FRIEND OF WOLVES

Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1931, Page 3

FRIEND OF WOLVES

MAN’S WONDERFUL POWER. TALK. N G TO THE PACK. The wolf-call echoed through the p'no woods and .he pack came baiindi g through ilid thicket,' -then -: eye;! uglea.ii. They. p, u-awl, then dung' tlienlo T vesj with a .yiiipvoii ih- Hula a. - wild stood- among ■them;. - - 'People safely knits'de -the stbfe-1 fencing of 'the .wolves’ enclosure -at iWhtpsnade^— England s ikw zoo.og.cal park—wire petrified w.ilj. alarm, they waited to see those: ‘ hired:! ikufg§’Tim'd his throat. [.. Then he spoke to that swirling pack horde, :and the. language he used belonged’ to pile beasts. He was a. human: fyl-ood-brotlier of the pack—ra: grown-up: :Mowgli of the wolves. • “• ’ " j (Mowgli, a native boy in Kipling’s “Jungle Book,” was suckled and reared by wolves.) ...... The man spoke to the wolves in their own tongue—in the wolf language wh.ch mo; humans arek, supjasjM7 to understand. Kipling hits probably 1 hever' me,t 'Mr Spens Steuart, says the “Daily Heijald” ; but he ought',' for here is one who; in the prosaic guise of a businessman, -has' stepped out of the pages of the “Jungle Book.” i .. .Air Steuart is allowed, to go among the wolves "at Whipsnade ’ to talk to tlicilf;play with them, and tend their wounds—the battle scars., of-the pack—and • their ui]iiieiit's, c ’ .... \. ; ; ‘ '/i’hey 'greet h’iii 'Vs ~ a wi-Jcyme playmate and " gambol ' round him. like sb many dogs, leaping upon him to ’be fondled, fighting jealously for his caresses.

The keepers themselves keep the pack at a distance, and woe.to the stranger who tries to copy .Mr Steuart. “I am extremely' fond of the wolves and they, I. am sure, are very fond of me,” said Mr Steuart recently. “They even allow me to handle their cubs. I know their language arid 1 know them all by name. I can call them individually and'talk ? to ’them, i \'/ , - • “Tknew most i)f the Whipsnade wolves at the Regent's .Park Zoo. joe fore they went to Whipsnade. 'would he about nine months old when they were moved. : I did not see .them again for over a yea'. to

“I went down to Whipsnade and called the wolves all by name. I could scarcely hope that they had 'remembered me so long ; vet they‘/came' bounding out ' of the woods to greet me. You see I had nursed their mother through, an illness? It took me eight- years to learn their language; but there is no sound now in their vocabulary which I cannot make and understand. They answer me and talk to me.”

Once Mr Steuart was in the cage at the zoo with a she-wolf, the mate ol the “Idler Wolf”—vso dangerous that even Mr Steuart did not trust himself to tackle him. He was sitting petting her, with her head nestling on -his knee, when the “Killer” suddenly appeared through a partition accidentally left unlocked. He rushed’- forward with a jealous snarl, his eve blazing. . . J ' Mr Steuart, alarmed for once,'- oegan to back toward the door, talking to the “-Killer” in the wolf-language the while. ' The enraged animal was bewildered, and, while istill angry,'kept his distance until keepers undid the gate qiid Mr (Steuart was able to edge through. After a time he v mad.e great friends with; the “Killer.” i