Recently I finished reading Rick McIntyre’s ‘The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack’.
I have not yet read the book which is actually dedicated to 302’s story but I have read other accounts about the wolf Casanova and I have been told parts of his legend by wolf enthusiasts.
As I was reading about 302’s ‘affairs’ with the Druid females and how the Druid breeding male 21 attempted to chase him off (but did not attempt to interfere with his own daughters) and how 302 later visited the pups sired by him but he never actually lured the Druid females out of the pack to start a pack of their own, I developed an alternative interpretation of what was happening there.
Rick McIntyre himself has stated in his books that wolf packs are matriarchal societies where the female makes most of the crucial decisions both during the denning period but also during winter (e.g., regarding travelling direction) and he mentions, for example, that daughters have been known to exile their mothers and to take over the dominant positions while sons do not seem to act similarly toward their fathers.
It makes me think that the establishment of packs (including the ‘re-establishment’ that is implied in social reorganization) are determined by the choice of females which is rather interesting because in many other species the female is the sole leader of her family group (because she is taking care of her dependent young) but the male perhaps make mating decisions mainly because the male is the one who journeys and fights to secure the mate while the female is more sedentary and busy with the raising of the young and then recovering from the physical strain of motherhood until the following breeding season.
Of course, the female can turn down some males and choose others but her freedom is limited by the movements and availability of the males.
That is to say, her choices are more random while a social dominance takeover is a deliberate decision based on long-term observations and a strategy.
Similarly, while reading about inbreeding in wolves, it appears that the females are the ones who mostly reject the closely related males while males might make attempts to breed with closely related females.
The history being as it is, I suppose that wolves would have died out if they inbred as well as if they did not inbreed at all and perhaps the male retains the less selective role while the female is more aware of the choices she is making.
It would be interesting to determine whether there is something about female wolf physiology that enables them to differentiate between related and non-related potential mates more effectively than male wolves can and/or that makes them feel more repulsed by inbreeding prospects than male wolves do.
Such physiological mechanisms could involve hormonal pathways whereby testosterone vs. estrogen might not affect sensory (olfactory) abilities in a similar manner.
But this post does not concern inbreeding and I am only mentioning it because on occasion female wolves are better capable of distinguishing between kin and non-kin, this could contribute to their overall status as decision makers regarding the acceptance of mates as well as to subordination by males who recognize that females rejecting them might be doing so on behalf of both of their interests.
I would also like to mention the story briefly discussed in R. McIntyre’s other book, ‘The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog’ where wolf 8 has adopted the female wolf’s 9 offspring (sired by her former mate who has died) and as he is spending time with these yearlings, wolf 8’s brothers approach who belong to another pack.
Wolf 8 greets his brothers in a friendly manner and his brothers also interact with wolf 8’s adoptees but then the female 9 shows up and she is concerned seeing the strange wolves with her offspring.
Female 9 attacks wolf 8’s brothers and wolf 8 sides with her.
Nobody is truly harmed but this event appears to bear the purpose of an initiation.
Wolf 8 has been given a choice which pack’s side he is on, and he chooses female 9’s pack over his brothers who are still a part of his natal pack.
But it feels that the female 9 also demonstrates her acceptance of wolf 8 as a mate and as a group leader after his decision has been made and applied.
It seems as if wolf 8 had been helping wolf 9 but up until that moment he had not necessarily been accepted as the future breeding male of female 9’s Rosecreek Pack.
It made me wonder whether wolves who have paired up assume their bond from the moment they met or if they go through some period during which they are friends rather than mates and during which they make the final decision which is then manifested through events similar to the one described by McIntyre.
I am mentioning this because I wonder whether the Druid females had been ‘duped by the charmer’ or perhaps they made a conscious decision to mate with wolf 302 who interacted with them as a friend and whose genetic material they were willing to carry but it was also their conscious decision not to accept him as a full-time partner.
In our modern society terms, 302 might have been compared to a sperm donor who is not anonymous and appreciated for his good genetic qualities but who helps to impregnate a self-reliant, successful woman who is not looking for a husband, nor a partner but who wishes to raise a child of her own.
Wolf 21’s daughters were living in a pack which needed more pups because of the social tension within the population.
They were also living in a pack where the breeding pair was highly efficient and they were also very tolerant and respectful toward their offspring.
They would, in word, make the perfect grandparents and, indeed, the relationships and skills provided by the Druid Pack were extraordinary.
In fact, it could have been a pack which was extremely difficult to leave due to its relaxed, playful, cooperative dynamics and the only reason why anybody would disperse was probably related to the strong desire to become a parent.
I wonder if these females wished to bear offspring of their own in their parental pack without leaving it and becoming dominant in a newly established pack with a newly found mate.
They already had all that they needed, and I wonder if they had figured out that in order to be mothers, they needed a mate but they did not need a permanent relationship, nor they needed another pack.
Perhaps they had not been disappointed by 302 – perhaps it was just what they had expected from him, i.e., to become impregnated and then left alone to raise their pups under the supervision of their parents.
I have somewhat forgotten the details but it might be that at least one of the females who conceived by 302, tried to raise her pups by herself without the assistance of her natal pack, nor the assistance by 302 (but I might be mixing up some stories).
It is rather curious to think that the history of evolution has brought us from self-propagating organisms to cross-breeders who, under some circumstance and only in the female sex, can form a very unique reproductive scheme whereby they do not produce clones but they interbreed with another organism; however, they can also raise their offspring by themselves.
This rather reminds me of the primeval mothers who, unlike many later-day female deities who often had some male god as their colleague and supervisor, did not have their male counterpart.
These were not mothers who had borne their clones.
In the Baltic culture, there used be such characters as Mother Forest or Mother River who were apparently matriarchs and matrons over all forest or river life which is highly diverse.
The mother cult arose before the humans were civilized and perhaps this cult communicates some deep primeval notion rooted in the natural world and suggestive of motherhood that is not dependent on males as counterparts.
Maybe this powerful urge is recognized in species other than humans and while we, from our cultural and social perspective (including practical considerations), regard ‘single mothers’ as unfortunate, in some species or situations the female might choose to be a single mother because that is what she wants.
There are, of course, contexts within which the female would be unlikely to choose single parenthood, and those are contexts where raising offspring alone implies high costs (mortality of offspring or mortality of female herself as well as lower fitness and/or reduced reproductive success over lifetime).
There might be contexts within which the female chooses single parenthood but out of other reasons, e.g., in species where the female must exclude her mate in order to be able to provide for herself and her offspring (for example, in situations where the female cannot afford to share resources with the male and the male must travel more widely to obtain his food rather than utilize the same patches as the female does).
However, what if there are contexts within which the female wants to be a single mother due to her perception of parenthood and social relations that does not conform to the equal partnership, husband-wife, mother-father conditions?
It is even possible that the female does not want to be a single mother in the sense that she wishes to achieve everything on her own.
For example, the Druid females might have mated with 302 because they were certain that their parents would help them raise their offspring.
They might have made different choices if the fate of their offspring depended solely on them and their ability to provide without the help of a pack.
It is possible that their perception of who they wanted to be to their offspring different from the traditional two-parent system.
For example, 302 was allowed to visit the pups (by the females, pups’ mothers, not by their grandfather) and perhaps this was a permissible form of fatherhood within the wishes of these Druid females.
302 was also ‘blamed’ over not having a dominant nature (he would flee conflicts and he would not defend his transient social partners).
However, it is possible that these traits (genetically and behaviorally) were exactly what the females were looking for.
They were searching for someone who would not dominate them and perhaps a submissive male carries genetic material that allows for the mother’s genes to impact some qualities in the offspring that the mother wishes to accentuate.
I believe that these females wanted to be The Parent to their offspring and if they retained their mate, it would not be in the capacity of a breeding male associated with a breeding female.
To compare in human terms, perhaps these females were not looking for a husband but for a friend who would be less of a father to the child (because they wished to be the father as well as the mother and this had to be reflected in the genetics, as well, whereby they chose a submissive, non-dominant male) and who would perhaps be more of a brother figure (not a child to the female but someone who does not occupy the same parental status and who is a buddy to the offspring rather than their parental leader).
Maybe 302 was not irresponsible at all.
Maybe wolf 302 was accepted as a breeding partner but not as a a father and a co-leader.
The way wolf 9 had only accepted wolf 8 after some amount of time had elapsed, it is possible that mating does not imply full-term partnership, either, and the status of a partner has to yet be granted.
Of course, one might argue – why then did wolf 21 not accept wolf 302 into his pack? Surely, if 302 could surrender any claims of dominance, he might be an asset in provisioning for the pack and defending it.
Why was wolf 21 chasing him away from his daughters if it, indeed, was the will by his own daughters to carry offspring with this male without expecting, nor, indeed, allowing him to participate more fully in the raising of the offspring?
On some level, it could be simply the result of ‘how things have been since centuries’.
It is possible that the wishes by 21’s daughters to become The Parent were rather unique and not experienced by wolves, historically, because, historically, wolves did not find themselves in such circumstances of overabundant prey as did the first reintroduced Yellowstone wolves.
Wolf genetic and social evolution might not have allowed for wolf 21 to react more flexibly, and wolf 302 was not genetically related to Druids, either, which further complicated any potential acceptance.
Maybe there was a clash between the traits that the Druid females were looking for in a male and the traits needed to join the pack.
On one hand, a rather submissive wolf who does not seek to dominate others (and who probably wins the females over by letting them feel empowered just in the same way wolf 21 had let his daughters experience empowerment while playing with them and allowing them to pin him to the ground and to defeat him which might have resulted in precisely the type of strong female characters we are considering in this theory) would not appear to cause trouble regarding joining a pack in a subordinate capacity.
On the other hand, I do not believe that wolf 302 was as ‘cowardly’ and ‘reluctant to dominate’ as it has been assumed.
There are two types of personalities who can let others dominate themselves.
One type comprises individuals who have no other choice because they are less dominant than others.
The other type comprises individuals (including wolf 21) who are secure enough and strong enough not to care that others dominate them if they find it entertaining or useful for the growth and good feeling of their social partners.
Who was wolf 302, the former or the latter?
I believe the fact that he did not join wolf 21’s group meant that he was not weak at all but perhaps he was not aware of his strength, either, because his nature demanded to take the role of a friend and a supporter, an encourager and thus he did not get to experience what it meant to be dominant often enough to truly embody such quality.
I think his strength was rooted in the ability to accept the will of others and not to impose over it but this could have meant he also accepted the will of others where it conflicted that of his own.
Perhaps it was difficult for him to hold his ground and to establish himself somewhere between dominance and subordination because such role is barely witnessed and he might not have had role models to learn it.
In our human societies, we have come to value individuals who do not try to assert their will and who can accept the will of others without becoming meek and accommodating.
We often consider these individuals to be cool and easy-going but we do not think of them as weak because their strength is founded on the ability to accept life, to accept others and to make them shine.
It has taken us millennia to arrive at recognition of such type of strength and it is possible that wolves may have once recognized it but have lost this recognition during the centuries of persecution when other qualities and interactions had to be prioritized in order to survive.
Perhaps wolf 302 disappointed no females, nor misled them.
Perhaps he was exactly whom they had been looking for.
Perhaps he was more similar to wolf 21 than one might think which might have made them incompatible because they had both the same type of strong sides.
And perhaps wolf 302 wanted to be ‘a better father’ but he could not because he had not learned to stand for his own will because his charisma and his nature were concealed within the ability to heed the will of others.
References
McIntyre, R., & Bekoff, M. (2020). The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack . Greystone Books.
McIntyre, R., & Redford, R. (2019). Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog. Vancouver, British Columbia, Greystone Books.
Notes by Ieva 