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Then, in one instant, all thoughts
and doubts were erased. I stood frozen
to the spot. There, before me, in the fi rst
light of dawn, I saw running one after
another across a dry lakebed, a pack
of what looked like wolves. Not one or
two but three or four. Could they have
been dogs? They certainly looked like
wolves. Almost immediately, I heard a
short warning bark to my right and then,
a howl.
I felt the surface of my skin suddenly
chill in response to my fi rst wolf howl
in the wild. I turned to see a solitary
wolf, classically silhouetted on a rock,
head thrust back towards the sky,
communicating our presence to the rest
of the pack. In a matter of seconds,
they were all gone. Just like that. My
mirage disappeared as rapidly as it had
emerged leaving only footprints. Luckily
my companion saw the wolves too.
We looked at each other, idiotic grins
morphing our wind-crisped faces. I got
my sign.
BACK ON THE WOLF TRAIL
I basked in that after glow of my wolf
sighting for a few months; I woke up
to the fact that I needed to pick up
conservation skills. I completed a short
but excellent course at the Wildlife
Institute of India (Dehradun) following
which I signed up for a fi rst of its
kind, citizen-science wolf-monitoring
project in Germany in Lower Saxony in
- Biosphere Expeditions, the award
winning, not-for-profi t NGO that runs
the programme is a veteran of citizen-
science projects all over the world. I think
they were a little surprised to fi nd a wolf
crazy Indian on board. Frankly, I surprised
myself but I knew I was in the right place
when I met up with a bunch of wolf-
loving volunteers as eager as I am to
contribute to wolf conservation.
Wolves are endangered and protected
in Germany, yet wolf conservationists
face similar challenges to their
counterparts across the world. Especially,
though not surprisingly, they’re frowned
upon by hunting associations. After
an extensively long period of near
extinction, in the year 2000, the wolves
returned to Germany, through Poland.
Germany is working hard to safeguard
the exchange of wolf populations of
northern and southern Europe.
Wolves are habitual wanderers,
travelling anywhere from 30-70 km. a
Spotting a wolf in the snowy landscape of Spiti is akin to fi nding a needle in a haystack, as the
author’s experience was to prove.day. The young break away from the pack
after reaching maturity at around two
years to establish their own territory.
A research scientist affi liated with
Nature and Biodiversity Conservation
Union (NABU) and a staff member from
the Biosphere Expedition led our wolf
mission. Between the two, they had our
daily tasks all graphed out.
Once again I was told, I would never
see a wolf in the wild. We started with a
promising visit to the Wolf Centre where
we were introduced to wolves and where
a wolf expert spoke to us at length. It was
thrilling to see and observe a complete
wolf pack, see diff erent breeds and learn
about their social dynamics.
A wolf can pick up sounds up to
16 km. away. Wolf packs I was told usually
include the parents (who bond for life),
young wolves (yearlings) and four to six
pups. Parents are accepted as absolute
authority and yearlings babysit. The
numbers in a pack stay the same more or
less when yearlings split from the group.
They choose to settle close by or travel
even up to 100 km. away and attract
mates by howling.
A typical wolf pack in central Europe
can travel 150-350 km. depending on
the availability of prey and the presence
of neighbouring packs or single wolves. I
have heard of fi sh-eating wolves but was
surprised to learn certain breeds also eat
fruit. I learnt a great deal about the wolf
in a very short time at the Wolf Centre.
Information centres like this one
should be easy to replicate in orderto educate people about wolves and
dissipate myths that seem to follow the
animal universally.
“Wolves avoid people but not
the human-made structures in the
landscape,” says Markus Bathen, NABU
wolf expert. I know this to be true.
Walking in teams of two to three, looking
for evidence of wolves, I was surprised
when we discovered most of our fi nds
(tracks and scat) on wide, publically used
forest roads. Even in Spiti, locals often
sight wolves on vantage points on the
hills edging the village, keeping their
distance. Wolves I learnt don’t need large
tracts of wilderness as they adapt well to
cultural landscapes. They don’t normally
pose any threat to humans.
The wolf expedition was hands on.
I came away learning about standard
criteria for evidence collecting, types of
monitoring, using a GPS, recognising and
measuring tracks, documenting and fi ling
data sheets correctly and knowing how
to identify wolf scat. The lay of the land–
fl at, unlike Spiti – made walking 10-17 km.
a day to undertake all of this easier.
The paw tracks of a wolf are quite
similar to that of a dog, determining the
size, and diff erentiating the trots was
challenging. We didn’t come across a
single carcass or wolf-kill. I felt privileged
to be able to walk with Theo Gruentjens,
one of Germany’s many government
appointed Wolf Ambassadors who
besides being a wonderful person is an
absolute authority on wolves. The whole
concept of wildlife ambassadors educating,KSURYAWANSHI/PUBLIC DOMAIN