R. D. Lawrence (1921–2003)

Move over Bambi to make room for Paddy! A few days after arriving at a pristine lake in Ontario, Lawrence stumbled across the meagre remains of a wolf kill and recognized that the prey had been a lactating female beaver. Frantic with concern over the kits who would be doomed to die with no mother to feed them, he searched and searched . . . and as with many quests, it's when you are about to give up that things begin happening. He raises the tiny creature--a true naturalist Lawrence never show more went anywhere without eye-droppers and powdered milk for just this sort of situation--over the course of the five months he is at the lake and by the time he leaves the beaver is re-adopted by his family, which isn't really a spoiler because this is a story that is all in the telling. Lawrence alternates information about beavers with his experiences that summer and at other times in the wild, along with that hard-earned wisdom of those who have really learned to observe thoughtfully and carefully. A wonderful book with which to begin the year. ***** show less

I've read this book before, but it was so long ago... Had the chance to enjoy it again now. The nature writing is just as good as I remember, but funny how the dramatic hunting scenes from the final sixty pages made the strongest impression on me before- in reality, most of the book is a slow buildup, showing the life of the mountain lion. It starts with his mother. The female puma has a negative encounter with a pair of wildlife poachers, one of whom accidentally gets his arm damaged in a show more trap he'd set for her- and afterwards the puma is touted as a "man-eater" who "almost ripped his arm off". The bad experience instills her with a deep fear of mankind that she teaches to her cubs later in the story. A lot of the book is just about how the family of cougars lives- the mother puma and her three young. How they navigate the landscape, find and ambush prey, show affection for each other, learn skills, hold their territory, avoid danger (encounters with wolves, bears and man). Eventually only the main puma of the story- a very rare creature with an albino coat- is left alive of the family. His fear of man boils into a hatred, and when the poachers come after him specifically, he starts stalking them in turn. I had forgotten most of the story about the hunters and their operation, which has just as much page time as the puma's daily life. In the end, a trio of conservationists comes to try and protect the rare cougar from being killed- whose existence is accidentally revealed to the public by one of the hunters when he gets drunk and starts bragging of the future trophy. Reading it this time around, I found the parts about the animals' behavior and survival methods satisfying, the parts about the people a bit stiff- perhaps it's just the writing style or the age of the book. Near the end, I thought the tactics of the woman who camped out in the forest alone to foil the hunters, a bit laughable. Times were different when this book was written, that's for sure. The ending gave me a nice surprise- I had completely forgotten the turn of heart one of the hunters takes. Nice that it was the one I found a bit more sympathetic during the entire storyline.

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The author and his wife lived in a remote area of Canada on a farm. One day he encountered a Native American... who had recently killed a female wolf for the bounty on her pelt and was carrying two surviving cubs to Mattawa intending to sell them. Lawrence made an instant decision and bought the cubs on the spot, took them home...With the help of his malamute dog Tundra- who kept the cubs clean and warm, and disciplined them as they grew- Lawrence successfully raise the two wolves. He did as show more much as he could to mimic actual wolf parenting- feeding them raw meat as if he was regurgitating it, shaking them by the scruff when they misbehaved, taking them on long rambling walks in the woods and joining them on a kill when they finally pulled down deer on their own (he was inspecting the deer to find out if it was weak, ill or injured in some way that had given the wolves an advantage, but pretended to the wolves as if he was eating alongside them). .. The work Lawrence did was during a time when wolves were still mainly feared and reviled- in fact Lawrence and his wife had to keep their project secret from any neighbors or visitors, shutting the wolves up when they were young if people came by, and when they were older successfully teaching them to be wary of strangers. Especially intriguing to see the difference in behavior between the malamute dog and the young wolves, how the dog adjusted his behavior with the wolves, and how the human couple likewise tried to act in ways that would keep them safe from the wolves' natural strength and sharp teeth, but hone their skills to live in the wild... It's a fascinating account and very engaging to read, a well-told story. There's also a lot of wonderful description of the natural environment and seasons, and some contemplative passages where the author talks about the natural world, our impact on it, and his qualms about things like seeing the wolves kill their prey. His wife was particularly attached to the wolves and I didn't care for how condescending Lawrence sometimes sounded towards her- but he is also honest and points out when she was right in some regard he judged differently.

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The life of a wolf in the wild, growing up and then eventually encountering mankind, to its misfortune. I was surprised how much this book reminded me of White Fang- although it feels a lot more realistic, it has similar sentiment of "tooth and claw" ruling in the wild, and it starts out very similar- opening scenes of a wolf pack struggling to survive famine in the winter wilderness, then better times come with spring and the female gives birth to pups, the strongest of which becomes the show more animal protagonist of the story. Much of the narrative is just about the family life of the wolves, their tenderness towards each other, the pups' fumbling play-wrestling with each other and curiosity at encountering new animals, and their growing survival skills- finally becoming adept at hunting together with the adult wolves. It often switches viewpoint to also depict other animals living in the forest and how their lives interact. As the young wolves grow up, they meet some harsh life lessons and two of them don't make it to adulthood but otherwise the pack life seems pretty stable until a forest fire forces them to flee to a new area. Here one of the young wolves comes across a baited live trap, and his subsequent experience at the hands of man marks him forever. What follows is brutal, but I will say the book ends on a final positive note.

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