Nor’easters are powerful storms. This Nor’easter is unusually powerful. Rain and wind have kept me indoors for days.
Eventually the TV set goes on. The Weather Channel is my default channel. I know which channels are likely to have science or history programs and A Man Among Wolves is the best thing I’ve seen since Survivorman.
There’s even more information on the on the National Geographic website. Naturalist, Shaun Ellis has dedicated his life to understanding wolves and creating ways for wolves and humans to co-exist
The website has videos demonstrating wolf language and a Q&A that’s remarkable.
I love a true naturalist. For me, someone who risks everything in pursuit of knowledge is worthy of respect.
It’s easier and more convenient to take college courses and become a biologist, zoologist or geologist. These choices allow wonderful opportunities to observe nature.
What my heroes do is interact with the individuals they study. What you learn from forming a relationship is much different that what you learn as an outside observer.
Scientists eventually add the results of these pursuits to their body of knowledge. But that’s usually after years of referring to naturalists as maverick, crazy, unsafe or any other term which means at its core: “I’m too scared to do what you do.”
Nature is powerful. I live in a culture that tries to control Nature. The results are increasingly disastrous, but we appear to be slow to change our ways.
What’s tragic is that we destroyed a great deal of knowledge when we destroyed indigenous cultures in the process of grabbing land. I wonder if we would be dealing with fires, floods and drought today if we had at least gained their knowledge before we wiped them out.
We’re slowly catching on. But now we have to learn new ways to think and rediscover what was once known.
I’ve always loved those stories about ancient times when people could talk to animals. I really believe that indigenous people respected the rights of other living beings and spent time figuring out how they interacted.
I’m going back to watch the Howling 101 and Growling 101 tapes. The idea of learning wolf language the way I learn Spanish or Russian is really intriguing.