Customer Reviews

Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There isn't a more emotional or controversial issue in Western America. We were told wolves wouldn't bother livestock nor people. In fact we were told that there had never been a documented case of a wolf attack on a person. If you want to know the truth read this book and then decide for yourself. Many of the things mentioned in this book are starting to play out in Idaho,Montana and Wyoming including wolves "investigating" people. We can at least move forward with our eyes wide open. The Russian experience may become reality in America.Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages

This book is a good study of what happens when Wolf populations are allowed to grow without controls.

Whether this book was necessary in terms of balancing the wolf debate between pro-wolf and anti-wolf contingents is beside the point. This is one of the more poorly written books I have ever read. The book was edited by Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science fro the University of Calgary. Other than his forward for the book, I see no proof of editing. There is almost no structure to the writing. One starts to read the topic sentence of a paragraph, and, without transition, within the same paragraph the author writes about something else. This could have been a powerful book if he had try to organize his facts and sources. There is no index in the book, so it is difficult to cross reference something Graves has written. There are no maps for the readers reference. There are no charts or data tables to organize his research. To be honest, the book reads as if someone had newly discovered the copy and paste function on their computer, and lost track how many times the same thing was pasted.

The book I have is now dog-eared with sections that made me either laugh out loud, or wonder how this book could be recognized as a scholarly work on wolves. Wolves living until 20 in the wild. Moose dying of ringworm. Wolves throwing a child over their shoulder and jumping over a meter high fence. Buried in the appendix are two paragraphs on pages 174 and 183 Graves citing 3 authors and researchers from Russia and Finland who refute the idea of man-eating wolves or wolves showing aggression toward humans. In that respect, there is no attempt at balance. An occasional citing of David Mech or Rolf Peterson is as close as Graves gets to studies done in N. America that have the slightest hint of wolves roll in nature. I wonder if any editing occurred at all. The publishing date makes the book appear as a rush job of half truths for the anti-wolf folks of the Northern Rocky Mountains, who seem to quote this book as Bible. It is not.

In closing, this is a poorly written, poorly edited, overpriced book, that due to the nature of the writing, and the what can you believe and what can you not believe nature of his information I would not recommend for anyone to read if you have interest in wolves, pro or con. Read the latest rendition of Mech's book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation if you really want a true understanding of the wolf in the world in general and North America in specific. Graves has done nothing more than put together a loose collection of anecdotal information about wolves in Russia where one can only guess what is fact or fiction. Because of this, it is difficult to take the book seriously. Anti-wolf folks use the book as a focus for continued persecution of the wolf. Pro-wolf folks might be curious to read the book to find the source of some of the renewed virulence for wolves.

Wolves perhaps, will always be controversial. This book is nothing more than a footnote in that controversy.

The authors are from the Czek Republic, so may not be familiar with the American versions of these breeds.

From the book:
My taking a look back through the history of those breeds most active in K9 work, Gerritsen and Haak reveal why the traits of each breed emerged to make them top class K9 workers. Each chapter examines the history, characteristics, training experience, and physical defects of the world's best working breeds. Only through understanding a breed's history can a K9 handler truly appreciate the different characteristics and capabilities of the dog they're working with. The authors include a chapter devoted to the differences in training the increasingly popular Malinois versus the previous top K9 worker, the German Shepherd Dog.

Chapters:
German Shepherd Dog
Belgian Shepherd Dogs
Malinois
Working with a German Shepherd Dog or a Malinois
Dutch Shepherd Dogs
Labrador Retriever
Doberman Pinscher
Rottweiler
Other Breeds
Airedale Terrier
Bouvier des Flandres
Boxer
Giant Schnauzer

Thank you Mr. Graves and Valerius Geist. The world has needed a balanced, true and historic look at the cycles of behavior that wolf populations go through. This book puts to rest the many myths ("wolves cause balance in nature" - till they cause mortality sinks of ungulates and therefore other predators, "wolves make healthy herds of wild ungulates" - yeah, till they eat and sport kill them to extinction! "Wolves are shy" - unless their hungry, "Wolves never kill humans" - until they do, regularly found in the "warm fuzzy" public education so strenuously promoted by many who personally profit from such false notions at others expense and endangerment.

"This amazing book presents for the first time,in detail, the facts on Russia's huge wolf problem."
Jim Rearden, Ph.D. former Head of the Wildlife Department at the University of Fairbanks, and author of "The Wolves of Alaska."



"Wolves in Russia is a must read for wolf advocates, ranchers, college professors, government agents, and those who will be camping in wolf territory. Will Graves' book balanced investigation provides rare honesty and sanity in this groundbreaking and illuminating collection of Russian wolf science, documented predation on humans and livestock, and stories from Russian literature."
Barney Nelson, Ph.D, Environmental Editor for Range Magazine and author of the Wild and the Domestic: Animal Representation, Ecocriticism, and Western American Literature.



"Wolves will definitely be the debate for the next decade. Will Graves' book sets the record straight for the next century. A must read!"
Jim Slinsky, host of Outdoor Talk Network.



"We owe a debt of gratitude to Graves for Wolves in Russia - a work that combines a realistic outlook and an understanding based on years of research and travel. This information from Russia in an antidote to certain American, environmental delusions."
Jim Beers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife Biologist.



"This book must be read by every serious wildlife biologist, resource decision maker and park manager, as well as the recreation-minded, for it clearly shows that co-existence between man and animal has limits that can never be forgotten."
James A. Swan, Ph.D., from Not-so-cuddly canines


"When humans are unable or unwilling to defend themselves, wolves attack. That's the conclusion you'll find in [Wolves in Russia]." "[Wolves in Russia] challenges North American notions about the true nature of these controversial animals, striving to show that populations are best controlled by human intervention." From a review by Agri-News.

Range Magazine, in its Winter 2008 edition published an article about Wolves in Russia entitled "Anxiety Through the Ages." In the opening subtitle, Range says, "In his new book 'Wolves in Russia,' Will N. Graves chronicles the reasons wolves are feared by the people who must live with them." Barney Nelson, Ph.D., says in introduction to the Range article, " 'Wolves in Russia' is a must-read book for wolf advocates, ranchers, college professors, government agencies, and those who might be camping in wolf territory. Will Graves' balanced investigation provides rare honesty and sanity in a groundbreaking and illuminating collection of Russian wolf science and documented predation on humans and livestock. The book paints a vivid picture of government suppression of information; it documents the effect of an unarmed population on wolf behavior; and it points to cycles of terror and starvation that correspond to wolf population explosions."

This is an excellent account of the damage that out of control wolf populations can inflict on a citizenry that is prohibited from their own government from having arms to defend themselves. The right to keep and bear arms in the US is normally thought of as a way to guarantee the freedoms and defense of law abiding citizens by ensuring that the government cannot become tyrannical, but arms also provides defense from the predators of nature. In this case, Russian citizens are forced to endure wolf attacks without an effective means to defend themselves, and the accounts of children being carried off by wolves is heartbreaking. The naive point of view that wolves only serve to cut sick animals from the herd is not supported by the facts, and this book shows why. I'm not an advocate of the destruction of wolf populations, but they should be controlled through proper stewardship, and the book also makes this argument as well.

You must read the author's preface to understand his arrival at an interest in wolves. Having learned some Spanish at an early age in Texas, and wanting adventure (and his parents being able to afford it) Will Graves went to Mexico City, where he lived with a Mexican family and studied at the University of the Americas. Following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Mexico in 1946, which infected 15 million head of livestock in a rapid spread toward Texas, the U.S. and Mexico began a joint campaign to eradicate the highly virulent disease before it reached Texas and the U.S. cattle industry. Thus began Mr. Graves' interest in FMD, anthrax and other livestock diseases, as he served as a Livestock Investigator/Vaccinator in a horseback sector out of Oaxaca. In 1950, the Korean War intervened, and he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, being sent to study Russian at Syracuse University, where one the first words he learned was the Russian for FMD. His interest in the canine vectors of livestock diseases led him to research the Russian history of experience with wolves.
This book is well-researched and organized, with some minimal editing by renowned wildlife biologist Valerius Geist. Reading the chapter on "Parasites and Dieases" should give anyone pause...
Having howled one evening with a pack of wolves in SE Alaska, differentiating between a dozen and a half voices, it did feel a bit unnerving by early morning when the voices had spread out along the neighboring ridges. Investigating our crew? And I now wonder whether a black bear that I watched for most of two summers had an encounter with wolves, rather than another bear, when I saw it with a large triangular flap of hide peeled back along its left hip.

This book is a very well documented history of Russia and their experience with wolves. It should put to rest a lot of myths and misconceptions. The author obviously knows his stuff and has spent a lot of time researching the topic. We need more information like this book which are based on facts. I found it very interesting.

This book is written by a linguist, not a scientist. It is based on stories and folklore told by the people of rural Russia. This is not reputable science (or any kind of science). Wolves are not from another planet. They were not created in laboratories. They are animals who, along with the animals they hunt and kill, existed in a well-maintained balance for tens of thousands of years before we settled in their environment. It is simply illogical to assume that they are somehow the problem figure in the ungulate culling equation when we are the only variable. Books such as these arise from a purely irrational fear which is (and has been) disproved by actual research begun from a neutral position.

If you want to know the real story behind wolves and how it relates to the myth, read "Never Cry Wolf" by Farley Mowat. It wasn't put together by a pro-wolf organization. It's about a scientist who was sent by the Canadian government to kill and examine wolves in order to learn about their supposedly destructive habits. He was converted to the truth by doing what few of us seem to be willing to do: spending time observing real wolves. I repeat, he went into this experience believing that wolves were vicious indiscriminate killers and ended up writing a book displaying how this couldn't be farther from the truth. We simply project the worst images of ourselves onto these well-adapted, intelligent animals.

And for the record, these alien beasts are only a few gene pools away from the Labrador retriever you have sitting in your living room (they will still interbreed).