anno ab incarnatione lupus 123 E.E., Annual Letter to Lobo

 

Valley of the Corrumpa where Lobo lived in 1894. dlw photo from Capulin Volcano 2010

Dear Lobo,

                  I have been writing these to you yearly, expressing appreciation for all your work in the world, even dating a new historical era from the date of your death, now that BC, AD, CE, etc. seem irrelevant.

                  January 31 of the Environmental Era is a special day with the growing hours of light (in New Mexico at least) becoming more evident. While Earth Day (April 22) is a day to celebrate Nature, this date should become one of reflection on what is happening to the world you knew only so briefly.

                  Unfortunately, I don’t have much positive news to report. This past year of 122 E.E. was not a particularly good one. First and most importantly, it was the hottest on record in terms on averaged annual global temperature. The temperature has risen 1.3° Celsius since the time when you roamed the plains of the Corrumpa. (That translates to 2.3° Fahrenheit for you as a non-scientist wolf.)

                  According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, earth is now “on the edge” of runaway heating. Imagine yourself in ferocious pursuit of an antelope on an exceptionally hot, sunny day when, at the end of the chase, there is no way to cool off. That should give you an idea of what we are up against.

                  On the same day as the release of this report, National Public Radio ran an interview with someone who, as I recall, has the title of Secretary of Energy. He spoke calmly about someday, decades from now, when carbon fuel use will gradually be replaced by renewables such as solar power. Decades from now! He should have been panicking, promising to lead a campaign to get us off of carbon right away. And, compared to the joker who has replaced him, well, words fail. Makes me want to howl.

                  Almost no one mentions—outside of obscure corners of the internet, something like the scent marking you use to interpret—that cows, as leading methane producers, are just as important in causing climate change as fossil fuels. Little did you know (or at least I think you didn’t know) that by killing cows you were doing your part to combat climate change. You were right to kill so many of them.

                  I could go on with list of terrible and destructive political developments here and abroad by populists, fascists, and terrorists, but I’m running out of energy (so to speak). To put it in terms you would understand, imagine a world of wolf hunters run amuck (actually, last year 14 Mexican Gray Wolves were murdered in New Mexico and Arizona) and you will get an idea of what 122 E.E. has been like.

                  Thanks again for your sacrifice in attempting to warn us Lobo, and for your ongoing inspiration. I will hope that our collective environmental consciousness will continue to grow stronger and that next year, I may be able to give you a better report.

                  (Actually, I’m not counting on it, but according to Joanna Macy and other environmentalists, we must hold on to positive thoughts if we are to have any chance to making it to 124 E.E. and beyond.)

Your devoted admirer,

The Author

anno ab incarnatione lupus

Wolf portrait by Seton

According to Julian/Gregorian calendar reckoning, we have entered the 2016^th year following the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The religious descriptor A.D. (in the year of the Lord) has been in widespread use for over twelve hundred years. The more secular C.E. (common era) has in recent times gained limited traction with historians.

I will here propose a new system for reckoning time: January 31, 2016 C.E. should become known as the first day of the Year 122 E.E.

Year 1 (a.k.a. Environmental Era—E.E.—January 31, 1894) marks the death of the gray wolf “Lobo, King of Currumpaw” at the hands of Ernest Thompson Seton. Not long afterward Seton repudiated animal trapping as well as persecution of predators (including wolves). In 1925 he predicted the coming civilization-ending environmental disasters.

I chose January 31, 1894 as the New Year 1 E.E. because the death of Lobo represents the turning point between the old world of unconscious environmental destruction and the new world of conscious environmental destruction. After that fateful year we had no more excuses for our war on nature.

Seton’s account of the life and death of Lobo was published in November of 1 E.E., proving the link between morality and wild nature. In his stories, Seton showed that we ignore this connection at our peril.

Other than Seton, the Apostles of Lobo of course did not know him; indeed, few are left who personally knew Seton. But we who know the Gospel of Lobo (the environmental New Testament Part I) and the Gospel of Walden (the environmental Old Testament) will continue to carry the message as long as we have breath.

My celebration of New Year’s Day 122 E.E. will include climbing the mountain behind my house to spend time with the elk who reside there this time of year. I hope you will also find a way of honoring wild nature on this special day.

Happy New Year, Lobo.

(New Testament Part II is Seton’s 1901 story “Krag, the Kootenay Ram.”)

Wolf! Annual Letter to Lobo

Canine drawing by Ernest Thompson Seton, courtesy Academy for the Love of Learning

January 31, 2015 marks the 121^th anniversary of the death of Lobo, a wolf trapped by Ernest Thompson Seton along the Corrumpa River in northeastern New Mexico. I have written in my book on Seton and elsewhere in this blog about how he underwent a psychological and spiritual transformation as a result of his encounter with the great wolf Lobo. This encounter became one of the foundational moments leading to today’s environmentalism. Over thirty years after Lobo’s death, Seton wrote this wolf appreciation. Excerpt from Vol. I of Lives of Game Animals (1925), pg. 336-337.

LIFE VII—THE GRAY-WOLF. His True Character—A Challenge

[Excerpt from Vol. I of Lives of Game Animals (1925), pg. 336-337]

“Thus have I offered evidence of the courage, the chivalry, the strength, the playfulness, the love loyalty, the fidelity, the friendliness, the kindliness, the heroism, the goodness of the Wolf—completing my attempt to set before you the faithful and fearless portrait of a creature so long maligned; to piece together the little scraps of truth I have found in countless hunter-tales, like gold raked out of garbage bins; to make you know the wild one’s true character and his way of life as it really is.

Now with all the evidence before me and much more of the same available, and with the story of Lobo in mind (for it is true in the main), can anyone wonder that I love the Gary-wolf and credit him with true nobility of character—with the attributes of a splendid animal hero?”

Ernest Thompson Seton Stories #4

Curator at Seton Castle

This is the fourth in a series, an annotated listing of Ernest Thompson Seton books covering the years 1905-1907.

1905

Woodmyth and Fable

(New York: The Century Company)

Quote: “Most boys gather in the woods pretty and odd bits of moss, fungus, and other treasures that have no price.  They bring them home and store them in that universal receptacle, the Tackle-box.  Some boys, like myself, never outgrow the habit.”

A collection of fifty-three short tales, essays, poetry and observations. Most of them are concluded with a one line “moral” of the story. Like all of Seton’s books, this one is filled with illustrations. Included are his alternative names for months, Thunder Moon for July, Mad Moon for November.

Animal Heroes

(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons)

Quote: “A hero is an individual of unusual gifts and achievements. Whether it be man or animal, this definition applies; and it is the histories of such that appeal to the imagination and to the hearts of those who hear them.”

“The Slum Cat.” A mother cat raises her one female kitten after the others are killed. a common theme in Seton stories. The kitten is soon orphaned. Her beauty and luck earn her a place in human society which she rejects in order to return to the slum where she call live the life of a feral cat which she loves.

“Arnaux: The Chronicle of a Homing Pigeon.” The young bird shows great promise from his first race. His greatest attribute: he has no fear. He flies 210 miles from a ship to his home in NYC. Arnaux makes his living carrying messages. After many an adventure, he is killed by a falcon who takes advantage of his weakness after having been kidnapped and imprisoned by a bad man. Unlike mammals, the bird operates almost entirely on instinct and does not show much individual personality.

“Badlands Billy, The Wolf that Won.” Joining Lobo, the Sandhill Stag, and Krag, this is the fourth major story with an environmentalist message. Once again, as with Lobo, Seton has joined a wolf hunt, but this time (three years later), as an observer, not a hunter. And he is rooting for he wolf. A heroic wolf mother adopts the orphaned Billy. (Seton adored his own mother; there are no bad mothers in any Seton story.) As with Lobo and Krag, we learn a good deal about the real lives of lives of wolves as well as about the cruelty of those humans who persecute them. This is an important counter-story to Lobo, an atonement perhaps: wild nature prevails over man – its triumph is right and just. The wolf hunters fail to capture Billy.

“The Boy and the Lynx.” Apparently based on an incident Seton claimed from his own childhood, a mother Lynx will do anything for her kittens, including attacking humans (although unsuccessfully). A very interesting aspect of the story is Seton explaining the Lynx-Hare population cycle connection, later to become a standard model in explaining the science of ecology. Seton was the first to write a science-based description of this relationship.

“Little Warhorse: The History of a Jackrabbit.” This one could be subtitled, the Jack than won, escaping a cruel fate planned by humans. Seton fascination with these creatures is shown by his close observation of their natural history. Jackrabbits are adaptable and able to seek out accidental allies such as cows and hedgerows to escape their many enemies. Another Seton contribution to ecology was explaining protective (camouflage) and directive (draws attention) coloration used by animals in different circumstances.

“The Winnipeg Wolf.” Based in part on personal experience, Seton’s brief sighting and subsequent research into this particular wolf proved a pivotal life experience. The wolf’s family was murdered (a common fate of Seton’s wild families) after which the pup was raised by humans, most of whom were cruel but for a boy who gave him love. The wolf might have survived by moving away from town, but stayed to be near his one human friend.

“The Legend of the White Reindeer.” Seton begins the story with a lovely mini-essay, a beautiful landscape description of the Norway sub-Arctic, a place he had visited while researching caribou. Like Krag, the reindeer learns many lessons in the wild before being tamed to the sleigh by its kind owner. The animal is kidnapped by an evil man who intends great harm to Norway. The story takes a supernatural turn when the reindeer (still pulling a sleigh) does not stop, bearing the evil one into the snowy wastes of Norway.  
 

1907

The Natural History of the Ten Commandments

(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.)

“Years ago I set for my theory that: The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary laws given to man, but are fundamental laws of all highly developed animals.”

This short work actually covers only the latter six Commandments, the first four not applying to our fellow species, although Seton briefly speculates on a kind of recognition that animals might have of a higher power.

Ernest Thompson Seton Stories #1

Seton Castle, sunset, October 21, 2014

This is the first in a series: annotated listing of Ernest Thompson Seton books.

In this group, the first three books with individual story notation.  

1886

A List of the Mammals of Manitoba

(Manitoba Scientific and Historical Society.) A monograph of Canadian mammalian species.

1891

The Birds of Manitoba

(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.) A monograph listing Canadian bird species.  The two books on Manitoba earned Seton an honorary doctorate from the Moscow Emperor’s Society of the Naturalists in 1893.

1896

Studies in the Art Anatomy of Animals

(London: Macmillan.) The first book presenting, in Seton’s words, “the general principles of Comparative Anatomy applied to Art.” The book showed motion and muscles, fur and claw, details and proportions, of several birds and mammals.  A tour de force of classic scientific illustration, it also proves that the finest representations of animals are made from the inside out. An artist cannot convey the outward appearance of animal life without understanding its structure.

Important quote: “In every case art is a conventional abstract from nature, and its appeal to the imagination must necessarily be influenced largely by nature.”

1898

Wild Animals I Have Known

(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.) The book that led to Seton achieving best seller status was published near the end of the year. The “Lobo,” “Silverspot,” and other stories became classics read by several generations of American youth.

Quote: “Such a collection of histories naturally suggests a common thought – a moral it would have been called in the last century.  No doubt each different mind will find a moral to its taste, but I hope some will herein find emphasized a moral as old as Scripture—we and the beasts are kin. Man has nothing that the animals have not at least a vestige of, the animals have nothing that man does not in some degree share…Since, then, the animals are creatures with wants and feelings differing only in degree from our own, they surely have their rights.”

“Lobo, the King of Currumpaw.” The great and big-hearted wolf is characterized by physical prowess, strength & honor, intelligence, stealth, critical thinking. Lobo shows a visceral rejection of technology. He is motivated by loyalty and love, but is ultimately defeated by the narrator who uses underhanded tactics. In a larger sense, this is an undermining of nature itself.

“Silverspot, the Story of a Crow.” Leaders of crow flocks are the “oldest and wisest” and “strongest and bravest.” This serves as a model for Woodcraft leadership. Silverspot leads by example and force of character.  Leadership requires the ability to convey one’s will while at the same time requiring of the true leader to take the same physical risks and a willingness to do the same jobs as anyone else.

“Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit.” From a rabbit’s point of view, predators are villainous. Rag learns the art of woodcraft – how to thrive through co-existing with the environment, surviving by his strength and wits. This lesson is clearly also for us. But there is also this: “No wild animal dies of old age.  Its life has soon or late a tragic end.”

“Bingo, the Story of My Dog.” The narrator is caught in his own wolf traps and is soon surrounded by wolves.  From afar, Bingo senses his plight, and comes to the rescue. The story is about the high moral value of loyalty. At the same time, dogs have less sense than wolves; Bingo falls victim to poison left for wolves, showing in a larger sense, the results of our war on nature: we kill the things (and the ones) we love.

“The Springfield Fox.” A fox exhibits a craftiness that demonstrates intent, and thus a high degree of consciousness. Common sense rules for foxes could be read as having value for us as well. In the end a mother kills its kit rather than see it chained. Seton faced criticism for what were seen as exaggerated accounts of complex animal behavior.

“The Pacing Mustang.” A relentlessly hunted horse commits suicide rather than lose its freedom. Many stories in this book chronicle men’s cruelty to animals. Here, the hunters want to kill or capture the animal precisely because of its dedication to freedom. The horse is morally superior to those who would destroy it. Like most of the others here, this story is about the human need to destroy nature, in part, just to prove that we can do it.

“Wully, the Story of a Yaller Dog.” The hero of this story remains doggedly loyal to a worthless master who has abandoned him.  The betrayed and heartbroken Wully eventually becomes a murderer, an enemy to the world of men and sheep.  This is about the immorality of abuse and neglect.

“Redruff, the Story of the Don Valley Partridge.” A flock of birds tries to make a home, but persecution by humans and terrible weather destroy them all. A snare catches the bird: “Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right does man have to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because the creature does not speak his language.”

“The Thought (Tail-piece).” This is a wordless story, an illustration of a nude man, a wolf, and a bird. Above them the life-giving sun while below is life-giving water. A spiral of dynamic energy inseparably connects them. Will we come to reconnection the interconnection before it is too late? Heady stuff for 1898!