*Note* – It came to me the other day that I had gone ahead and made the beginnings of what I hope will be similar to what the book cover will be, and already had made a mistake. The title should be “WOLF: What’s to Misunderstand?” I forgot the “Mis.” Much the point of the book is in educating readers about the realities of wolves. In doing so, I’ve employed the statement that I’ve heard so many times that each time I hear it I want to vomit: “Wolves are just misunderstood.” WHAT’S TO MISUNDERSTAND?

The reason Americans lack in any knowledge about living with wolves is that the citizens living in the United States (Lower 48 anyway) today have never had to live with wolves, with only a handful of exceptions. Now that wolves are on people’s doorsteps – literally speaking – the education process will be long and I fear it will be hazardous and, at times, deadly, because people refuse to listen and understand. They also get very little help from government. As a matter of fact, you are going to discover that governments, i.e. federal, state and some local, actively worked to block information about wolves that might have placed the wolf in a negative light, seriously effecting the decision to (re)introduce wolves.

This chapter will look at the history of wolves as members of the wolf recovery team should have done. The best the wolf recovery team could come up with was an attempt to dispel the myth of Little Red Ridinghood. In my opinion this was quite pathetic!