The Validitiy of Mowat's Wolf Research

            In the book "Never Cry Wolf," the government assigns author Farley Mowat a mission to observe the wolf-caribou relationship in the Barren Lands of Canada and explain the reason for the depredation of caribou. Critics have said that his work and observations on the diurnal lives of wolves are fake and unreliable. Although some may believe his work is fiction, other sources validate the truth of Mowat's findings on communication, reproduction, and family. .
             In the article "Pack Talk,"" Crispin Boyer shares similar ideas with Mowat on wolf communication. In "Never Cry Wolf," Mowat states that he had "recorded the following categories of sounds: howls, wails, quavers, whines, grunts, growls, yips and barks " (Mowat 129). Furthermore, in the article "Pack Talk,"" Boyer reveals that wolves communicate their happiness by wagging their tails (15); this is also shown when Mowat notes that the "steadily wagging tails of both wolves showed it was all well meant " (Mowat 136). Also, wolves talk to each other by howling. For example, in the book, Mowat states that "after a minute or two he [George] threw his head back and howled. a wolf living in the next territory to the north had not only informed our wolves that the long-awaited caribou had started to move south, but had even indicated where they were at the moment " (Mowat 131). While Mowat points out that they use howling to communicate the location of caribou, Crispin Boyer states that wolves also howl to call family meetings, warn members of danger, or to tell other packs to stay off their land (16). In essence, Crispin Boyer's article corroborated with Mowat's findings on wolf communication. .
             The article "Breeding Behaviors,"" by Jeremy Heft, also helps prove Mowat's research. While observing wolf reproduction and family, Mowat states that "Angeline and George [the mother and father wolves] seemed as devoted a mated pair as one could hope to find, " and he also discovers that "physical love making enters into the lives of a pair of mated wolves only during a period of two or three weeks early in the spring"" (Mowat 92).