Chapter 5 Why do wolves raise children①

Since the article "The Enlightenment of Wolf Children" was published in the magazine, many readers have expressed in their letters that they are puzzled by the fact that "wolves raise children". , but bring up the child?In addition to trying to answer the question below, an interesting question is raised - are wolves really that "bad"? ① This article was written on June 8, 1978, originally published in "Wolf Boy Snowman Fire Fossil", Tianjin People's Publishing House, 1979 edition. After reading the article "Revelation of Wolf Children", many readers believe that the fact of wolf children has deepened the understanding of the origin of human beings.They didn't believe in the "wolf children" at first. After seeing this article and photos, they seemed to have to believe it, but they were puzzled. Why didn't wolves eat Kamala and Amala, but instead raised them?

This is indeed a very interesting question.Whenever a wolf is mentioned, hateful images such as "grandmother wolf", "big bad wolf", "wolf in sheep's clothing" and so on emerge in people's minds. Whether in daily life or in works of art, there are many topics about wolves. This is because among all wild animals, wolves have the closest relationship with humans. Among the Indians in Mongolia and North America, the myths and legends about wolves are the most abundant, and they are often described as "cruel" and "cunning" guys; in Western European mythology, the most powerful and fierce gods are "Wolf God"!Wolves have the habit of being in packs. In the desolate wilderness of ice and snow, a pack of hungry wolves is very scary, not only attacking domestic animals, but sometimes hurting people.The howling of wolves in the middle of the night is the most miserable and frightening. Just the words "howling ghosts and howling wolves" seem creepy. The wolf seems to have become a symbol of "horror", "cruelty" and "cunning".In particular, wolves have brought disasters to animal husbandry. According to a survey report, in 1823, as many as 26,993 livestock were killed by wolves in Latvia alone!So people hate it. In order to avoid its harm, they have adopted a policy of ruthless eradication of wolves.

Isn't it strange that such a "ferocious" wolf can raise children?When I first came into contact with the information about "Wolf Boy", the author also felt incredible. Although I thought about it many times and tried to explain it, it was not convincing in the end, so I didn't mention why this happened in the article "Revelation of Wolf Boy" reason.What is the explanation?I'll just give it a try. First of all, you should understand the history of wolves-- "Wolf", also known as "grey wolf", belongs to "dog-shaped carnivore" (or "dog class") in animal taxonomy.After the appearance of dogs in the Oligocene, they continued to differentiate and develop. In the Pleistocene and modern times, it can be regarded as reaching its heyday, and produced many species, including wild dogs, wolves, foxes and big-eared foxes in the northern hemisphere. and various highly specialized dogs of South America and Africa.Wolves are a very successful lineage of dog-like carnivores.According to fossil records, it is known that it was first discovered in the Early Pleistocene strata, and there are many types of wolf fossils in the later strata. Up to now, wolves and their close relatives are almost all over the world.However, as a "real wolf", it is only produced in Europe, Asia, and North America.True wolves are mostly grouped into one species, the "northern wolf" or "wolf" for short.In addition, there are a few other species with different names. They are North American "coyote", "Japanese wolf" and "Indian wolf".

The reason why wolves have developed very successfully is that during the long-term evolution process, they have acquired strong adaptability and can endure various severe environments.It is good at running, quick in action, has the endurance to chase prey for a long time and has strong hunger resistance.Its gregariousness is very strong, and it often hunts in groups in the north, and it can also divide labor and cooperate when hunting.However, in the south, due to the warm climate, deep grass and dense forests, which are good for feeding and hiding, this kind of clustering disappears. Even in winter, only three or two live together, rarely like dozens or hundreds in the north. Only group activities.

As a carnivore, wolves, like tigers and leopards, naturally prey on other animals. However, it is worth noting that during summer and autumn, it is the season for feeding young wolves. At this time, wolves begin to live in a "small family". Habits are a bit special.Wolves are prolific animals. There are usually five or six wolves in one litter, up to eleven or twelve.The pups can climb out of the den to bask in the sun in the third and fourth weeks after birth, and the lactation period can generally last for 5 to 6 months.According to observations, wolves are very thoughtful and meticulous in taking care of and protecting their cubs, especially the female wolf. When the pup is born one and a half months later, it will catch meat to feed the pup. When the pup goes hunting, the mother wolf does her best to teach the hunting skills, as if hoping that the pup will become self-reliant early.According to observations, female wolves not only love their offspring very much, but also take in wolf cubs who lost their mothers in other "families", and even adopt puppies!Therefore, in legends and literary works of some countries, this strong maternal instinct is called "wolf-like maternal love".During the period of nurturing the cubs, the male wolf is also very "generous" to the cubs, so during this period, the wolf is not very scary.

In recent years, some foreign materials have mentioned that the wolf is not as "bad" as we say and imagine, and its "nature" is not as "cruel and ruthless" as it is rendered in works of art and fables .These materials really sound like they want to "reverse the case" for wolves.According to a recently published book titled "Endangered Species," the wolf "was once widespread and considered a pest in most countries of the northern hemisphere, and is now nearly extinct."It is said that wolves have been declared to be protected in some countries.

Wolves are very gregarious. During the period of feeding young wolves, female wolves will show a strong maternal instinct. They not only take care of other wolves, but even take care of puppies. Male wolves are also very "generous" to their cubs.Judging from these habits, it is not without biological prerequisites to take in and raise human infants, and it seems to be possible. So how did this possibility become a reality?Try a few guesses: One is the inspiration from "Leopard Boy". In 1920, such a thing happened in a small village named Munz Kachar in India: The hunters in the village killed two young leopards in the nearby virgin forest and brought them back to the village.At this time, the female leopard was following the hunter and watching around the village.Two days later, a peasant woman was working in the field near the primeval forest, and her two-year-old boy was playing on the ground. Suddenly she heard the child's cry, and when she looked back, a leopard took her son away.Since it was never found again, people thought that the child must have been killed by a leopard.

Unexpectedly, three years later, hunters killed a female leopard near the village, and found two cubs and a little boy in the cave where she lived!This is the child who disappeared three years ago.At this time, he was five years old, and he could only crawl on all fours. There were thick calluses on his palms and knees, and the skin all over his body had been rubbed into thick skin.Covered with scars.When people approached him, he would bite them, and when he saw chickens and ducks, he would pounce on them and tear them up and eat them.The child lived only three years after being retrieved from the wild. Although he learned to stand upright and walk on two feet, he soon suffered from eye diseases and lost both eyes.This is the famous "Leopard Child".Relevant scientific researchers have investigated him, and in the 1950s, they reported on the French "Nature" magazine, and also published photos of "Leopard Children".

From this case, it can be seen that the mother leopard snatched the child after losing the cub, which I still attribute to the drive of "maternal instinct".It is not impossible for an animal with a strong maternal instinct like a she-wolf to snatch its young if for some reason it loses its young.Especially in India, people often sleep in the open air when the weather is hot. In addition to the warm climate, it is easy to find food in the forest, so it is not surprising that "wolf children" often occur in India. Another: Allegedly, Indian "wolf children" Kamala and Amala may be abandoned children.In capitalist countries, it is not uncommon for poor children to be abandoned in the wild because they have no money to raise them.Is it possible that they smelled of wolves in abandoned places and were taken to feed by wolves who mistook them for their own pups?This is what I got after receiving letters from several readers.

Comrade Song Billi from Shanghai wrote a letter introducing several things he came into contact with: First, when a hen leads her hatched chicks, if a foreign chick breaks in, the hen will peck it and drive it away. The hen's repulsive behavior can be eliminated by fumigation with moxa fume along with the hen and her chicks.The other is that an advanced deed of a model breeder has been reported in China, saying that two sows gave birth to piglets at the same time, one sow had insufficient milk to feed her own piglets, and the other sow had enough milk , but do not want to accept other cubs to nurse, what should I do?The breeder found that with the grass in the litter of a sow with few litters and sufficient milk, and rubbing the body of the non-biological piglet, the sow could not recognize the foreign piglet and let it suck.Another is that the cuckoo does not build its own nest or brood its own chicks, but lays its eggs in the nests of warblers, thrushes and other birds that are much smaller than itself, and let these birds hatch and feed.The cuckoo chick was much larger and had a different song than the feeders' own chicks, but the mother bird that raised it just couldn't recognize it.It can be seen from these cases that the larvae of animals have a peculiar smell of their parents, and many animals mainly recognize their parents by this smell.

Recently, a comrade who participated in farm labor also told me that in their farm, a cow gave birth to a calf, and some comrades kindly washed the calf clean, this is troublesome, cow He didn't even recognize his own calf and refused to feed it, so the comrades had to artificially feed it.After a long time, the calf takes on the scent of the mother and is accepted and nursed by it. According to this, the "wolf boy" may be exactly the same situation!As to how the abandoned child got the scent of wolves, various speculations can be made.For example, the child accidentally crawled into the wolf's den?Perhaps the place where the child was abandoned was the place where the she-wolf had urinated. Wouldn't the strong smell of wolf urine confuse the wolf even more?Even after the baby smelled of wolves, the mother wolf happened to be losing her cubs, and the cries of the hungry baby further triggered the mother wolf's strong maternal instinct, which is more likely to prompt the mother wolf to accept the child. nurtured. Is there any other more suitable scientific explanation?So let us all explore further.However, at the end of this, I would like to quote a passage from Comrade Song Billi, which is quite enlightening, namely: If people's subjective thinking is simple, such unexpected events will lead to complex feelings about animals; if people's subjective thinking is more complicated, and they can use materialist viewpoints and dialectical methods to analyze such events, they can see animals His nature is indeed very simple.