The importance of keeping wolves at a distance

The dogs we know today were first domesticated about 15,000 years ago, but more recent efforts at taming them have turned out to be tragic, and deplorable.

The message from the recent tragic death of a wolf in Kekexili, northwest China's Qinghai Province, comes out loud and clear: Keep a distance from the animals, and leave them alone.

On December 24, the local Sanjiangyuan Natural Reserve Administration in Qinghai confirmed the death of a wolf, following extensive media reports of the animal, an Internet celebrity, being inadvertently killed in a collision with a passing truck in Kekexili.

"Our investigation suggested it is true that one wolf got killed, though we cannot confirm if it was Chudaimu, the wolf that had been an online sensation for some time," the circular read.

Chudaimu is a Chinese transliteration of the Japanese videogame term meaning "the very first generation."

Although it is not known if the victim was the celebrity wolf in question, the circular went on to warn that "human feeding of wolves might lead to the atrophy of their ability to hunt on their own, and impact their survival and population balance, apart from the risk of passing on diseases among the wolves."

In time, the wolves start to lower their vigilance against passing vehicles.

About a year ago, Chudaimu became an online sensation after it famously became dependent on food proffered by passing tourists.

Rather than fleeing at the sight of approaching vehicles, it would linger expectantly by the road, wagging its tail at passing vehicles, exposing its stomach, in an apparent gesture to be fed.

It is at once amazing, and tragic, to see this once regal, and ferocious, animal deigning to be succoured by a species they could easily dispatch by wolf law.

Experts' and media appeals to tourists not to feed the beast, with the local administration even erecting billboards prohibiting the practice, apparently were to little avail.

If anything, the feeding afforded a horde of unscrupulous, aspiring influencers another way to keep the wolf from the door.

The wolf in question had decayed, visibly.

Two photographs featuring the animal taken at an interval suggest it had gained considerable weight, having a rounded stomach.

Nor was the celebrity wolf the only victim.

It is reported about four or five other wolves have come to depend on human feeding by just lingering near the highway, in spite of the fact that they are still in the prime of their life, like those influencers.

The calorie-rich and sugar-heavy human junk food thrown at them fatten up the animals, making them less agile, dexterous and wary.

"They became unafraid of passing vehicles, and would be expecting food on the highway. In the case of the tragic accident, the truck driver began to apply the brakes at the sight of the wolf, resulting in skid marks 10 to 20 meters long, but apparently it did not prevent the tragedy," a local administrator said.

To earlier warning against disturbing the wolves' habitat by feeding them, there had been counter arguments equating such practice with protection of wildlife.

This is a silly retort, for by putting these wild animals in thrall to human whims and "generosity," these "good Samaritans" are depriving the wolves of their ferocity, their freedom, their predatory instincts and their health.

The urge to convert them into playthings, and the attempt to turn them into Internet sensations that could be monetized, are plain manifestations of human encroachment on the wolves' habitat.

If the billboards erected by the reserve authority prohibiting feeding do not work, local authorities should quickly come up with more effective means to enforce the ban.