|
Charlie Branch
, March 07, 2012
(view all comments by Charlie Branch)
You must read the author's preface to understand his arrival at an interest in wolves. Having learned some Spanish at an early age in Texas, and wanting adventure (and his parents being able to afford it) Will Graves went to Mexico City, where he lived with a Mexican family and studied at the University of the Americas. Following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Mexico in 1946, which infected 15 million head of livestock in a rapid spread toward Texas, the U.S. and Mexico began a joint campaign to eradicate the highly virulent disease before it reached Texas and the U.S. cattle industry. Thus began Mr. Graves' interest in FMD, anthrax and other livestock diseases, as he served as a Livestock Investigator/Vaccinator in a horseback sector out of Oaxaca. In 1950, the Korean War intervened, and he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, being sent to study Russian at Syracuse University, where one the first words he learned was the Russian for FMD. His interest in the canine vectors of livestock diseases led him to research the Russian history of experience with wolves.
This book is well-researched and organized, with some minimal editing by renowned wildlife biologist Valerius Geist. Reading the chapter on "Parasites and Dieases" should give anyone pause...
Having howled one evening with a pack of wolves in SE Alaska, differentiating between a dozen and a half voices, it did feel a bit unnerving by early morning when the voices had spread out along the neighboring ridges. Investigating our crew? And I now wonder whether a black bear that I watched for most of two summers had an encounter with wolves, rather than another bear, when I saw it with a large triangular flap of hide peeled back along its left hip.
|