Wolves The Movie in Lubbock, TX

• Info
• Cast & Crew

• Genre: Documentary
  
  Synopsis:
  Filmmaker David Douglas examines the world of wolves and how they have survived near extinction.
  
  Release Date: 03/01/1999
  Running Time: 40
  
  http://www.nwf.org/nwf/wolves/thefilm.html
  
• Cast:
  Narrator: Robbie Robertson
  
  Crew:
  Director: David Douglas,Producer: Goulam Amarsy,Executive Producer: Christopher N. Palmer,Associate Producer: Di Roberts,Cinematographer: David Douglas
  
  Production Companies:
  Primesco Communications,National Wildlife Federation
  
  Notes:
  Production Notes -These notes are provided by the National Wildlife Federation- SCENE BY SCENE SYNOPSIS Against the snowy peaks of Yellowstone National Park, a mystery unfolds. Scientists spot the clues from hilltops and light aircraft: Elk herds are in turmoil and signs of change are in evidence all around. Mid-level predators, like coyotes, are wary. Their unchallenged dominance is coming to an end. Because after an absence of seventy years, wolves once again roam the pine-topped ridges and broad snowfields of the West. The Yellowstone biologists are witness to a vast and exciting project that will result in the return of these formidable predators to their natural habitat. Extraordinarily, it is humans who are responsible for the animal's renaissance. After decades of work, we've succeeded in putting a symbol of wildness is back in the wilderness. The extraordinary journey leading to these events begins a continent away. For most of the last fifty thousand years, Asia and America were joined. During various ice ages a land bridge between Alaska and what we now call Siberia formed. Eons ago, the horse and camel migrated across it from America to Asia, while caribou and bison moved in the opposite direction from Asia to the New World. Among those animals were migrating herds of muskox, buffalo and caribou. As the vast herds forded wide rivers and spread out across the tundra of Alaska's North Slope, some species turned south, but the caribou and muskox remained. Accompanying these herds were those creatures that depended upon them for survival, including small bands of human hunters, and their kindred spirits, the wolf packs. The Arctic Wolf has evolved a white coat with which it blends into its backdrop of winter snows. During the brief summer, its pale presence can be distinguished from miles away against the gray rock and green mosses of the high north. On Ellesmere Island, the primary large prey animal is the muskox. In such inhospitable territory, a wolf pack may need a thousand square miles of territory to roam if it is to find enough food to survive. The first task of locating prey is only the beginning of a very dangerous undertaking that fails far more frequently than it succeeds. Though wolves are capable of killing animals ten times their weight, some species of their prey have adapted effective means of defeating wolf attacks. The muskox is a formidable creature, strong and well equipped to defend itself against attack. The animals possess sharp hooves and curved horns. When they are under attack, they position themselves in a defensive formation that is nearly impossible to breach. Even a small group of muskox makes a significant adversary, so there is little chance for an attacker that attempts a head-on confrontation. Shoulder-to-shoulder, they duck and whirl about, while the white flashes of the Arctic Wolves move with them. Less harm can come to the wolf pack if the members stick together. The wolves strategy is straightforward. First they test the herd by making the muskox run. This will enable the wolves to discern if there are any injured, slow, or weak individuals among them. Even a minor injury may be enough to tip the scales in the wolves' favor, so they study the herd carefully. This is neither the first, nor the last time these adversaries will face each other. On this day there will be no easy meal, so the pack must cut its losses and move on. But the next time they meet, conditions will likely have changed. Half of all adult wolves bear scars from injuries inflicted by the horns, hooves and antlers of their prey. Young and inexperienced wolves are sometimes killed in this manner and the pack won't waste time on a futile encounter. Their next chance for a meal may be a hundred miles away. South of the Tundra, the great central plains of the continent open up between magnificent mountain ranges. This vast prairie seemed designed with one creature in mind: the adaptable and hardy bison. Not long ago, these grasslands were dark with undulating herds of vast numbers. For thousands of years bison were the very lifeblood of those who followed their regular migrations south in autumn, then north in spring. The lives deer and antelope, wolf and humans, converged and overlapped in symbiotic harmony within the proximity of the great buffalo herds. Wolf packs were so much a part of this biological chain that they were even tolerated on the herd's fringes. They were so familiar that skilled native hunters wearing wolf skins could move among the bison without provoking a stampede. The amber plains of the west are covered with sage today, but a few bison still wander certain areas protected from rifles. Yet the herds' glory vanished long ago. Black-and-white photographs recall a time when Native Americans shared this place with the bison. The tribes who made their home in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains depended on these animals for almost everything -- from the food they ate to the animal's hides, which were used to cover their lodge poles. Even their clothing, ritual items and weapons were made from the bison. The place we now call Idaho was home to the Nez Perce tribe. Their yearly cycle of activity included leaving their river valleys each spring and fall to hunt bison on the plains of eastern Montana. An early Kinescope motion picture reveals the shadowy outlines of bison, which are about to be stampeded by white riders. Armies from the east, newly-released from Civil War battlegrounds, were used as a powerful arm of the United States Federal Government. Native American occupation of the plains would not be tolerated by a nation bent on dividing, developing and owning territory. The only way to rid the land of its current occupants was to drive their very livelihood and sustenance to the brink of extinction. Bison had to be wiped out. The faces of a succession of Nez Perce chiefs and their people stare back at us from the past. They were a people of deep spirituality, and valued freedom above all else. As treaty after treaty was broken by the army or the government, a final struggle began. Thunder That Rolls in the Mountains, who also known as Chief Joseph, was provoked to begin a desperate struggle for survival. With a force of three hundred warriors and their families, Chief Joseph and his war chiefs attacked, then waged a fighting retreat for thirteen hundred miles. Only forty miles from the Canadian border, they were cut off. They surrendered after the Battle of Bearpaw Mountains. When the terms of the surrender were also broken, more than four hundred men, women and children were delivered to a federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. Their imprisonment marked the end of an entire way of life. The path was now clear to confiscate and divide Native American lands for the benefit of the new settlers streaming in from the east. Sixty-million free-roaming buffalo had been reduced to bone piles worth just eight dollars a ton. Wolf pelts brought a dollar apiece until 1888 when their value rose to five dollars; but by then the wolf had gone the way of the buffalo it had virtually disappeared. Bringing the bison back from near extinction is an project for which there is considerable support. Wolves suffer from a more negative image, primarily because they are carnivores, which must kill in order to survive. The road to recovery has been a more arduous one for the wolf. A wolf pack climbs to the crest of a hill to surround a buffalo carcass. It is clear that the animals await something. Finally, the dominant male arrives, and launches the feast. A wolf pack is a family its bloodlines and social order are established by the "alpha," or dominant male and female. These are the parents of most if not all of the pack members. Their actions determine where the pack ranges and how well it survives. On a riverbank, a single wolf explores its surroundings. The alpha pair breed in February and the alpha female tries to ensure that this is the only breeding that takes place within the pack. On closer inspection, it is clear that our female is pregnant, which is why she searches for a den site. Her choice of location will determine the disposition of the pack for most of the spring and summer. She may choose to expand a foxhole, dig a new den or simply rely on dens she has used before. She may want three alternatives so that a safe refuge will always be available. Whichever sites she chooses must be close to water, and should be situated in close proximity to a ridge that affords a clear view in all directions. Wolves are impressive diggers. A wolf den may extend twenty feet into a bank. During times of bearing and rearing offspring, the pack never strays far from the den. Born in early May, the pups' first visit to the outside world comes if the birth den is threatened. Then, one at a time, the mother carries the pups to a new home. On the high ground above the den site the pack waits for the pups to emerge from the den. The pups are the true future of the pack. Each member plays a role in their feeding, protection, training, and socialization. When they return from the hunt every couple of days, the pack rests near the den. At one hundred and twenty-five pounds, this pack's alpha male is big, even by wolf standards. With him are two surviving sons from last year's litter of six. In another year, one or both of these juvenile males will reach maturity and disperse from this pack to form packs of their own, but for now, they seem content to submit to their father and the heat of the early summer afternoon. Under ground, the newborn pups lack a means of regulating their own temperature. Their mother's body heat is the only thing that keeps them warm. For the first two weeks of life, both food and warmth are close at hand and she will leave them alone only to quench her thirst. A blue truck crosses the breathtaking skyline of a mountain range. In the wide, open country behind Central Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains, the Nez Perce are reintroducing their old friend the wolf to its former place in the wilderness. Nez Perce biologists hike ten to twenty miles into backcountry in spring and summer, gathering the data that provides a picture of the reintroduced pack's location and progress. The vastness of Idaho's wilderness means that the only way they can get an accurate picture is from a lofty vantage point. As tracking aircraft patrol overhead, the Nez Perce biologists prepare to get a pup count by setting up telemetry stations and telescopes on a remote hillside. The big alpha male leaps into the river leading its pack across to the den site where the pups are just emerging from the darkness. Rolling and tumbling about, they chase after their baby-sitter, a black yearling who is their older brother. With infinite patience, the yearlings take turns supervising the pups, surrendering to the frenzy of this nibbling, nuzzling, chewing mob. For their first eleven weeks of life, the pups welcome any adult that is permitted to approach them, imprinting its image, sound and smell into their lexicon of experience. After three months, any new arrival will be seen as possible competition or potential prey. Returning to the den with the pack is the alpha female who has rejoined the hunt to regain her body weight. Now killing closer to the den site, the adults return daily, carrying food for the pups in their stomachs. When pack and pups are reunited, all the adults vie for the attention of the newest members. In turn, the pups hope for a meal of regurgitated meat, though they still try to suckle from their mother. She makes it difficult for them, forcing them to depend more and more on solid foods. For European cultures, most of was known about the wolf came by way of myth and misinformation. It seemed that no one cared to know the truth. As a result, it has taken a long time for wolves to regain human allies. A huge black wolf crosses the screen and descends into a decidedly different kind of den. She passes through a long dark tunnel and emerges in a family home. Wildlife biologist Pat Tucker and writer Bruce Weide have accepted responsibility for a captive wolf they call Koani. They care for Koani with the goal of using her to help people understand what real wolves are really all about. But keeping a adult wolf healthy and happy is a demanding task. Pat and Bruce walk through the forest for several hours every with Koani at the other end of a 60-foot leash. Koani is a traveling companion, but not a pet. Throughout small western towns, Pat, Bruce, Koani, and her canine companion Indy help thousands of schoolchildren each year to reassess their view of the wolf. Telling stories and using biology to replace folklore, they are preparing a new generation for a world that includes wolves. A slide show takes the classroom into the folklore of the past, and compares it with scientific facts so that students can make up their own minds about wolves. An older voice is now heard defending the wolf's return. Against a whirling background of bright feathers and beaded buckskin leather, Nez Perce dancers honor their long history of partnership with the wild creatures of the land they once shared. Traditional wisdom and modern science are combined at a Nez Perce facility in Winchester, Idaho. The Wolf Education and Research Center promotes education, awareness, research and interpretation about endangered species particularly the wolf and its habitat. The center includes a twenty-acre enclosure where a captive wolf pack roams. Close observation of wild wolves is detrimental to them, so close study is rendered possible with the use of captive packs such as this one. By late summer, our wild pack has moved the pups to a rendezvous site on a sunny hillside located closer to their seasonal prey. There, the animals test their strength against each other, competing for dominant position. On a plateau in the Bridger Range, a young grizzly bear stumbles across the wolves' rendezvous site and is challenged and eventually chased away by the alpha pair. Many people thought that wolves might hurt grizzlies, but wolves and bears once co-existed for thousands of years. Bears feasting on leftover wolf kills once again and scientists have predicted that bear cubs survival should increase as a result. Bringing wolves back into the ecosystem should change many things from the elk and deer populations that wolves eat, to the birds and scavenger populations, all the way to the vegetation on which the various animals graze. All this improvement is derived from just a few wolves returning to their native habitat. In Canada, where wolf populations are still sustainable, the wolf is under pressure from hunters, trappers, and ranchers. There, scientists have developed "soft traps" to capture wolves unharmed for collaring and population study. They measure and weigh of the animals and conduct DNA studies to look at population diversity and bloodlines. In a place where many wolves still survive, the focus is on developing partnerships between conservationists, government, and economic interests, so that the population will continue to thrive. Back on the slopes of Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, the early birds are setting up their spotting scopes to catch a glimpse of the real-life drama unfolding on the valley floor. A young wolf is stalking buffalo on the plain below. It is a scene from a time before human presence. The impact of wolves on the ecosystem will take years to assess and more years to understand, but their spirit is alive again in the west. In Montana's Big Hole National Battlefield, as the lodgepoles of the Nez Perce encampment stand witness in the morning sun, the translucent shadows of our pack move into view. The pups are fatter now, and strong almost as big as their mother. If they survive an uncertain future, they soon will bring yet another generation of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.