From: hrtcu@usho52.hou281.chevron.com (R.T.Cutler)
Newsgroups: alt.wolves
Subject: Wolf Sightings
Date: 15 Aug 92 17:23:55 GMT
Organization: Chevron

This posting will be entirely reminiscences of seeing wolves several
years ago.  Nothing topical, nothing about reintroduction programs
or hybrid behavior -- hit "n" now if that doesn't interest you ...

Severl years in a row we saw wolves every winter that we went up to
Banff to cross country ski.  It was always real near, or in, the 
town itself.  The first time we were coming out of a restaurant on the
edge of town and saw a pack of wolves, sort of spread out over a 
fairly wide area (100-200 yards, perhaps), snuffling around the Mountie
station.  They looked at us (in a car) and we looked at them, and it
was clear, to me at least, that they wanted nothing to do with us other
than to be left alone.  (None of this bear crap about wanting to come
into your life and share your food -- or rip apart your car or something
equally unpleasant).  Very much "You do your thing, I'll do mine".  They
looked smart and curious as hell.

Some people made fun of us thinking that we'd seen wolves -- said they
were just coyotes.  I thought to myself "Right -- biggest damn coyotes
I've ever seen.  Wrong personality, too".  So we went to that little 
natural history museum they have there on the main drag of Banff and
talked to the nice little old lady there.  She knew all about them --
said "Yes, those are wolves, all right".  She told us who was having 
pups and what moose carcass they were working on.  

At night we kept the hotel window open and listened to them talk.  That's
the only word I can think for it -- didn't sound like any dogs or coyotes
I've ever heard.  Lots of tonal variation, interaction between voices --
and, although I'm sure most people will say that I am anthropomorphising
(or whatever you call it), considerable emotion.  Again, I can think of 
no other word.  

As I said, very different from the coyotes I have heard in Southern
California, who sounded, to me, kind of manic and nasty.

The next year there was one hell of a big snowstorm -- there was a lot
of snow coming down and a lot collecting everywhere -- so much so that 
it was not reasonable to think about driving to any trailhead outside
the town.  Well, not reasonable for us in our particular rental vehicle.
So we went to a park (Cave and Basin, if you know the place), right down
(or up, I guess -- I can't quite remember) a stream from downtown
Bannf.  As we drove along the highway parallelling this stream, with
some trails also parallelling between us and the stream, perhaps a few
hundred yards (sorry, metres -- we're in Canada now) from the downtown
area -- we look across through the heavily falling snow onto one of
these trails and there is a DAMN big wolf, trotting along in the same
direction we are driving, looking neither to the right nor the left,
minding his own business, whatever that might have been.

We didn't see him for very long. I'm not sure why "him" occurs to me
as the correct pronoun -- I don't know that much about wolves -- but
it does.  Maybe because he looked so damn big and husky.   

Well, I'm sure people reading this who know a lot more than I do about
wolves will spot various inaccuracies in either my memory or observations --
but I just felt like sharing these experiences for some reason.  They made
a considerable impact on me, I can tell you.
Newsgroups: alt.wolves