It used to be fun running survival courses within sound of the wolves howling..... some of the course members did not get a lot of sleep...
Bringing back Britain's large carnivores
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RICKY RASPER
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The last confirmed wolves in the British Isles roamed the mountains of County Carlo Ireland. The last one shot there was in 1786 on Mount Leinster. There is however proof that a dead she wolf and her cubs were found funnily enough on "Wolf Bog" County Antrim in 1887!!! I have heard howls in the dead of night on the Antrim Plateau that have turned my blood cold !, the only other time I can recall hearing a similar but not as fierce sound was when I went camping in the Pyrenees and heard Black Wolves!
You never howled at the Moon, just for the fun of it, on an icy cold night ? 
It's astonishing how the sound carries, especially on hills or over water at a lochside
My Father did it at our camp once when I was a child, and there were echoes and responses from other camps right along the lochside
Brilliant
Blacktimberwolf, there are a lot more folks than just hikers and hillwalkers using the Highlands; they're not empty. There's already an outcry over the person who wants to fence off his estate to allow moose, reindeer and wolves to roam.
Moose, seriously
we have enough bother with deer
M
cheers,
Toddy
It's astonishing how the sound carries, especially on hills or over water at a lochside
My Father did it at our camp once when I was a child, and there were echoes and responses from other camps right along the lochside
Brilliant
Blacktimberwolf, there are a lot more folks than just hikers and hillwalkers using the Highlands; they're not empty. There's already an outcry over the person who wants to fence off his estate to allow moose, reindeer and wolves to roam.
Moose, seriously
we have enough bother with deer M
cheers,
Toddy
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RICKY RASPER
Guest
Yes I have heard people ?try? to mimic wolf howls and some are indeed very convincing ?that is? until you hear the real thing and realise that a wolf can sustain an unbroken ?and most importantly ?unmodulated wail.
Human wolf howl= OWooooooooOW-OW-OWoooooooooo. = to keep a half decent volume a human must recharge his lungs every 10 seconds and to do that he is compelled to do that silly OW-OW thing after every breath that enables him to start a second and third triad.
Real wolf howl= OWoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo= 35 unbroken seconds at sustained volume. Remember? I have heard the real thing in Portugal, you could not mistake a real wolf for someone on LSD howling at the moon. As for hearing someone on the plateau at night or even in the day is highly unlikely, it's almost 3000 square km and at night you are likely to have 500 square km all to ones ownsome!
Human wolf howl= OWooooooooOW-OW-OWoooooooooo. = to keep a half decent volume a human must recharge his lungs every 10 seconds and to do that he is compelled to do that silly OW-OW thing after every breath that enables him to start a second and third triad.
Real wolf howl= OWoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo= 35 unbroken seconds at sustained volume. Remember? I have heard the real thing in Portugal, you could not mistake a real wolf for someone on LSD howling at the moon. As for hearing someone on the plateau at night or even in the day is highly unlikely, it's almost 3000 square km and at night you are likely to have 500 square km all to ones ownsome!
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RICKY RASPER
Guest
@treadlightly
I do concur that my writing style may have been unduly and regretfully irrevocably influenced by the Gothic pens of the nineteenth century. I do however, stand by my words! There are wolves on that vast sheep laden plateau!!!
I do concur that my writing style may have been unduly and regretfully irrevocably influenced by the Gothic pens of the nineteenth century. I do however, stand by my words! There are wolves on that vast sheep laden plateau!!!
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RICKY RASPER
Guest
I think you're mistaken on the harmonics, humans are very, very good mimics, and my Father never took LSD in his life; spent a few shillings on whisky occasionally though
cheers,
Toddy
cheers,
Toddy
How did you know they were black ?..................Wolves have only started to colonize the Pyrenees since about 2010, or rather traces of them have been found, principally the dejections which have been DNA'd.................they are a branch of the Italian wolves which came accross the alps & started to colonize the French Alps in the early 90's........interestingly, they crossed the whole of the south of France without anyone knowing
European wolves arn't black though.
There's already an outcry over the person who wants to fence off his estate to allow moose, reindeer and wolves to roam.
Moose, seriously
Yeah I think his idea is to attract rich punters to come & watch wolves tear apart various ungulates from the relative safty & comfort of Range Rovers........
A sort of caledonian Safari
A few years ago while doing avian inventory in the Flathead Valley, early one morning I heard the howls of a pack of wolves as they gathered either after a successful hunt or just a morning greeting. Being rather close it was an amazing thing to hear and you can't help walk away with a powerful impression of these critters.
Interesting thread. As one who basically lives with large to mid-sized carnivores just outside his doorstep (black bears / grizzlies / lynx / bobcat / cougar / wolves / coyotes / wolverines) they do need huge amounts of territory albeit overlapping. It is also obvious that carnivores need a good supply of food in said territory and that usually means ungulates. It would be nice to see large carnivores return to the old country but in terms of practicality and fairness on the animals in question, it is presently unrealistic IMO.
I constantly have critters like this apple-raider in my garden, although fascinating to some extent, things can get out of hand since this bear decided to rip off some of my neighbours vinyl siding and trashed his wooden door in an effort to get in. How many folk are willing to accept that?
Gorgeous pic. I'm odd enough to actually relish the thought of a big black neighbour like that. But I know most folk wouldn't. Love to visit your garden if I ever get over there to visit friends in Takoma and BC.
I think you're mistaken on the harmonics, humans are very, very good mimics, and my Father never took LSD in his life; spent a few shillings on whisky occasionally though
cheers,
Toddy
No he's quite right. I too have heard the real thing; in my living room. My wolf/malamute, Star, could keep that unmodulating tone for a time that would easily choke a human.
I've seen their pictures in the local newspaper at least four times per year for the last twenty years. They get caught raiding trash cans then climb the nearest tree. At least once it put the nearby school on lockdown for half a day and another time one was shot when he attacked the man whose yard it was in. Once I got lucky enough to see one ambling across the road on the way home from work one morning; he (the bear) was lucky also in that he didn't get hit by a car. We have one killed by collisions with cars every other year or so.
All that aside, their population is growing and I expect in another ten years or so there'll be a sustainable enough population we can open a hunting season on them!
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wish I'd been there John. I'd be one of those not sleeping ... because I'd be in love and want to be in there with them :Wow:
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RICKY RASPER
Guest
How did you know they were black ?..................Wolves have only started to colonize the Pyrenees since about 2010, or rather traces of them have been found, principally the dejections which have been DNA'd.................they are a branch of the Italian wolves which came accross the alps & started to colonize the French Alps in the early 90's........interestingly, they crossed the whole of the south of France without anyone knowing
European wolves arn't black though.
In the 80's, the era of my camping trip ( I was doing my geology Phd thesis on Pyrenean mountains ) the Black Wolfe ( a domestic dog and wolf hybrid ) was the predominate variant south of the mountains and was putting pressure on the indigenous Pyrenees Wolf. At that time there was a cull taking place of the black hybrid which proved to be very successful. Locals in the area would say " Preto! Preto! " when a Black Wolf howled. I soon learned from the local hunters that the black wolf not only sounded very different from the Iberian Wolf ( which I never heard once ) but they also bark, something, I was told the Iberian Wolf never does. The Iberian peninsula has had wolf populations since before the last ice age so were you got the "only been there since 2010" is quite funny.:You_Rock_
How did you know they were black ?..................Wolves have only started to colonize the Pyrenees since about 2010, or rather traces of them have been found, principally the dejections which have been DNA'd.................they are a branch of the Italian wolves which came accross the alps & started to colonize the French Alps in the early 90's........interestingly, they crossed the whole of the south of France without anyone knowing
European wolves arn't black though.
Ummm ... well ... when we were there camping in the wilds in 1994 we heard them. Asked the farmer on who's land we pitched about it, she said there were wolves ... No idea what colour though. We were somewhere off Gourette in the Black Forest I think.
Lung capacity
and the howl actually does modulate across it's length.
I have friends who are into 'woodland' music, and this topic was discussed for ages amongst us.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/howl.html
Filled to capacity wolf lungs hold about 2.5ltrs, while humans average somewhere around 5ltrs.
A little bit of practice in howling instead of speech, and humans do surprisingly well.
Like whistling down buzzards, or singing for whales and dolphins
cheers,
Toddy
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RICKY RASPER
Guest
Hi Toddy I don,t know of ??any human?? good mimic or not who is capable of being heard at a distance of 12 miles. Not even with Nigle Tufnel's speakers that "go all the way up to eleven"I think you're mistaken on the harmonics, humans are very, very good mimics, and my Father never took LSD in his life; spent a few shillings on whisky occasionally though
cheers,
Toddy
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