Canis lupus hominis

Now I’ve always thought that Timothy Treadwell (“The Grizzly Man”) was not very wise to get close to the bears.

However, I’ve found his relationship with the foxes far more interesting. Here’s a clip of Treadwell playing with his fox friend. If you ever watch the show on Animal Planet, he had a lot of friendly foxes living with him at his camp. The foxes were scavenging off of him or had learned this behavior from tourists feeding them.

However, red foxes are somewhat social animals, and it is possible that they somewhat enjoyed their time with Treadwell.

I think that’s how wild wolves were. They were once like red foxes in a national park. They had never been shot or poisoned by people. And for some reason, they were curious about humans. Curiosity had to have been a major cause of the wolf’s success as a species, just as it is has been for us and red foxes. Curiosity allows animals to find new food sources and to inhabit new territories.

Some of these wolves probably got very accustomed to living near human camps, and these animals became exceedingly tame.  Those creatures were the ancestors of the domestic dog. When we say dogs evolved from wolves, we actually mean that dogs and wolves have a common ancestor. The ancestor of both had to have been much more curious and docile than modern wolves are.

When we began to persecute wolves after we  gave up hunting and gathering to become herdsmen, we unintentionally selected for wolves that were reactive and nervous animals, animals that were so fearful and reactive that they are currently almost impossible to domesticate.

I do feel sorry for Timothy Treadwell. I think his heart was in the right place, but he went too far with the bears. However, I think we can learn something from his relationship with those foxes. Perhaps it is a glimpse into how our relationship with another canid once was.