Starving Wolf

       I was working for Panarctic Oil in the Arctic Circle. My job was air traffic control. There are no roads in the arctic, so all material comes in either by barge (in the summer), or by aircraft. As soon as I arrived at Rae Point, the main camp, I noticed that the area was swarming with arctic fox. The arctic fox is a very bold animal, and readily took advantage of the vast amounts of leftover food that the men working there threw away daily. This abundance of food caused the arctic fox population to explode. The arctic fox is a small fox, and acting alone, it could not hunt the arctic hare. The hare is large, for a rabbit. It was comical to see a solitary fox go after a hare. The hare would simply lean back and, using its enormous hind legs, beat the crap out of the fox. However, since the arctic fox population had exploded, the large numbers of these opportunistic little predators allowed them to gang up on the hare, which caused a severe decline in their population. In this region of the arctic the main prey species of the arctic wolf was the hare. It was very apparent to me that the decline in the hare population was the reason that I had not seen any wolves in the area.
       Wherever humanity goes, we neither understand nor respect the balance of Nature. About 2 weeks after arriving in the arctic, I was walking from Rae Point to a rig camp about 2 miles away. A Twin Otter aircraft was coming into the rig, and I was going to the rig to give landing instructions. About a mile from the camp I met the first wolf that I was to get to know. He was laying against a large boulder, sheltered from the wind. I stood quietly and watched him. He was very thin, and did not even lift his head as we looked at each other. He did not have the strength.
       Knowing that he was not a threat, I began to slowly approach. He tried to rise, but in his emaciated state he did not have the strength. Seeing the fear in his eyes, I started to talk to him softly, telling him that I would not hurt him and asking him why he was alone. It is not the nature of the wolf to be alone. I lowered my height and slowly approached to about a 5 feet distance, talking all the while and telling him how pretty I thought he was. He just lay there, resigned. After about 15 minutes I knew I had to leave to take care of my work commitments and told him to hang on, and that I would be back.
       After the Twin Otter had landed and departed, I stuffed some leftover pork chops in a bread bag and started back to Starving Wolf, as I was starting to think of him. It didn’t take me long to get back to him, and I saw that he hadn’t moved. He showed no fear of me this time. He seemed totally disinterested and resigned. Talking softly all the while, I again approached to about a 5 foot distance and sat down. Reaching under my parka, I pulled out the bread bag and tossed a pork chop under his nose. I was greatly surprised when he just sniffed at it and then ignored it. Then I began to understand. Starving Wolf had lost his pack. The great imbalance caused in the local animal population by man had caused death by starvation of his pack.
       The wolf, being shier in nature than the fox, had not taken advantage of the food thrown out by the men and had not been able to find sufficient hare to survive. Starving Wolf was dying of loneliness, and starvation was just the method of his death. I sat quietly while these feelings and understandings came to me and then, nodding gently to myself, I told him that I understood. I told him he was too beautiful to die and what a good boy he was and just kept chattering away. His sad yellow eyes would look up at me once and a while. There was barely a spark of spirit left within. I would not give up and tossed more pork chops under his nose. Finally he took one. I really think it was just to get me to shut up, but there was not a chance of that.
       Encouraged, I kept at it until he had finished about ten of them. With his shrunken stomach, I thought that was all I could expect and left several more close to him. Happy that he had eaten, I sat with him for a time and just babbled away. I told him that I knew that he was lonely and that even though I was not a wolf I would be his friend. I don’t think he was impressed. Finally it was time for me to go. The extreme cold of the arctic demands a high calorie intake, and I was getting hungry. I told him I would be back as soon as I could, and then I headed back to Rae Point.

        Starving wolf was a young male, just over 1 year old. Not quite an adult but, still not really a puppy either. I remember his reaction the first time that I brought him bacon. As he ate, he just stopped and stood with a stunned look on his face. The high fat content was exactly what he needed, and he really loved bacon. As his strength was coming back, I would sit with him for hours and just talk. The only way to teach him to understand my language was to get him used to hearing it. I started to call him the Nuggie Puppy. I also do that sometimes with people, as the names that they have been given this lifetime are not what I want to call them. I have to work at it to remember their birthnames.
       About 2 or 3 days after I had met Nuggie Puppy and had started to feed him, a large male and female wolf came into the picture. I saw them when I was coming to the Puppy with food. I was about 50 yards or so away and stopped to watch, they just glanced briefly at me and then went to the Puppy and sniffed him, glanced at me again and slowly left. I was hoping, when I first saw them that some sort of bonding would take place between them and Nuggie Puppy, but no such luck.
       After the male and female left I continued to come to the young male with food. As his strength was coming back, I would sit with him for hours and just talk. His self-esteem was low. After all, he had just lost his pack, his family, and he was very sad. Time has a different meaning in the Arctic, so it is hard to remember just how long it took before he was up and about.
       Several days after I had started to feed him, the large male and female again showed up. They were a bit surprised that he was still alive. I had hopes that they would bond and join together, but I was disappointed. They again just sniffed him over, looked at me, and continued on their way. Shortly after that, the Nuggie Puppy was strong enough to travel and we would start to roam the area together. We were developing a very close bond. I spent all my time with my friend and very little with the men in the camps.
       As we were roaming the area. we started to develop a hunting technique. The landscape of the Arctic is very fractured. There are a great many large boulders and little valleys, much like a moonscape. The animals of the Arctic had never seen man before, and since they hadn’t, they had no fear of humanity. So I would walk in front. There was an additional advantage to this. My greater height gave me a field of vision superior to that of the wolf. When I would spot an Arctic hair I would stop, tense, and quietly point.
       Then with intensity I would whisper, "rabbit". . .