Wolves and Humans

Comparing wolves to humans is a very difficult thing to do, to begin with our entire genetic make up is completely different from these four legged forest dwellers.

Physically speaking, there aren’t even any similarities I can think of. Even when it comes to the five basic senses we humans fall short to what these animals can do, their sense of smell is a hundred times better than a human beings and don’t even get me started on their hearing ability which is by the way twenty times stronger than ours.

So we see and we know that we are completely different when it comes to wolves but there is something which I think is something we have in common with them, children or in a wolf’s case, pups.

There’s this famous African proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child, well fun fact when it comes to wolves the expectations are practically the same. When the female and male alpha’s, who are basically the strongest in the pack and also acts as the leaders, have a pup the entire pack is actually expected to assist in bearing the child.
In other words, pups are so special in a pack that the entire group actually is present to witness and wait for its arrival of these little young critters.

Isn’t it amazing that for animals they already have this basic instinct that tells them that these little ones are what’s going to help them keep their pack alive and strong in the next generations to come.

For humans, when a child is brought into this world we celebrate it, but that’s not the case for everyone. Other people find it taxing, unexpected, sometimes the child ends up being unwanted, and the reasons are sometimes pretty selfish.

For some people, another child is just another mouth to feed, it’s very sad but at the same time very true. Wolves on the other hand, when a pup is born they don’t think of it as another burden to bear, but look at it as another addition to their family.

They hunt in packs, move in packs, and will raise the pup as a pack. The environment may be harsh, but at least they ensure that the pup becomes strong and survives in the coming winters.

They provide a strong and group focused environment that doesn’t focus on the idea of “me” but instead highlights the value of “we”. Their group dynamics and fundamentals are so instilled in their DNA that their species were able to survive in this world that continues to change rapidly. Despite the changes being against them, despite their eco-systems being destroyed, despite their territories quickly being taken up by civilization, despite their lowering population number, they are still there, as they were hundreds of years ago.

They create packs, they hunt, they move across the land, they birth pups, they die and this cycle goes on and on. But their way of living stays the same, they stay loyal to their pack, they hunt as a pack, they raise their pups as a pack, basically and most importantly they survive as a pack.