Never Cry Wolf Analysis

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat is a non-fiction story about naturalist Farley Mowat, on an expedition to find out why so many caribou were being killed. Mowat’s superiors believed that wolves were killing the caribou. He spent almost a year investigating the wolves’ way of life focusing on a small pack made up of two males and a female with her pups. Mowat camped near their den and observed their eating and hunting habits.He observed that wolves rarely ate caribou and when they did, it was the weak and sick ones. Also, with the help of Ootek, a local Eskimo he was able to understand how wolves communicate and hunt, and he saw that these wolves were not a tremendous threat to the caribou. This book gives the reader a view into the life of these wild animals and how they all work together in their unique environment. Mowat had many doubts, but he slowly understood the truth about wolves. He also spent time following the wolves as they hunted and
“Of the hunts I subsequently watched, almost all followed the pattern of the first one I had seen.” (p200) Mowat followed the wolves as they hunted and he realized that Ootek was right - the wolves only preyed on the weak and sick. He also observed that the wolves did not waste any food and that they only killed what they needed. Mowat also saw the wolves’ method of training their pups. Adult wolves separated the caribou,chased a couple of fawns and then let the pups take over the chase and try to take them down. All that Mowat learned abled him to comprehend how wolves lived and worked together to survive. The reader can expand her knowledge of wolves because information presented comes together to make this book more