Book Review: Wolves: Ryders in the Whirlwind by Gordon Harrison

 

Do I read enough non-fiction? Not sure. Anyways, let's dive in.

Wolves: Ryders in the Whirlwind is a predominantly non-fiction book focusing mostly on wolves and other canines, but also touches on several other animals. Using anecdotes out of the life of a real wolf the author knew, he brings up various facts and moral stances on certain animals, such as (obviously) wolves, warrahs, African wild dogs and black bears. 

This was honestly a fine book. Just fine. I don't have that much to say about it. If you're expecting it to be solely about either Big Red or wolves in general you'll be disappointed because of the amount of time that is spend talking about other species, but honestly I still enjoyed it nonetheless. I liked reading about the painted wolves and black bear the author has known.

The writing style of the author left some things to be desired, at least for me personally. When he was talking about the animals in a matter-of-fact way, I was quite interested, but honestly the snippets surrounding Big Reds life just didn't interest me. Big Red didn't feel like he had a personality, just any other wolf which sucks when you're supposed to make the reader care about him. Honestly the book would've been stronger without the Big Red parts because I kept checking out during those and was only interested when the author's own voice, facts and opinions were given.

There are some things in here I disagree with, however. For example, the author makes some mistakes regarding certain genetic mentions (saying species non-lupine species belong to the Canis lupus species. This is simply not the case. I don't recall which species he mentioned as being a wolf, but I know that they were wrong.) 

Also, the author is pro-feeding wildlife. Which is a very big nono. I get that his intentions were good (as are those of a lot of wildlife feeders), but it's simply not something that should be done. Feeding foxes/bears/wolves/any wild animal but especially predators can lead to them being habituated with humans and therefore posing a threat. You know the saying "a fed bear is a dead bear." Granted, he wasn't hand-feeding them, but it was still around his house which is obviously way too close to humans. And even if it wasn't near humans, wildlife just should not be fed.

So overall a decent read that felt mostly lacking in the xenofiction parts narrating Big Red's life. It would've probably been better as a fact book about animals than interspersing it those snippets.

Rating: 3/5