AN OLD CONTROVERSY EXPLODED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 184, 21 August 1937, Page 15

AN OLD CONTROVERSY EXPLODED

The Wolf Myth

The old eontroversy hbout whether ' WdlveS attaek human being has been revived by public&tion of Ignace PajderewsM's memjirs, in which the fam1 oua pianist tells how a paek of wolves ■urttmnded a sleigh in which he wa# riding as a boy in Eussia, and was iiriven off only by setting fire to haystack* which happened to be at hand. Mr. Paderewski appaTently Believes that the lrangfy wolves would liave attacked hin£ A newspaper correspondent referred the lacidenfc for experfc opinion to Professor P. A. Meintaefel, director of the Igoaeow ZoO. Eussia ha# mqre than its shftte of Wplves/ and Professor M^intaefel has itndied their habifs for years. He declared emphatically that wolves ia a wlld fttate do not atteck human | beJngt, ®vea ^ea bungry or ia "pacW It & tnie> eaid Professor Meintaefel, that groups of wolves sometimes follow sleighs. If the sleigh stopM, the wolves also sfop; if the driver whips np his horses, they tfOfc along beside the sleigh. But he attributes sneh conduct to curiosity. Wolves, he declares, are very curiou# animals. Professor Meintaefel said that he hae reeeived eeveral requcsts for inforjmation on thie subjeet. He has made thorongh investigation, and has not fonnd one anthentio fecord of a wolf attacking and killing a human being. He lias talked poroonaliy with hundreds. of professional hu&ters, who ara invaritbly amufced by the suggestibtt that wolves might attack them. On the eontrary, he said, amateur hunters familiar with tales of wolf attacke sometimes come back with storids of having been attacked by wolf packs. He hae questioued such people, but they have never convinced himj at any xate, they have always ejcaped -un« hort." Wolves are not afraid of human beings^ explained Professor Mel&t&efeL They often do not mn ftway at

* ^ * • Bight of a man or a sleigh. Drivers sometimes become panie-Stficken, and their horses may become frightened. But there is no reeofd Of an attack. "As for myself, ' ' eaid Professor Meintaefel "I would not hesitate in such circumstances to Btop the sleigh, get out and walk toward a group of wolves. If I did so I would be sure that they would not attack nie, but would slowly rotreat as I advanccd toward. them." Contrary to popular notions, wolves do not tun in packs, said Professor Meintaefel. In winter months, One often Bees groups of Wolves, consisting of a mother and her half-grown pups, togcther with three or four male wolves who are courting her. But wolves do not hUnt in packs. He has never known a case in which such groups excecd lG in number, Professor Meintaefel has in his flies two authenticated records of attaeks upon children by individual wolvgs. He investigated both these caees, and dis-. covered that tbe wolves concernod had been captured aJs pups and brough't up in. peasant huts, afterward escaping and running wild. They had probably been teased by children, he said, and acquired an abnormal dislike for them. Wolves in eaptivity, said Professor Meintaefel, behave much like the mere savage breeds of dogs, They are friendly to person# familiar to them, but treacherous to strangers if they get an opportunity, Professor Meintaefel himself is on gdod term# with all the Wolves in the Zoof and goes in and out of their cages without disturbanee. By selective breoding, wolves can be domestlcated, Professor Meintaefel declared. Tame wolves are us6d in ' Huasla' as watchdogs and are aometirnes even trained to draw sledges in northern Rtisiia, But they are like "one' man" dogs; safe for persons known to them, but treacherous to strangers,*