Wolves!

johnnyurq

Awsome beasts and we have some (arctic and normal too IIRC) at the Kingussie Highland Wildlife Park, not truly wild but certainly feral.

http://www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk

http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2014/05/28/arctic-wolves-make-appearance-in-scotland-for-first-time/

New blood it seems too.

Reminds me must take our 5yo grandson to see said wolves and other animals.

Saw a documentary where they had found bones in a cave near Elgin I think that were from a Polar Bear who died durung the last great ice age, as well as brown bears too after the thaw.

There are plans afoot to try and reintroduce Wolves back into Scotland in a few Estates but fearmogering has held it up so far.

http://www.wolvesandhumans.org/wolves/wolf_reintroduction_to_scotland.htm

Sambostar

NO, don't think I'II go with my present state of mind, I'II stress them out too much.  See how I feel in November, great pics.

Sambostar

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/128408-2013-02-11-giant-idaho-wolves-look-at-the-size-of-these-wolves.htm

cute...yaaaa.

Assuming they haven't been photoshopped by the pro Elk hunting lobbyists.

They can grow up to 200lbs, eat their prey alive and lure ferrel dogs into ambushes so they can eat them....alive.

http://listverse.com/2012/04/14/top-10-little-known-facts-about-wolves/

My god.

xmrchi

That's bloody brilliant!

Antique_Guitars

So beautiful

holnrew

Antique_Guitars said:

So beautiful

There's a sort of nobility there too. 

Drew_TNBD

Very cool animals. Nice pics too Lee. Looks like one of them had a stealth go at your kids knee though! :P

Sambostar

Nice photos and a great sanctuary by the looks of it, but not digging all this pseudo love for wolves.  The fan base for wolves have the same rational and are only a few socio-economic groups away the folk that like to keep half feral fighting dogs that eat babies.

Once ebola really gets a grip on Europe and the UK, the Grey's will be making their way through the channel tunnel.  Used to feasting on dead humans, everyone will be a target.

digitalscream

Sambostar said:

Nice photos and a great sanctuary by the looks of it, but not digging all this pseudo love for wolves.  The fan base for wolves have the same rational and are only a few socio-economic groups away the folk that like to keep half feral fighting dogs that eat babies.

That's utter crap, but I think you already know that...

Sambostar said:

Once ebola really gets a grip on Europe and the UK, the Grey's will be making their way through the channel tunnel.  Used to feasting on dead humans, everyone will be a target.

If you actually knew anything about wolves, you'd be fully aware that they rarely go anywhere near humans, much less attack or eat them. From 1952 - 2002 there were a grand total of 8 people killed by wolves in North America and 3 in Europe/Russia.

Anyway, if all you want to do is shit all over this thread with your alarmist crap, please do me a favour and stay out of it.

Sambostar

I don't I really don't but I can't help it.  Tell you what, I tape the keyboard over.

imalone

I'm given to believe domesticated animals, particularly dogs, have partly been bred to emphasize juvenile traits. Which is why proper wolves seem different to dogs, but presumably we got on well enough with them at one point to get the process started. The Russians did an interesting thing to try and reproduce the process with foxes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox
Fun facts, there were real dire wolves, though not as big as the game of thrones version.
British wildlife, there is a gap in human habitation of britain from 200-100kYA (before there were various human species, afterward neanderthals and sapiens), but during this period local fauna included hippos, rhinos. We also had giant hyenas. Anyone worried by wolves should be terrified by prehistoric hyenas. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/human-origins/humans-in-britain/what-was-britain-like/changing-fauna/index.html

thecolourbox

Sambostar said:

Nice photos and a great sanctuary by the looks of it, but not digging all this pseudo love for wolves.  The fan base for wolves have the same rational and are only a few socio-economic groups away the folk that like to keep half feral fighting dogs that eat babies.

I think you are confusing yourself with the fan base of these Wolves

mudslide73

Your dingle link doesn't work -

VimFuego

we've got wild beaver in devon, but they want to lock it all up. I don't care how much disease gets spread, you can't keep beaver locked up.

randomhandclaps

holnrew said:

Antique_Guitars said:

So beautiful

There's a sort of knobability there too. 

That's all sorts of wrong dude.

Sambostar

I'II tell you the truth, I'm scared of wolves, they are unpredictable, unless they have been specifically bred.  And I'm scared that I would deliberately wind them up.  Problem is most people associate them with dogs, who are predictable, but they are a completely different animal.

In a sanctuary, it's not like with wild dogs, you can't just knock the alpha male out cold with an iron bar, they will call the police on you and have you arrrested.  The whole thing seems more than a bit weird to me.  You can't be looking at a wolves with awe and wonderment and anthropomorphising them.  They will just as quickly jump you and with their teeth, they will severe an artery in seconds.  I don't care what anyone says, that is the thing that bothers me, that they are killing machines, hence why they have two keepers and hefty chains I guess.  Kind of reminds me of the SeaWorld disaster.

I have some old photos somewhere of Malcolm Douglas's croc farm.  Now with crocs you know where you stand and if you are crazy enough to get in with the large females in breeding season, you've had it, unless you have had years of experience, even then, it's risky.  There is be no anthropomorphising fantasy with crocs, yet with wolves, because we associate them with dogs, man's best friend and the fact that they are hairy, the empathy is therem and they are alluring, mainly because of our folklore.

Think I'II stick to camels.  I like camels...and sheep, I like sheep too and alpacas and llamas and cattle.  Wolves no.  Great pics, but I wouldn't turn my back to them for one minute.

Yeah, we had had wild wolves in the UK, we have also had loads of other things.  You can find Pandanus aquaticus fossils down at Boscombe on the South coast, the same plant grows in NT Australia today.  I'm not a big fan of reintroduction and I sympathize with North Americans who have had wolves imposed on them.  I kind of despair when I read that red foxes have attempted to take people's babies put of their living rooms at dusk.  I mean, what do you expect?  They are wild animals.  The clue is in the name.

I had an Indian friend who came from the rurals.  He said that when you see a tiger, you are transfixed, almost memorized by it beauty, it is almost hypnotic.  Before you have had a chance to get your bearings,  it has already pounced, suffocated and started to drag you off to eat you.  Wolves don't even have the common decency to suffocate you first.

I apologize for being a pain in the arse and hijacking the thread.  It's just that the level of anthropomorphism on here, just because something is fluffy and has forward facing eyes and is an integral part of our folklore, kind makes me wonder.  But then. I'm the sort of person who cringes when I see holiday snaps of people with wild Grisly and Black bears in the distance.

imalone

Dogs were wolves once, we're both social animals (that's humans and wolves) and have some common ground for understanding. Some Australian aborigines used to fish by cooperating with wild dolphins, there are intelligent animals out there. Don't see a single instance of anthropomorphism here yet, even 'noble' doesn't have to be.
Cattle kill more people in Britain than wolves...

boogieman

Well I've dropped several large hints to Mrs B that I'd like to go to that wolf sanctuary sometime. Let's see if she has a word with Father Xmas.

digitalscream

imalone said:

Dogs were wolves once, we're both social animals (that's humans and wolves) and have some common ground for understanding. Some Australian aborigines used to fish by cooperating with wild dolphins, there are intelligent animals out there. Don't see a single instance of anthropomorphism here yet, even 'noble' doesn't have to be.
Cattle kill more people in Britain than wolves...

Indeed...in fact, in the last 50 years, over 7000 people have been killed by peanuts in the US alone. Compare that to about 211 people killed by wolves (worldwide) over the same period. DESTROY THE KILLER PEANUTS!!!!!!!!

boogieman said:

Well I've dropped several large hints to Mrs B that I'd like to go to that wolf sanctuary sometime. Let's see if she has a word with Father Xmas.

You won't regret it. If you stay over on the Friday night, there's usually a Howl Night where you get to "sing" with the wolves. They also do the full experience, where you get the Howl Night, then two walks (one with the greys, one with the Arctics), but that's obviously more expensive.

imalone

digitalscream said:

imalone said:

Dogs were wolves once, we're both social animals (that's humans and wolves) and have some common ground for understanding. Some Australian aborigines used to fish by cooperating with wild dolphins, there are intelligent animals out there. Don't see a single instance of anthropomorphism here yet, even 'noble' doesn't have to be.
Cattle kill more people in Britain than wolves...

Indeed...in fact, in the last 50 years, over 7000 people have been killed by peanuts in the US alone. Compare that to about 211 people killed by wolves (worldwide) over the same period. DESTROY THE KILLER PEANUTS!!!!!!!!

To be fair this is likely a consequence of the higher incidence of peanuts in a domestic environment.