Never Cry Wolf (book)

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For the film adaptation, see Never Cry Wolf (film).
Never Cry Wolf
Book cover for Never Cry Wolf
Author Farley Mowat
Country Canada
Language English
Subject(s) Autobiography
Genre(s) Non-fiction
Publisher McClelland and Stewart
Publication date 1963
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 256 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-316-88179-1

Never Cry Wolf is a book by Canadian author Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. It was adapted into a moderately successful movie of the same name in 1983. It has been credited for dramatically changing the public image of the North American animal to a more positive one.

It is presented as a first-person narrative of Mowat's research into the nature of the North American Wolf; however, there is some debate over whether much of the book is indeed factual. In the May, 1996 issue of Saturday Night, John Goddard poked many holes in this claim. Mowat denied Goddard's criticisms but did not refute the specific accusations. [1]

L. David Mech, an internationally recognized wolf expert who has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale, stated that Mowat is no scientist and that in all his studies, he had never encountered a wolf pack which regularly subsisted on small prey as shown in Mowat's book.[2]

However, in Never Cry Wolf, Mowat does not suggest that the wolves he writes about subsist regularily on mice; only that they kill caribou in much smaller numbers than had been previously reported and that their diet was supplemented with small prey.

[edit] Characters

Farley Mowat: Narrator of the book who describes his experiences with wolves in the sub-arctic [3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Burgess, Steve (1999-05-11). Northern exposure. Salon. Retrieved on 2006-03-24.
  2. ^ Shedd, Warner (2000). Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife, pp.336. ISBN 0609605291. 
  3. ^ Mowat, Farley: "Never Cry Wolf ISBN 0316881791