I spent the last few evenings watching a documentary TV series called “Returning to the Wolf Pack” (重返狼群), and felt some real sentiments about this show. It is a real story that a 20-year-old Chinese girl in Sichuan province saved a wolf puppy, helped it to find and return to its pack, and protected them from poaching in Zoigê Marsh over the last ten years. Fortunately, she and her boy friend recorded the story using their mobile phones and DV recorders, and the entire documentary is based on the 1700-hour video.
If you are interested, you could find some materials by following the links below, and let me talk more about the story and my feelings after watching the TV series in the blog.
Plot
In April 2010, a couple of leading wolves were hunted down by the shepherds, and their pack of puppies were left in the paire. Weiyi (Weibo), a young painter who showed a great interest in wolves while crafting her nature paintings in Zoigê Marsh, found the only surving puppy in the pack and brought it back to Chengdu (the capital city of Sichuan province). The little puppy named “Green” might be the first wolf that grew up in the city and learned its survival skills from TV. It also learned how to catch fishes in the pool, eat eggs and interact with humans. Weiyi brought Green up until 2 months with her pet dog until the puppy was too big to continue its urban life, so she and her boyfriend Yifeng decided to bring the wolf to the prairie where it was born.
They firstly took Green to a ranch where Tibetan Mastiffs were kept, hoping the little wolf would learn hunting and social skills with other animals. Though much smaller in size, Green used its wisdom to earn a place amoung the dogs and learned how to hunt Plateau pika. They built a small house in the mountains where wolves were frequently witnessed. The human couple and wolf spent the following half year through the harsh winter in the prairie, and were determined to find the relatives of Green. While not accepted and hurt by the wolf pack at first, Green eventually returned to its birthplace and joined the wolves in the mountain.
The story did not end when Green returned. Weiyi and Yifeng were often warned of Green being captured by poachers, and were increasingly concerned about the living condition of the wolves. They rescued several wolf puppies several years later, but failed to protect some of them from the poachers. Later that year, the wolf “parents” found out Green had become the leader of the pack, mated with a female wolf, and two of the puppies were his children. Green was trying to meet its “mother” while too much conflicts had happened against human. In 2020, Weiyi successfully established a reserve for wild wolves in Zoigê Marsh. She went back to the prairie and wanted to see his “son” again. Though the hope is slim, she recognized Green which was already a old wolf. They met in tears and Green still holded the bandage used to cover the wounds of his saved child.
Wolf
(Here below, I would address Green as he/him.)
Traditionally, when we want to describe a wolf, several words would immediately come into our mind including cruel, greedy, cunning and rapacious. While in this TV series, Weiyi and Yifeng showed us the life of a real wolf. Green was brave enough to fight against much bigger Tibentan Mastiffs. By digging a hole underground which could only accomondate him, he waited for the right time to launch the attack when the dogs were tired and finally won a place amoung then. Green was faithful in his pack. When a dog got hurt, he would be the one to keep its company and let it calm. When his wolf “mother” was seriously sick, Green showed his great sorrow, and would hand over his saved food as being able to eat means getting better to him. When Weiyi fell down and hurt her leg in the river, Green showed his wisdom by leading a horse to her so as to carry her back to the house. He also was ver smart to use a window screen torn from the house as a net to catch fishs in the river. When short of food in the prairie, he was loyal to his “parents” and gave away his preys.
Green
Green is a legend. He would never be controlled by a leash, and follow the lead. “Setting him free” is a common saying by Weiyi. Green will never be domesticated and accepted in the human society. A wolf is too dangerous for the human and vice versa. He is a wolf and will never be converted to a dog, though his barks had a strong dog accent. Green should return to the grassland and his wolf pack, and that is the place where he belongs to. Weiyi communicated to the wolf with a special howl adapted from a song called Legend, and eventually Green became a legend.
Green keeps the prairie green. The name of Green comes from the Grimms’ fairy tale. Weiyi want to use the wolf story in that book to describe her wolf. Green is also the color of the grassland. Zoigê Marsh is getting desertificated due to the over population of goats and pikas partially resulted from the scarcity of wolves. Weiyi knows the only way to protect Green is provide him a safe land without poaching. Finally, a reserve has been set up and the protection of wolves will also contribute to the healthy ecosystem.
Last Note
This blog is written for my family in China. I hope the pandemic around the world would fade away sooner and the restriction will eased in China, so that I can meet them.