Apathetic people of the free-world have been lulled into la-la land by their governments. They, like sheep, believe they have a good shepherd watching over them. They've been "heads down and munching" while "wolves in sheeps' clothing" have been munching right along side of them. But now the bushy, black tails of the wolves are wagging out from under their sheepskin covers as they prepare to come out in the open.

Lately fairy tales from my childhood have been coming back into mind. There were lessons to be learned from them, but I don't believe we learned them: THE THREE LITTLE PIGS & LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD & THE GINGERBREAD MAN

Alexander Solzhenitsyn quotes a Russian proverb to admonish the same thing in his WORDS OF WARNING TO AMERICA:

But actually, as the following story attests, the people no longer look at wolves as predators but as protecters. ~ Jackie Jura

A ranger in wolf's clothing
Parks Canada ecologists enlist predators to scare off human-friendly elk
by Charlie Gillis, National Post, Apr 11, 2002

JASPER, Alta. - Golfers who spot fleeting movement this summer on the fairways at Jasper Park Lodge may well be seeing wolves -- the results of an experiment designed to bring the carnivores closer to human habitation.

Parks Canada staff are wooing predators in the name of public safety, even if their methods seem unorthodox.

In a program that upends assumptions about which wild animals most threaten humans, ecologists have opened a wooded corridor through the heart of the lodge's internationally renowned course so wolves can scare away ''habituated'' elk.

The path is part of a three-year project designed to alleviate a growing safety concern in Canada's Rocky Mountain parks: Elk who hang around human communities have been proliferating around Banff and Jasper since the early 1980s, munching on lawn grass and ambling amid traffic instead of foraging for food and trekking through the mountains.

Slowly but surely, they have abandoned their nomadic existences for town life, where encounters with predators are rare and tourists delight in their presence.

Worse, they have begun to view people as subordinates in their cozy little worlds, says Wes Bradford, a wildlife conflict specialist for Parks Canada. Visitors who annoyed a cow elk raising calves risked being chased and, in extreme instances, trampled. The problem reached a apex in 1994, when staff received 103 reports of elk encounters, four of which resulted in serious injuries such as cracked ribs and internal lacerations.

"We had some darn serious incidents, some involving people getting trampled and pummelled by hooves," Mr. Bradford says. "If a cow elk knocked you down, chances are she really meant business."

Parks Canada responded aggressively over the next few years, destroying 22 problem elk, relocating 212 others and -- when all else failed -- making the communities less hospitable to the animals.

In Jasper, wardens began running off elk morning and night with hockey sticks and noisy plastic bags. And in a surprise move, wildlife experts resolved to retrofit fencing around the town and golf course to ensure wolves, cougars and bears could get closer to the elk haunts -- even if it meant drawing them closer to humans.

Over time, Parks ecologists sold their idea to local residents and businesses, some of whom initially felt the 20-odd wolves in the Athabasca Valley were close enough.

At Jasper Park Lodge, the high-end hotel complex northeast of the town, management spent $600,000 for new fencing on its course, which opened up a shady, wooded alley between holes No. 3 and 11 where predators can travel on the heels of elk herds.

One year later, grey wolves have made dozens of trips through the course and along the boundaries of the Jasper townsite, where only a handful were known to stray in previous years. During that period, resident elk have turned noticeably more skittish, if not quite as skittish as nature intended.

''Before we started the program I could walk into the corridor and elk would hardly stir,'' says Brenda Dobson, the Parks ecologist overseeing the corridor project. ''Now that we have wolves coming through every three or four days, the elk run away if I get too close.''

Ms. Dobson points to a computer-generated map showing the paths of wolves whose tracks she has followed through the area since the fencing changes. The creatures have made 25 trips through a corridor only two passed through the previous year. There are countless tracks along the golf-course perimeter, where old fences prevented movements earlier.

''You can see the difference,'' she says. ''It's just unreal.''

To monitor the wolves, scientists have used a combination of old-fashioned tracking techniques and motion-sensitive cameras attached to trees, which have captured numerous images of wolves skulking through the area. Their estimates suggest about 20 are living in the three valleys at the heart of the park, including a small pack of three that ranges south of the golf course and townsite.

About six weeks ago, Ms. Dobson caught her first glimpse of the animals bedded near the carcass of a freshly killed elk.

Even hotel officials are becoming excited about the carnivores' presence, noting the number of elk who frequent the course plunged from about 65 to four on the day groundskeepers spotted their first wolf footprint. Anxiety about the presence of wolves has been largely offset by interest in them, adds Anastasia Martin-Stilwell, spokeswoman for Jasper Park Lodge.

''We like to think it gives our guests the chance to view a greater variety of wildlife, and I don't think it subtracts in any way from the golfing experience,'' she says. ''The fact is, they are still wary carnivores. There's not necessarily any negative impact.''

Wary or not, the park is guarding against the wolves becoming habituated as the elks did, an eventuality Mr. Bradford guarantees unless humans stay out of their paths.

Consequently, park wardens are under new orders to scare off wolves they see hanging around campsites or along highways, while hikers and campers are being told to stay off tracks wolves commonly use. Park staff hope, in time, carnivores who want little to do with humans, but who strike fear in the hearts of elk, will be a routine site in the area.

''Our message is pretty simple,'' he says. ''These large predators are going to be on the landscape with us and you may encounter them. You don't need to be afraid of them, but they do deserve your respect.''
www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020411/606507.html

Note: emphasis mine - JJ

PALIN PROTECTS FROM PREDATORS

IRAQ ATTACK BY WOLVES

WOLF'S UNDUE BURDEN-BEARERS

PROTECTING WOLF NOT HUMAN

WOLVES HARDWIRED TO KILL

COPS A PACK OF WOLVES

CONGO WOLVES ON NKUNDA

AMERICA ON RUSSIAN ROCKS

DINGO ATTACKS ON HUMANS

Teen's parents appeal bomb threat (no presumption of innocence, gov't publicly trying youth before trial & stirring nationalist sentiment). CBC News, Jun 15, 2005 & Canada teen convicted in bomb plot (unwitting victim of zero-tolerance). Globe & Mail, Jun 15, 2005. Go to CANADIAN TEEN DINGO BAIT

2 children attacked by coyotes (in daylight in inner city). CBC, Apr 20, 2005. Go to COYOTES CHOMPING CHILDREN

Norway's wolf hunt decried globally (wolf preservation now Sweden's responsibility). Washington Times, Feb 1, 2005. Go to WORLD WILDLIFE WOLF'S FRIEND

CF-18 drops bomb on Yellowknife (while on way to watch Russian military exercises in Artic). CalgaryHerald, Jun 19, 2004. Go to RUSSIAN WAR GAMES ANYONE?

Wolves answer call of wild (Yellowstone Park has 300 wolves; killed 9,000 elk & surrounding cattle). Scotsman, Feb 20, 2004

CHINESE LOVE-HATE FOREIGNERS (turn hostile at perceived slight; comments full of racist curses). Globe & Mail/Rense, Jan 14, 2004. Go to 7.Systems of Thought & PIT BULL TERRIERISTS (not New Yorkies). National Post, Jan 14, 2004

Wolfowitz to oversee military tribunals (with power to sentence to death). Yahoo!AP, Jun 27, 2003. Go to 7.Systems of Thought

Wolf problem looms (slaughtering humans-livestock-pets under endangered species protection). Montana Gazette, Apr 27, 2003. Go to ANIMAL FARM ANIMALISM

Putting pond scum ahead of people (radical enviros want our land). The Roanoke Times, Apr 21, 2002. Go to WILDLANDS PROJECT (the re-engineering of America by reducing population, moving people to population centers, removing cars to reduce resource use and setting up corridors and buffer zones where humans can't go but beasts can.)

Humans increasingly becoming the hunted (bear, shark, cougar attacks on the rise as people cross paths with predators). National Post, Jan 30, 2002

~ Go to ANIMALISM for an explanation of the philosophy in Animal Farm

~ Go to THE GINGERBREAD MAN by Aesop (In simple language, read what happens to souls who trust foxes and their ilk - ie wolves