Month: April 2022

Long-distance ultra-marathon runner was in a race in China’s Gobi Desert when a small brown dog started following him. At first he ignored the dog, then he carried her across a river, then he and other race participants started giving her food and sharing their water. They were very impressed with the dog’s stamina and determination, keeping up with the runners. The dog -soon named Gobi- began sleeping in his tent, and by the end of the race he felt attached to her and determined to take her home to Scotland. He knew this would be difficult, but it turned out to be a far more lengthy process than anticipated. First Gobi had to pass health inspections in China, then a lot of red tape navigation to get her on a plane, then possibly another long wait in quarantine in the UK. The author himself returned home while most of this was going on, but then it was all stalled because the dog went missing. So he flew back to China to try and find her, lost in a big city. The outpouring of help, as Gobi’s story spread online (due to a crowdfunding effort, blogs about the race and news coverage) was pretty amazing. When he finally located Gobi, he had to sneak her into a hotel, then later find other accommodations as it seemed some people might be trying to kidnap the dog for ransom. It got kind of crazy. But it all cemented their relationship, and in the end he succeeded. At great cost, mind you. Inserted sporadically through the narrative of encountering the dog in the desert and re-locating her in China, are chapters about the author’s painful childhood, why he became a competitive long-distance runner, and why the dog ended up meaning so much to him. It’s a very touching and ultimately uplifting story. And I certainly know more about this extreme sport than I ever expected to before.

I saw this big heavy book on display at the library and brought it home. Thought it would be about animal behavior but it’s not- mainly a book of photographs- very large size, most close-ups. Of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and some invertebrates. It was a visual treat but with some small disappointments. The pictures are for the most part stunningly beautiful, but also uneven in quality and some had been enlarged too much, making them unclear. There’s a disproportionately large number of frogs in the amphibian section. So many frogs. Small snippets of information on animal adaptations and physical features in the captions- just enough to make me want to know more. No mention of who the photographers are unless you look for the credits in the back- which is mostly a long list from stock photo sites. It was very nice to look through, and I enjoyed seeing animals I’d never heard of before (hadada ibis, the nymphalid or brush-footed butterflies) and learning some physiological features I didn’t know either. Such as: black pigmented feathers are stronger to resist wear and tear (although an online search also tells me the way black absorbs heat also helps the birds fly faster), eagles have two large rear-facing barbs on their tongues, and leafy sea dragons have no teeth.

Borrowed from the public library.

I don’t recall where I got this book from, but I thought of it when I finished The Man Who Lives with Wolves the other day- I had a hunch there was a similarity here. I was right. Both books have lots of intriguing information on animal behavior and communication, but then a key point I disagree with or can’t believe is factual. So:

Talking with Horses is an older book  by a man who owned many horses and became known for his effectiveness in resolving their behavior problems. He took in or bought many horses to try and fix their issues, then returned them to their owners, or found them new homes if needed. His methods are very like Monty Roberts‘- to make a connection with the animal via its own use of body language, while gradually getting it used to new things- introducing the tack slowly, repeatedly handling a horse to overcome its fear of being touched in certain places, etc. Desensitization and verbal, visual cues. For years he studied the way his horses communicated with each other, took detailed notes, and made lists of gestures and sounds that seemed to have certain meanings. A lot of this sounded very solid and familiar to me- he even mentions the head-lowered, mouthing gesture a foal or young horse uses to indicate submission, the same signal Roberts looks for when “joining up” with a horse in a round pen (though Blake didn’t utilize it the same way).

There are many interesting and insightful anecdotes in this book, demonstrating Blake’s methods and showing what he learned from the horses in his life, and how many he helped. I enjoyed reading them, and I found his compiled “dictionary” of horse vocalizations and body language pretty interesting. What kind of put me off were a few sexual references which he carefully phrased in an attempt to be subtle, but it was pretty obvious, borderline offensive and a poor choice of comparison, in my opinion. And then there’s his conviction of ESP and telepathy- he sincerely believed he could communicate with certain horses this way. Nearly half the book is details about incidents when he felt sure he’d received mental images or messages from a horse, and experiments he carried out to try and prove it. I am sure there is another explanation for the reactions he observed- whether it’s that horses simply can hear far better than he realized (one reference I found said they can hear frequencies that bats utilize, and sounds from 4 km in distance) or just pure coincidence.

I’m shelving this book alongside The Man Who Listens to Horses, I think it’s an interesting comparison because the two have such similar methods and observations about equine communication (particularly the body language). With a huge caveat in my head for keeping this book, since I think half of it is just a load of bunk.

It’s what the title says. The book starts out describing his background and childhood on a farm, how he slept in the barn with his grandfather’s dogs, did physically demanding jobs as a young man and then spent time in the army building up stamina and endurance, learning to survive extreme environments. All of which led eventually to him living among wolves. His interest started with foxes in Europe. (Had a job working for a gamekeeper but got in trouble for observing and feeding the foxes instead of killing them like he was supposed to). Then he worked with several different captive wolf packs in wildlife parks- at first just as a volunteer, barely scraping along as he had no income. Learned some skills assisting with scientific observations and wildlife care, then decided he wanted to make contact with a wild pack in Idaho. To learn more about their behavior and communication firsthand. He claims to have lived in the forest with the wolves for two years- though much of the time was spent just staying in place attempting to gain their trust at first. He ate raw meat alongside them and communicated with body language, which meant he often got scraped, bitten and knocked over by the wolves. The number of times he had a mild concussion or internal injuries (urinating blood) is troubling. Not to mention what the diet must have done to his body.

Reading about the intimate family lives of the wolves and how he taught himself to be among them was pretty fascinating. However some of his conclusions about how diet affects the wolves’ behavior, including their role in the pack, didn’t make sense to me. He also had some ideas on teaching the wolves about humans, so that wild wolves could better avoid conflict with people, but I didn’t see how this worked really. There was a part about helping farmers avoid livestock losses by playing recordings of howling packs nearby, so they would avoid the area thinking other wolves have claimed it. I’ve heard of this method before and it was interesting to see another instance of its use.

Well, the book goes on to describe how this man acquired his own captive pack and land to keep it on, hoping to educate the public about wolves. Later part of the book relates how he fell in love and got his new girlfriend involved with the wolves. Which sounded very unsafe, to say the least. Also a film documentary and television show were made about his wolf pack, and the pressure put on them by the film crew sounds awful. Especially the drama that was deliberately hyped up. Meanwhile it becomes very clear that he was so fully dedicated to the wolves – spending long hours in the pen with them, sleeping among them at night- that his relationships with people (including previous wives and children he rarely saw) suffered for it.

There’s also parts in this book where he compares wolf and dog behavior, and explains how he used his knowledge from the wolves to help people with dog training. I think he’s written other books specifically on that topic. Which sounds like it’s met with a lot of controversy, not to mention the criticism from wildlife experts on what he’s done with wolves. All of this reminiscent of The Grizzly Maze, or GoatMan. Not sure whether to admire the man, or think he’s crazy.

Borrowed from the public library.