Descending Shadows - Timberwolves

As a species, Canis lupus has adapted to a variety of habitats, including completely open country. Arctic wolves live on the treeless tundra, and the Eurasian subspecies may live on grassy steppe or Israeli deserts. Timber wolves are generally associated with vast virgin forests, as in this painting in which I have shown a pack of wolves cautiously emerging from big timber.

As a culture, wolves live communally and teach their young. A culture whose lifestyle has evolved in deep forests needs those vast undisturbed tracts of old trees in order to survive. Unfortunately, these vast tracts are exactly what man's insatiable appetite for fibre requires. The destruction of forests in the past few decades has far surpassed that of previous centuries. Let us hope that we can find alternative sources of fibre and protect these large areas of old growth forests and the wolves which inhabit them. If we can save some forests, it will benefit not only the wolves, but future generations of man.