ANIMALS: What Big Hearts They Have

Very few people have high regard for the timber wolf, an animal popularly supposed to eat up unwary citizens who get lost in the snow. This attitude saddens Lee Smits, a Detroit news commentator and probably the best friend the timber wolf has. Smits, who blames the wolf’s lowly social position on “the Red Riding Hood legend,” feels that more people ought to be concerned by the fact that the timber wolf of the eastern U.S. is well on the way to extinction.

To prevent the disappearance of what he terms “an interesting carnivore,” Smits has taken the lead in urging the creation of a timber wolf sanctuary on Isle Royale, a rugged, heavily wooded tract in Lake Superior, 48 miles from the northernmost Michigan mainland. Last week, in an attempt to put the Smits plan into execution, the national park service brought to the island four young timber wolves. Three of them had been raised in a zoo, and the fourth, a tawny grey male named Jimmy, was reared by Lee Smits and his wife Peggy. (The Smitses, who turned Jimmy over to the zoo after he tipped the scales at around 100 Ibs., recall that it was “an emotional ordeal” to part with him.)

Jimmy and his friends were released near Isle Royale’s Rock Harbor Lodge, currently occupied by about 150 tourists. Stoutly refusing to take to the woods, the lobo quartet gamboled about the resort area, spreading consternation among some of the tourists—presumably those who had been brought up on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. When they refused to leave the inhabited area, the four wolves were hauled around to the other side of the island and turned loose once more, this time in a wild tract. Next day, the four faithful friends of man turned up in the resort area again, looking for handouts and a little human companionship.

At week’s end, Jimmy and his three companions were scheduled for return to Detroit and the civilization they love. Wolf-fancier Smits was disappointed. Said he: “Dogs go wild readily, but these wolves were just too tame.”

But, as Red Riding Hood learned, you can never tell about a wolf. Just as their guardians were about to give up, Jimmy, another male and a female took bravely to the timber. The fourth, an effete female prophetically named Lady, refused to accompany them. Smits explained Lady’s behavior: “Wolves are much more individualistic than dogs, and females are much shyer than males.”