Crazy, but absolutely amazing. Mowat moves in next to a pack of wolves & observes them. His description of 'marking' his territory (with the help of several pots of tea) & how the alpha male managed the same feat with a single pass, showing far better control, is both funny & exhilarating. He's cut off a part of their path as his territory, sits there weaponless & participates with them at their level. That pretty much describes the book. It's fascinating. ( )

I read this book in one day in a Cordova Alaska Hotel room. It was pouring rain outside and we were exhausted from a couple of high adventure travel days. I devoured this book in the comfort of that warm hotel room. Later while at Denali we were able to observe a pack of wolves moving through a river drainage. It made reading the book and observing the wolves all the more incredible to have these insights about them from Farley Mowat. I think I understand the idea of the wolf pack much more now. ( )

Mowat lived among the wolves. He slept and ate as they did (waking every few hours to walk in a circle, and settle down again; yummy mice). ( )

self-deprecating author writes of his observations of the wolf. Humerous, ( )

Enormously entertaining, but there are solid reasons to believe Never Cry Wolf is at least partly fiction and perhaps plagiarized. See Wikipedia for more info. ( )

2029 Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat (read 9 Nov 1986) This tells of a biologist who is sent to Northwest Territories, Canada, to study wolves. He spends a season watching a wolf family: George, Angeline, Uncle Albert, and the cubs. He is pro-wolf, and he makes out a convincing case. I'll never go wolf-hunting. The blurb for this excellent book says it is "destined to take its place on the shelf of animal classics near Born Free, A Ring of Bright Water, the Incredible Journey, and alongside an earlier Mowat book, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be." [I've read The Incredible Journey, and after reading this book read all the other books mentioned.] ( )

This is by far one of my most favorite books I have ever read! The great adventure of finding ones-self is inherent to this book! ( )

not THE reason I got into field research, but certainly one of the matches that lit a fire under me.

No matter how controversial Mr. Mowat's "true story" may be, it is a fascinating, inspiring tale, especially to a 16-year-old. He has such vivid narration, and a great humour to his anecdotes.

Farley Mowat's based-on-a-true-story book about spending a year in the company of a family of wolves in northern Canada has been a favorite of mine for decades. Almost every chapter is devoted to revealing another aspect of real wolf behavior. For example, Mowat is sent to the wilderness to find out how many caribou are killed by wolves so that more effective means can be devised to limit the wolves' predation. Instead, he discovers that (at least during summer months) the wolves subsist largely on mice and other small rodents, which are plentiful. Even when the wolves do prey on the migrating caribou later in the season, they are not wasteful killers, and often they are able to pick out an old or unhealthy animal to target, thereby actually increasing the survival of the remaining deer.

Of course, Mowat concentrated on a single family of three adult wolves and their pups, and he stayed only a very short time with them, so criticisms of the accuracy of his facts may be warranted. However, when read as I think the book was intended, to suggest to us that wolves are not merely vicious and bloodthirsty monsters, but rather clever, social, highly developed, and beautiful animals, a person can gain insight into why wolves deserve our understanding and sympathy instead of hatred.

The book remains beloved because it is full of humor. Sometimes the jokes are subtle, as when Mowat is wistfully talking to an Inuit friend about the loneliness of a spinster female wolf who visits the local group and the friend gives him a long look and says, "I guess you been here too damn long already." At other times, as when Mowat finds himself running after a group of hunting wolves while wearing nothing but boots, readers cannot help but laugh out loud.

Despite being written in the early 1960's, this book is still relevant. It is a classic that has hardly aged and will never go stale. ( )

Though I'm not sure how accurate Mowat's tale is, the story whether true or not is very entertaining. He is sent by his government pretty cluelessly into the barren lands of Canada to observe wolves, under the assumption that he will collect evidence that the wolves are killing off huge numbers of caribou deer. What he discovers is that all of his (and humanity's) assumptions about wolf behavior are wrong. Farley Mowat is a humorous and easygoing fellow. His opinion about government bureaucracy is obvious. Even if some of his conclusions about wolves may strain credulity, his experiences among the wolves are enlightening. ( )

Farley Mowat worked for Canada's equivelant of the Dept. of the Interior. He was asked to go into the wilderness to prove that wolves consumed vast quantities of game animals so that they could justify killing the wolves. Instead, Mowat got the wolves to trust him enough that he could follow them and understand their secrets. In fact, he found, wolves eat vast quantities of voles/mice/lemmings, not the carabou etc. that everybody 'knew' they ate. Facinating reading and beautifully written. ( )

I read this book when I was camping and wished I had a pack of wolves to observe. A touching and fascinating book. A must read. ( )