The Opinion of a Russian Scientist on the Necessity of Protecting Wild WOLVES

Unfortunately, the extermination of the wild nature's cleaners—wolves—is rapidly continuing. No attempts to protect them have helped! Moreover, all attempts to protect wolves provoke aggression toward us from the hunting community. Government agencies, in turn, delegate our requests to the country's hunting department, which is managed by avid hunters lobbying for the same interests of the paid killing industry.

The situation has not only remained unresolved but has rapidly worsened. This year, many regions have increased bounties for killing wolves (up to 50,000 rubles per individual), fully legalized helicopter hunting, and removed limits on "wolf harvest."

I still do not know how to influence the problem. I am studying scientific data from the US, Europe, and Latin America—everywhere, it’s the same, with total wolf slaughter being legalized worldwide. And yet, there are scientific assessments and calls from scientists to urgently protect the wolf as a key predator in the wild! But the system does not stop; specialists are ignored, and mass extermination continues persistently.

We will now try to unite people through a petition to protect wolves, which will become our coordination center! Additionally, despite the pressure against advocating for wolves, we will once again try to push forward at least some initiatives for their protection within the Government.

Sign the Petition

In Russia, there are very few scientists actively working on wolf protection. This field is extremely unpopular due to pressure from the hunting community, authorities, and the indifference of society. Imagine a scientist who studies wolves and advocates for their protection! He spends decades doing the hardest work without funding, without support, on personal initiative. He collects evidence, makes scientific discoveries... and then he needs to communicate all this to people.

But how? 

He stands alone against millions who stubbornly insist: "That cannot be true, the wolf is a terrible creature, not a cleaner of the wild! How dare you defend parasites?" 

When we advocated for wolves' protection, we were consciously pressured from all sides. I fully understand why there are so few domestic scientists in the country who have the courage to openly stand up for the Russian Taiga’s cleaner. Not only is there no funding, but the pressure is colossal.

Let’s put it this way: the entire governing system believes that wolves are useless and should be destroyed! The hunting community in the country numbers five million people, according to official data. And this is just the legal hunters. Naturally, they and their families believe in the "parasitic nature" of wolves and support their slaughter.

We remain, comrades, along with a few rare scientist-specialists who openly voice the problem. And since the entire system is built on hatred toward wolves, the current course of the scientific community aligns with this.

I want to tell you about the work of a scientist who, through his own efforts, conducted numerous scientific studies to protect wild animals! This is our Russian specialist who dedicated his life to the Mission—to protect nature.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Zheleznov was born on March 2, 1936, in the Samara region. Pay attention to the scientist’s age—he is a man of the old school. He holds a Doctorate in Biological Sciences. 

He first arrived in Chukotka in 1970. In 1974, he entered the All-Union Agricultural Institute, after which he began working as a wildlife manager in the Anadyr Biological Branch of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North.

In 1976, he organized his first winter expedition to study snow sheep in the Koryak Highlands.

In the 1990s, he was at the origins of the organization of the International Reserve "Beringia Park" and was its first director.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Zheleznov’s scientific degrees and titles are numerous: Doctor of Biological Sciences, Honored Scientist, Honored Worker of Wildlife Management in Russia, International Scientist of the Year 2003, academician of the Petrovsky Academy of Science and Arts. He has been awarded the USSR VDNH Silver Medal, the Cambridge Biographical Center Gold Medal, and many others. 

For me, what matters more is this: he is a PRACTITIONER with vast experience! That’s why I want to quote some excerpts from his works concerning wolves.

The thoughts that seemed most important to me are highlighted in bold.

"Considering the interactions of wolves with other animal species, their victims, we perhaps have only a qualitatively general idea of their traditionally negative role. For humans, it becomes immediately obvious and tangible. But we still do not know many of their quantitative direct and reverse connections in ecosystems across each region, especially in our country with widely variable natural and physical-geographical conditions. Unveiling these connections would help determine their positive or negative significance in the ecosystems of Northern Asia and the entire Far East.

THERE MUST BE A UNIFIED RESEARCH PROGRAM NOT ONLY ON WOLVES BUT ALSO ON OTHER LARGE PREDATORS, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE ECOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL, AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS AND REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT AFFECT THEIR ROLE IN THE NATURAL COMPLEXES OF EACH REGION.

And if, due to a lack of knowledge and methods for studying them, the past attitude of humans toward wolves can be forgiven, today’s attitude at the level of past perceptions—viewing them only through the scope of a hunting rifle, a rifled carbine with optics, or through helicopter shooting—cannot be forgiven.

THE WOLF IS A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT BIOCOMPONENT OF NATURE; IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT, IT SIGNIFICANTLY DETERMINES THE GENERAL STATE OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN ALL ECOSYSTEMS WHERE IT LIVES.

In recent years, studies have been conducted in many regions of our country on wolf behavior and its impact on wild and domestic animals. In the Magadan region and Chukotka, and in other administrative regions across Russia, this work is yet to be conducted on a large scale.

And if, for example, wolves cause damage in Taimyr, this does not mean that this damage can be extrapolated to other natural zones and regions of the North and the Far East, as many scientists and specialists do and write in their monographs and articles, comparing the incomparable without delving into the ecological specifics of wolf behavior in relation to its victims, which is absolutely unacceptable.

This article is not about defending wolves, whom I firmly believe possess rational activity (see note below), but rather about allowing them to live freely or under certain restrictions based on extensive scientific and comprehensive studies of their ecological characteristics. Today, one cannot use any unsubstantiated conclusions and recommendations that supposedly can solve the problem of wolf relations in ecosystems. Moreover, wolves, like other carnivorous animals lower in the hierarchical food pyramid than humans, must have their share of food from what humans selfishly take from nature.

According to Darmont et al., humans are the top apex predators on our planet (Darmont et al., 2009). It is deeply erroneous to see in the extermination of this highly organized animal with rational activity a panacea for all issues in reindeer herding in the Russian North, livestock farming, and hunting industries in the country.

THE WOLF, IN OUR TIME, NOT AS A PREDATOR AND DIRECT COMPETITOR TO HUMANS, HAS THE RIGHT TO EXIST. IT IS TIME TO REMOVE IT FROM THE LIST OF NEGATIVE SPECIES CONSIDERED AS A "HUMAN ENEMY."

Never before in the 20th century has a well-coordinated mechanism of dynamically balanced self-regulating ecological systems excluded any biological component from its composition without human intervention or a planetary ecological catastrophe. This reflects the evolutionary expediency of the existence of every species in nature, as is the case with wolves.

Note: 

Regarding the intellectual abilities of wolves, I will give an example of their behavior in a critical situation.

Inspectors of the Chukotka State Hunting Inspection, after receiving a signal from reindeer herders in early October 1998 about a pack of wolves near a domestic reindeer herd, invited me to participate in their culling. From the airport, I was informed that the helicopter was scheduled for a flight at 11 a.m. We had to fly for at least an hour and a half to the area of the western foothills of the heavily dissected Peuklney Ridge (translated from Chukchi as "sharp knife") in the upper reaches of the Northern Pekulneyveem River. Additional fuel tanks were placed on board for the flight. The three of us—two inspectors and I—flew to the location. I sat in the co-pilot's seat as the one most familiar with the area, while the inspectors took positions on each side of the helicopter.

As we approached the rocky mountains of the ridge, a pack of three wolves was spotted. They darted out of the willow thickets on the slope. Two wolves ran downhill into dense willow shrubs, where they were quickly shot. As it turned out later, they were a female and a stray male wolf. The third wolf, a very large male, dashed toward a row of rocky pillars (stone columns several meters high) in the upper part of the mountain chain. The pilot followed the wolf's tracks and directed the helicopter to the spot where it disappeared. The wolf's tracks ended in the upper part of the mountains near the rocky pillars. The snow on the ridge had been blown away by the wind. Twice the pilot circled the pillars but did not find the wolf. I saw it on the second loop, standing vertically: it had pressed its entire body against the rocky masses, blending perfectly with the coloration of the rocks. On the third loop, I loudly told the pilot, "He has gone along the ridge; there is no snow, and we will waste time and run out of fuel." The pilot turned the helicopter away from the ridge and directed it to the landing area. I sighed with relief and thought: "This wolf must not die but live to pass on his skills and experience in fighting humans for his survival to the next generation."

This is my assessment of the wolf as a highly organized animal with rational activity in a critical situation for its life.

These are the thoughts of a Russian scientist, a person who professionally understands the complex interconnections of natural ecosystems and evaluates the role of the wolf in nature in terms of its IMPORTANCE in forming biogeocenoses.

I want all our comrades to share this material and tell their loved ones about the importance of wolf protection, relying on the opinion of a scientist who dedicated his life to studying wolves and is a PRACTITIONER, a real professional who understands the problem of exterminating the wild cleaner—the Russian wolf.

And we will try to think through the next steps to protect the gray Brother. 

© PAVEL PASHKOV