know it doesn't work that way and yet..
I always thought they were cool, but then I saw a video of how they hunt (tearing prey apart as a group while it’s still alive) and all I gotta say is yuck
I was once attacked by a wolf named Mimi who was kept as a pet. Mimi was shot by her owners a month later when she bit their son.
I have a scar on me knee that reminds me that Mimi belonged to herself. Our ownership of nature is entirely illusory.
so maybe a deeper answer then you're looking for, but wolves were always a big topic in my wildlife management classes/work because they really test the concept of a sort of agreeable "social carrying capacity". Basically people either REALLY LOVE or REALLY HATE them.
no no this is sort of my whole point in the essay so this is great haha. I'm really interested in the love and the hate. the romance between the wild and the tame. how we've destroyed them but also admire them. seems to be how we go about a lot of our human projects
oh man this is absolutely my shit dude. hope it's not weird to offer but if you want some stories from someone who worked in public outreach on this subject, feel free to hmu.
and professionally we were always pushed to be neutral on wolf management, but since i'm not in that line of work anymore, I adore wolves and absolutely support their restoration into our landscapes.
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I don't want to meet one in the wild because I would turbo die but they're really cool to look at from a safe distance.
and!! i think apex predators are [yet another] important part of our ecosystem that humans have attempted to remove/control/tame with disastrous results. let them wolf
People are awed by wolves, and the wolves suffer for it.
Also they are very cute.
I have a scar on me knee that reminds me that Mimi belonged to herself. Our ownership of nature is entirely illusory.