BBC, TV reviewers: Land of the Lost Wolves brings US wildlife policies to the UK

USFWS photo by Gary Kramer

This week the BBC One channel broadcast a two-part documentary in the UK, Land of the Lost Wolves, that triggered some reaction in the rest of the UK press. The video can be streamed for those there, but not for the rest of the world.

But the BBC‘s Matt Bardo worked up an on line, print feature story to go with it. Looks pretty good. The news is that, in partnership with Discovery Channel (although I can find no easy reference to the effort, or when the program will air in the US, at the latter’s site), BBC sent a camera and reporting crew to Washington’s Cascade Mountains.

There, a wolf pack had recently moved in from Canada. It ran smack into an aroused local populace, including ranchers and others determined to stop these hungry canines from a dinner of beef, sheep, deer, elk, or anything else that many would prefer be preserved for human pleasures. That, and worry about any person, kids especially, that might find him-or- herself with wolves all around and coming closer – rare as such event may be. It is illegal, without special permit, to shoot wolves in Washington State. But it happens. Wolves, one learns by noodling around, have been back and breeding in the state for five years or so.

Bardo’s story includes an evocative video excerpt showing a wildlife cameraman and tracker patiently waiting for wolves, eliciting a chorus of howls while doing so.

Reviews in the UK give it high marks, and remark upon the element of hostility in American who live near newly-introduced on in-migrating wolves, as well as prospects that wolves may return to their islands.

Stories on BBC show:

• Telegraph – Louise Gray: Land of the Lost Wolves, BBC One, review ;
• Staffordwhire Sentinel: Pack return to the snowy peaks ;

Other Stories on Washington State Wolves:

• Columbia Basin Herald – Dennis L. Clay, three-part series in March. Wolf plan is acceptable, so far ; Five wolf packs so far in Washington ; The life of a wolf ; Mr. Clay is not a highly stylish writer, but is a good organizer of facts and a plain-talker with a clear voice.
• KPIU/NPR (Seattle)  Tom Banse: Wash. hunter pleads guilty to wolf poaching conspiracy ;

Other stories on wolf reintroduction to UK

• Express – John Ingham: Wolves Aren’t So Bad in Real Life ;

Grist for the Mill: Wash. Department of Fish & Wildlife Press Release ; WDFW Gray Wolf Conservation and Management page ; WDFW Fact Sheet ;

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