My motto for this year’s A to Z is “Animals in my life – stuffed or alive”.
Even though I consider myself an animal lover, I am not immune to prejudice. For decades I thought wolves were somewhat evil and dangerous. This changed in 2015, when we visited a wolf park in Saarland.
What we saw there where playful, peaceful animals that greated their carers enthusiastically (of course it helped that all wolves in this park are raised by hand and that the carers brought chickens 🙂 ). Sometimes they behaved like big dogs. We learned that wolves are very social, and that they raise their cubs together, als a group. They hunt old or weak prey, and they never take more as they need. They are shy and avoid human contact. They are also very intelligent.
Of course they snatch sheep if they are able too, but they just are a part of German forests, and we have to find ways to live with them.
On this day, the wolves in Germany gained a new advocate. They just deserve to live as much as we do.
Fun Fact: Wolves are considerate a holy animal in Slavic mythology. 😀 Some parts of Orthodox Christianity do call believers to mimic the wolfs and be family oriented, humble and cunning. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s interesting, because they still have such a bad reputation here in Germany.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wolves are cool.
Have a fabulous day. ♥
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are! Such a shame that I was blinded by prejudice for so long.
LikeLike
That is the way I always look at it, since most animals are not out to intentionally harm you, they are just living to survive and protect their area as we all do. Most often we have encroached on their homes and not the other way. I think that wolves are beautiful, and as you note, all creatures have to eat. We have a little roadrunner here that likes to sit in my tree and stalk the small birds for his dinner. While I don’t like to see this, I understand that he is hungry too, and has a right to eat. Most of the small birds tend to stay out of the tree when he is near, so he has to work a little harder, but he is thriving and so are most of them, it is a balance of nature and I don’t resent him for that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that’s the best way to see it. This is nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person