The following account comes from Stories of Animal Sagacity by William Henry Giles Kingston (1875):
Even a wolf, savage as that animal is, may, if caught young, and treated kindly, become tame.
A story is told of a wolf which showed a considerable amount of affection for its master. He had brought it up from a puppy, and it became as tame as the best-trained dog, obeying him in everything. Having frequently to leave home, and not being able to take the wolf with him, he sent it to a menagerie, where he knew it would be carefully looked after. At first the wolf was very unhappy, and evidently pined for its absent master. At length, resigning itself to its fate, it made friends with its keepers; and recovered its spirits.
Fully eighteen months had passed by, when its old master, returning home, paid a visit to the menagerie. Immediately he spoke, the wolf recognised his voice, and made strenuous efforts to get free. On being set at liberty, it sprang forward, and leaped up and caressed him like a dog. Its master, however, left it with its keepers, and three years passed away before he paid another visit to the menagerie. Notwithstanding this lapse of time, the wolf again recognised him, and exhibited the same marks of affection.
On its master again going away, the wolf became gloomy and desponding, and refused its food, so that fears were entertained for its life. It recovered its health, however, and though it suffered its keepers to approach, exhibited the savage disposition of its tribe towards all strangers.
The history of this wolf shows you that the fiercest tempers may be calmed by gentleness.
I must differ with the author here. It is likely that this particular wolf had some genetic tendencies that made it more disposed being more like a dog.
One should not use this particular account to make the case for keeping pet wolves. Pet wolves are for those who know how to handle large and powerful dogs that can be nervous and emotionally reactive. Many wolves do not tolerate strangers and can be quite aggressive towards. Understanding canine prey drive is a definite necessity, because it is very easy to stimulate wolves into full-blown hunting behavior. This behavior can be stimulated by something as simple as a child crying. There are dogs that can have exactly the same reaction, but the behavior is generally more common in wolves.
Wolves also cannot be socialized to humans once they are 19 to 21 days of age. And for this socialization to take place, they must be bottle-fed. If reared on their mothers, they never learn to trust people.
Raising wolf pups in the presence of dogs can lead to them imprinting on dogs but not people.
Wolves are generally hard to make into dogs. They may be the same species, but just as a bulldog will never be a Labrador, a wolf will never be a golden retriever.
But that said, it is obvious to me that not all wolves have these hard to handle characteristics.
The one in the story above clearly had some characteristics that predisposed it to becoming very dog-like.
And it’s not the only one.
Adolph Murie kept a pet bitch wolf pup named Wags as part of his study of the Mt. McKinley wolves. Wags proved to be very much like a dog.
She was a very friendly animal that enjoyed playing with both dogs and children.
Wolves like these had to have been once common the wild populations. Centuries of relentless persecution probably selected against these characteristics, making these wolves far less numerous.
However, I’m fairly certain that some tamable wolves still exist. These are likely found in the regions where wolf persecution has never been all that common. As I have mentioned before, there are accounts of arctic wolf pups that have been socialized to humans while still nursing from their mothers.
It is likely that the first dogs came from wolves that could be socialized in this fashion, and they came from wolves that had a predisposition towards a kind of dog-like docility.
Just because wolves are hard to domesticate now doesn’t mean that it was always the case.
It had to have been very easy.
So easy that a caveman could do it.
“So easy that a caveman could do it.”
You are a terrible person.
I’ve been using that one for a while for my dog domestication posts…
I like your blog retrieverman, you write well.
The idea that wolves found today are different from the wolves that spawned dogs is a good point, and it is true of all of the dog breeds too.
Even if a breed looks similar today when compared to years ago, the balance of genes has shifted, changing working ability, immune system, and gait.
Although there are certainly personality differences, and some wolves will certainly be friendlier with people than others due to that, I believe it has MUCH more to do with how the person treats them in a captive situation than genetics–the old “nuture vs. nature” debate! The key, I think,(and from my experiences) is to NOT try to make them into dogs, but let them be themselves(wolves) as much as possible(and KNOW what that means…), and adapt your own(human) behaviour to accomodate THEM–some dogs do better with this approach too–Sighthounds, especially, come to mind in this respect. As for wolf memory regarding their reactions to individual humans, I can attest for that–it is remarkable! I once got to go visit(inside the enclosure with them) 3 wolves donated to a Nature center by some friends who worked with a well-known captive wolf pack. I got to visit them as pups a few times, and later a handful of times as adults. Then many years passed(5 or 6?) before I got to visit again–I merely had to walk up to the enclosure and call them–many other people were standing around–but the wolves ignored the other people completely, and rushed over to greet me, wildly enthusiastically, through the fence! They clearly recognized me, even though I had only been an occaisional visitor. The other people watching were amazed, and assumed I was their keeper. “No” I told them when asked, “Just an old friend….”