Ian Convery & Owen Nevin 
The Wolf 
Culture, Nature, Heritage

New insights into the changing human attitudes towards wild nature through the depiction of wolves in human culture and heritage.


Few animals arouse such strong opinion as the wolf. It occupies a contested, ambiguous, yet central role in human culture and heritage. It appears as both an inspirational emblem of the wild and an embodiment of evil. Offering a mirror to different human attitudes, beliefs, and values, the wolf is, arguably, the species that plays the greatest role in shaping our views on what nature is or should be.


North America and, more recently, Europe have witnessed a remarkable return of the grey wolf (Canis lupus, and its close relative the Eurasian wolf, Canis lupus lupus) to eco-systems. The essays collected here explore aspects of this recovery, and consider the history, literature and myth surrounding this iconic species. There are chapters on wolf taxonomy, including the coywolf, the red wolf, and the many faces of the dingo. We also meet the Tasmanian wolf and encounter Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space. The book explores the challenges of separating fact from fiction and superstition, and our willingness to co-exist with large carnivores in the twenty-first century. Biologists, historians, anthropologists, cultural theorists, conservationists and museologists will all find riches in the detail presented in this wolf collection.

Table of Content

Preface & Acknowledgments

Poem: Trophic Cascade by
Camille T. Dungy

Foreword

Luigi Boitani

Part I: Imagining the Wolf

1. The Wolf in the Human Mind Across Space and Time

Erwin van Maanen

2. A History of Wolves and People in France

Jean-Marc Moriceauand P van Maanen

3. Wolvesand Other Mammals Hunted in Medieval English Forests

Lee Raye

4. ‘
Uuluesheued!’ The Historical Significance of the Wolf to Early Indo-Europeans

Rob Lenders

5. Wolves Behind Bars

Helen Cowie

6. Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space: Posthuman-wolf-multiplicities and Their (Mis)appropriations

Jamie Mcphie

7. Never Mind the Girl; What about the Wolf?

Marie Addyman

8. Whose Wolf Is It Anyway? Wolves, Wilderness and Belonging

Chris Powici

9. Defined ‘as much by their absence as their iconography’: Reimagining Wolves in Cumbria in Sarah Hall’s
The Wolf Border

Penny Bradshaw

10. A ‘Wasteland’ Infested by Wolves: The Fallacy of ‘Dark Age’ England

Elizabeth Marshall

Part II: What Makes the Wolf?

11. The Wolf Pack

Peter Davis

12. The Wolf in the Pastoral System of Southern France

Jean-Marc Landry and Jean-Luc Borelli

13.Contemporary Public Images of the Wolf

Helene Figari and Ketil Skogen

14. ‘The Sweetness of Freedom’: Reflections on the Occasion of the Japanese Wolf

Holger Funk

15. Reimagining the Dingo: The ‘Australian Wolf’ or Just a Feral Dog?

Bradley P. Smith, Robert G. Appleby and Kylie M. Cairns

16. ‘Pushing the Ecological Niche: A ​Sea Wolf Called Takaya.’

Cheryl Alexander and Karen Lloyd

17. ‘Hunger-Greedy Appetite’: The Wolf in Early-Modern English Natural History

Marie Addyman

18. What About the Coywolf?

Javier D. Monzón

19. Is that a wolf? Politics, Science and Red Wolf Identity

Peter Brewitt and Lawson Giles

20. The Thylacine – A Wolf in Name Only

Stephen R. Sleightholme and Cameron R. Campbell

Part III: Return of the Wolf

21. Landscapes of Coexistence: Livestock and Wolves in the Mountains of North Spain

Nigel Dykes

22. The Wolves of Yellowstone – Saviour of the Songbird or Piece of the Puzzle?

TJ Clark-Wolf, Rene Beyers, Peter Brewitt, Ian Convery & Owen Nevin

23. Wolf-Beaver Dynamics in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, Minnesota

Thomas D. Gable, Sean Johnson-Bice, Austin T. Homkes, Steve K. Windels, John G. Bruggink, and Joseph K. Bump

24. The Return of the Wolf in Germany: A Success Story of Rewilding with a Future?

James Brückner and Erwin van Maanen

25. Finding Common Ground with Wolves: Interspecies Communication is a Shared Landscape

Martin Drenthen

26. The Case for Wolves in the UK

Ian Convery, Owen Nevin, Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby, Deborah Brady & Mark Fisher

Part IV Personal Encounters

27. Tracking Wolves in Western Europe: A Photo-Essay

Photography by Marielle van Uitert and text by Karen Lloyd

28. Speaking Out for Wolves: A Personal Reflection

Tracy Hayes

29. To Receive the Wolf

Karen Lloyd

30. Úlfr and Gris: Spectral Animal Companions of the Atomic Priest

Robert Williams

31. The Three-Legged Stool: Wolves, Shepherds and Sheep

Lee Schofield

32. The Helsfell Wolf

Karen Lloyd

Afterword: The Ecological Disadvantage of Living on an Island

Mark Fisher

About the author

Elizabeth Marshall gained her Ph D from the University of St Andrews, receiving awards for both her thesis and for her work researching the cultural and sociological issues related to top predator reintroduction to Britain.