Wolf’s Return Frees Our Caged Spirit

Canis lupus, the gray wolf, is at last home in Yellowstone National Park. Held in one-acre “acclimation” pens since Jan. 12, the wolves were shown an open door to their new world this week, out of sight of the media.

If the actual release was relatively quiet, the wolf’s return to its ancestral home has been anything but. From the day last year when the secretary of the Interior first announced that wild wolves were to be reintroduced in Yellowstone, America has celebrated long and loud. Television and radio stations, newspapers and magazines across the country have featured the story again and again to an overwhelmingly supportive public. If the wolf were a candidate, it could be elected to Congress. Some no doubt would like it elected in place of Congress.

Why are Americans so supportive of the wolf in its struggle for survival? I believe the answer lies deep in our psyche.

Although it is a desire difficult to satisfy on an industrialized and increasingly crowded planet, humans have an innate psychological need for the beauty and inspiration of unspoiled nature. For all of its existence, humanity has been an integral part of the natural world around us. And evolutionary biologists such as Harvard’s Edward O. Wilson believe we retain a powerful genetic affinity for that natural world.

But rather than acting as partners in the natural community of life, humans have become primarily exploiters and conquerors of nature. Many view nature almost exclusively as an economic resource, or even as an obstacle to be overcome. It is true enough that exploitation of natural resources has brought great benefits. But experience has taught that human happiness depends on more than material gain. Riches cannot cure the psychological maladies that seem increasingly part of modern urbanized existence.

Americans, despite our wealth, are obsessed with human problems and stressed by the incessant demands and communications overload that modern society imposes. Feelings of alienation are common. Few of us have the time or means to escape more than occasionally to places where it is possible simply to enjoy the beauty of nature, to find peace of mind, to gain fresh perspective.

Because the need to feel a part of nature is inherent in each of us, we subconsciously seek to restore our lost connection with nature. And the wolf provides that opportunity.

Also, because the wolf is in danger of extinction, its plight affords humans the chance to express our need not only for nature but also for caring about something other than ourselves. The wolf needs us, and there is deep satisfaction in responding. We might wish that the compassion we feel for the wolf extended as well to the thousands of other species similarly imperiled. But few if any of those other species are as charismatic, and probably none has such a long history of being unfairly persecuted by humankind.

Most species become endangered because of human-caused elimination of their habitat. But, in the wolf’s case, endangerment resulted largely from a government-sponsored extermination campaign that included poisoning, gassing, shooting, trapping and even such grotesque practices as lassoing and literally tearing wolves apart. Humans are guilty of having acted inhumanely, and showing compassion now is an opportunity to assuage our guilt.

For many people, the wolf is not just a part of the natural community - it is the very embodiment of wild nature. While folktales like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs” engender a deep-seated and irrational fear of the wolf, books such as “The Call of the Wild” and “White Fang” have cemented in our psyches the oneness of wolves and wilderness. By helping to restore the very symbol of wilderness, we too are restored in spirit.

I am not known to overflow with optimism about the human future. But like most people, I am eager to interpret any positive event as a possible sign of better things to come. Is the impressive public support for rescuing the wolf from extinction such a sign? I hope so. If it is, it could be an indication that we are entering a new era in which our cultural response to nature comes to complement better our genetic need for nature. And if that happens, who knows what is possible? The result might even be that we become a nation of people who are happier and richer spiritually because, paradoxically, we have learned to care deeply about something beyond our own personal, day-today concerns.

Moral theorists call this the great moral paradox - humans can maximize their personal happiness only by not directly pursuing it. Thus a selftranscending concern for wild creatures enriches nature and the people who experience it. This, I believe, is the main source of the outpouring of heartfelt public support for Canis lupus.

xxxx