The Wolf Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall.

And this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Oh!

From the top of the world to the bottom.

Whoa!

Deadly places,

deadly adventures,

and deadly animals.

And you're coming with me, every step of the way!

Argh!

This time on Deadly Pole to Pole,

we're doing things a little bit differently.

We're dealing with just one species,

one that's very dear to my own heart,

the wolf.

Throughout history,

man's been fascinated by this extraordinary animal.

But people's perception of wolves hasn't always been positive.

GUNSHOTS

I want to convince you that they're magnificent,

intelligent, mesmerising creatures.

Hello, hello!

And explain how man's attitude to them

can influence their very survival.

But first, I want to look at why these potent predators

have such a big, bad reputation.

They've featured heavily in our myths and folklore as the bad guy.

In most stories, wolves play the villain,

often portrayed as fearsome, sly and cunning.

And then, of course, there are the horror stories of werewolves.

HOWLING

For some people, this has fuelled a deep-rooted hatred

and fear of wolves.

I want to help try and change these attitudes,

to convince people they're not the savages they're made out to be.

To help show what magnificent creatures they really are,

I travelled to the Wolf Conservation Trust in the south of England,

to come nose-to-nose with these extraordinary animals.

Inside this enclosure are three Canadian wolves, grey wolves,

and...they don't know me,

they've not met me before, so it'll be really interesting to see

how they react to me.

And their first instinct is just to come straight in

and check everything out with their nose.

Hello, yes. Yes, just instantly checking me out with the snout.

This is amazing. Hello, hello.

These are my favourite animals.

This is the animal that has, I guess, bewitched me

more than any other in my entire career.

'And part of that is because they're one of the greatest

'of all hunters.'

Aren't they spectacular? Hello, hello.

'Being so close to them here

'lets me see exactly what it is

'that makes them such effective predators.'

Wolves are opportunists by nature

and they've got big brains

which means that they have to suss out

everything that's new in their environment

to see if it could be something good to eat.

So now that he's got a little bit more confidence with me,

he's checking out my boots, my jeans, my microphone

and everything is initially assessed

using the nose.

I guess a wolf's muzzle

and its sense of smell is pretty much the same as our sense of sight.

We perceive the world around us with our eyes,

a wolf does it with its nose.

The reason this sense is so powerful,

is to ensure the success of a hunt...

..allowing them to track prey

from the invisible clues that are left behind.

Millions of skin and hair cells shower the ground.

Every step leaves a scent print.

When a wolf picks up the scent,

they take long, deep sniffs to identify the smell,

then start following the trail.

As they do this,

they're also able to process further information about their prey.

They can detect if the animal's old, sick or injured.

It's a seemingly supernatural sense.

To try and demonstrate just how extraordinary their sense of smell is,

back at the Wolf Centre, I devised a simple experiment.

With as many as two million scent receptors

inside that long canine muzzle,

a wolf's sense of smell might be 10,000 times more potent than a human being's.

And to see quite how strong it is,

I've got this bucket of stinky meat.

I'm going to create scent trails and hide meat within the enclosure.

I want to see how long it takes these wolves to find it.

I reckon these wolves will find it within seconds.

OK, where else can we hide some?

OK, the meat's set, let's see what happens when the wolves come out.

And with all this food around,

I'm getting out of the way.

OK, so the wolves have come bounding out into the enclosure

and they're charging around, doing exactly what we expected.

As they're running, the nose is right down, close to the ground,

and they're sucking in with every breath, pulling in all those scents.

We would never be able to do this.

Food could be hidden right under our noses and we wouldn't find it.

Already, they've gone straight to the ridge line

and that wolf up there has had three or four meaty meals

in the space of about 20 seconds.

That's even more extreme than I expected.

I should have put out more meat.

This is only going to last about a minute!

For these captive wolves,

once they find the hidden food, it's an easy snack.

But for their wild cousins,

even when they catch up with prey, they still have to make the kill.

So, their hunting strategy is intelligent and organised.

Wolves work together to take down prey up to ten times their own size.

The lightest and fastest wolves start the chase.

They target a weak or injured animal, separating it from the herd.

Wolves can sprint at 35mph,

but their phenomenal endurance is the killer.

Chasing for miles in deep snow until their prey is exhausted.

The pack pile in to finish the job.

Wolves really are one of the most sensational predators.

But it's this hunting ability that's unwittingly landed them in trouble.

For decades, the grey wolf has been persecuted by man

so it's no surprise wolves tend to be shy and elusive creatures

that avoid humans.

Wolves were once one of the most widespread large predators on the planet,

but as settlers moved into their territories

and chopped down forest to make way for fields and animals,

conflict began.

They're extremely opportunistic hunters

and often ended up killing precious livestock...

..leading people to dislike and fear them.

People began killing wolves.

In Britain, they were hunted to extinction.

And they were wiped out in large parts of Europe.

In North America, more than a million were shot...

..poisoned...

..and trapped.

By the middle of the last century,

they'd been exterminated from almost every part of their range,

pushing them into the wilds of Canada.

But today, attitudes are changing

and the grey wolf is making a comeback.

In the 1970s, wolves were classified as an endangered species

and gradually, efforts have been made to conserve them.

In Yellowstone National Park, wolves have been reintroduced

and their numbers are steadily increasing.

And the park is once again home to a healthy population.

So my crew and I travelled to Yellowstone National Park,

to give ourselves the best chance of seeing a grey wolf in the wild.

And even though numbers here are on the up,

they're still going to be a real challenge to find.

With almost 3,500 square miles of unspoilt wilderness,

there are plenty of places for them to hide.

The crew and I spend days and cover many miles

looking for any sign that wolves might be near.

But it's not until we come across a gruesome clue,

that we realise we're hot on their tails.

We've pulled up because it appears that something quite dramatic

has happened alongside the road here.

Loads of fur at the verge

and what looks like a chunk of pelt right here.

Look at that, wow!

That is...a fairly complete...

chunk of skin from an elk.

This, though, has been dragged up onto the road.

The kill didn't happen here.

It looks like it happened just over there.

Wow.

There is sign absolutely everywhere.

So, when you're approaching something like this,

it's a bit like approaching a crime scene.

You've got to be very careful where you put your feet

because all of these marks, though they look like a mess,

they're actually signs of what's gone on here.

That looks like it was the epicentre of the kill, yeah.

Oh, my goodness, there is blood everywhere. Look at that.

That's really kind of gory,

and instantly, to me, this just says wolf kill.

You might have five or six animals all competing for food.

They'll get their teeth stuck into it,

they'll wedge down with their big paws on straight legs

and just shake using all of the muscularity in their neck

and it ends up kind of looking like a butcher's shop floor.

This is such an exciting sign.

There have to be wolves nearby.

And with one day to go, there's no way we're giving up.

Our plan now is just to drive this road,

keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of a wolf.

Really it's all now down to my team keeping their eyes on the prize.

This could be a long car ride!

We've tried to film wolves on Deadly before

and it's always been one of our hardest challenges.

But like most wildlife sightings,

they happen when you're least expecting it.

Go, go, go. Don't worry just...

Bring it right to the front with you, Steve-o.

There's two wolves.

We've just seen...

a couple of wolves walking towards the road.

At the moment, they're about a mile away

but it's possible that they could come close enough

that we can get a shot of them on the camera.

Um, the chance of seeing one, relatively close,

in the middle of the day, is incredibly exciting.

Let's just get off the road.

This is great, yeah.

This is great.

Oh, wow!

They're trotting on so quick...

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Two wolves, out in the open, and...

..really closer than I expected to get.

So what we've got is a male and a female wolf.

At least one of them is wearing a radio collar.

That's put on by biologists so that they can track the movements

of these animals and make sure they keep them safe.

Hoo...

Oh, they're so beautiful.

This is the finest view I've ever had of a wild wolf.

And you can't beat seeing them in their natural habitat.

This is really, really exciting.

My heart's going crazy. Here he comes!

Coming almost at a trot.

That loping gait, wolves can keep that up for a great deal of time if they have to.

That's one of their big advantages when they're hunting,

is their endurance.

Heading towards the road. It looks like it might cross

right in front of that car up there.

Oh, look at that!

The most incredible view of a wild wolf ever.

Well, it was chaotic but it was very, very exciting

and a sight that most wildlife watchers

would give their right arm for.

You have to say, wolves in the winter wonderland - massive success.

The grey wolf's future appears far more positive,

allowing this species to finally make a comeback in North America.

However, not all wolves are out of the woods,

and there are some species that are still teetering on the brink.

One of the most rare and also one of the most beautiful

is found in the mountains of Ethiopia.

High up in the pristine wilderness of the Ethiopian Highlands,

the Abyssinian or Ethiopian wolf exists.

There are fewer than 500 individuals in the wild,

so it's a species that could easily disappear within my lifetime.

So, given that this animal is so rare,

it's one of my greatest privileges to have had a glimpse of one

in Ethiopia's Guassa mountains.

That's it!

That's it, that's it, that's it!

(OK, come close. Get out very, very quietly.)

This is unbelievable.

The hillside here is covered in gelada baboons

and heading off right through the middle of them,

up through that valley, is an Ethiopian wolf.

I don't know what to say about this really...I mean,

wolves are my favourite animal in the whole world

and this is one of the rarest species of wolf

found on the whole planet.

This really is one of the most privileged sights

you can have in wildlife in the whole world.

And when he sees something, he stops dead

and then just goes into stealth mode, moving really, really slowly.

There's definitely something in front of him.

'We watch in wonder

'as our wolf seems to ready itself to catch something.'

-(Caught a mole rat, I think...)

-No, no!

Not only are we witnessing one of just 500 Ethiopian wolves,

but it's hunting right in front of our eyes.

These nimble canids use stealth

to creep up on unsuspecting prey.

Ultrasensitive hearing helps them hone in on the tiniest sound,

and lightning quick reactions enable them to snatch up unwary rodents.

It's completely different to the pack-hunting grey wolf.

The Abyssinian wolf,

probably the rarest animal we'll ever encounter on Deadly 60,

and, I think, one of the most special.

The main reason this wolf is so rare is due to habitat loss.

Ethiopia's human population is expanding rapidly.

All those people need more and more space to live

and also to grow their food.

And as people take over the land for farming,

that means less and less space for the Ethiopian wolf

to live and raise their own families.

Now, all of the wolves have been squeezed

into the highest mountain ranges of Ethiopia.

But sadly this wolf isn't just threatened by habitat loss.

Local Ethiopians, like many people around the world, keep dogs.

And pet dogs in Ethiopia

have one of the highest rates of rabies in the world...

..a disease which is ultimately fatal.

And wolves can easily catch rabies

when they come into contact with these dogs.

But people are doing something.

Vaccinations are being given

to reduce the spread of rabies to the Ethiopian wolf,

and efforts are being made to protect the habitats they live in.

With man's help, it's possible this population could be saved.

In fact today, people have become pivotal to the survival

of almost all wolf species.

And recently, I got the opportunity to help conservation efforts

with the rarest wild wolf - in the wild.

This is the red wolf,

a species extinct from the American wilderness only 30 years ago,

but thanks to a reintroduction plan,

a small population of just over 100 animals now roam free.

So I couldn't resist trying to see them in the wild.

North Carolina is quite a well-populated state

but it has more than its fair share of wilderness.

It is the worst possible terrain for tracking,

especially a critically endangered animal

that specialises in not being seen.

To give ourselves the best possible chance,

my crew and I pulled out all the stops.

From taking to the air and working with top scientists to trace them...

..tracking them on foot...

..even staying out for the night

using thermal technology to try and spot them.

HE HOWLS

We tried everything,

but in the end, it just wasn't to be.

Finding red wolves in the wild was always going to be a tall order,

but, luckily, I do know a place where we can definitely find one.

In the place where they're being readied for reintroduction

back into the wild.

At this refuge, they have three red wolf pups

and I had the opportunity to help catch them

and take them to a release site.

So I'm here with Art, Mike and Becky

from the Fish and Wildlife Service,

and, yeah, I've got a big net.

-Are you ready, Steve?

-Absolutely, let's give it a go.

These animals have been reared at this refuge for the sole purpose

of being released in order to help increase the wild population.

Got it.

I know this looks tough.

And there's no doubt that for a few minutes,

this animal's certainly going to be quite scared.

But this is so, so worthwhile.

I mean, what's happening here

is really going to be the most essential thing

in making sure that these animals can still live out in the wild.

I'll tell you what, Steve.

You want to grab her back here and hold her tight.

Mike's going to dose her with this, uh...

With the wolf caught, all we need to do

is get her into a travel box to keep her safe and calm.

Great job, guys. Well done, well done.

One down, two more to go.

'They're extremely quick and agile,

'but the team are expert at catching them.'

Yes, good job!

Come on, come on, close to me.

'And the last wolf is down to me!'

OK, you just take your hand up off him.

Well done, good job!

'With all three caught,

'it's time to load them up

'and take them to the release site.'

We're driving with our wolves for about an hour-and-a-half

to a special, secret release site,

where there's lots and lots of wilderness for them to roam free in.

Hopefully, if we came back in a couple of years' time,

we would see a new fledgling pack formed from our young pups.

This must be the spot.

After months of readying these wolves for a life in the wild,

for these dedicated conservationists,

this is the moment that makes it all worthwhile.

And it's what creates hope for the survival of the red wolf.

This is really exciting.

It feels like a momentous occasion.

I mean three...

Three wolves potentially out in the wild.

There are fewer than 100 out there,

this is a major, major part of the population right here.

If they succeed, if they do well, if they start their own pack,

rear their own puppies in the future, this could be the solution,

it could be a big part of the solution anyway, for red wolves.

OK, well, we can't put it off any longer.

Within minutes of having run free from here...

..it's going to be a truly wild animal again.

Yes!

Now we just need her sister to follow her.

There she goes.

Lovely, long, loping stride...

That's great, that is great.

I really believe that the wilderness can't be truly wild

unless you have a top of the line predator,

like the red wolf, running free in it.

This kind of makes the forest complete.

I feel so privileged

to have been part of such pivotal conservation efforts,

and work alongside the people that have made it possible

for a seemingly doomed wolf to make a comeback.

For centuries,

wolves have been made out to be savage, indiscriminate killers.

But anybody who thinks that wolves are genuinely dangerous to humans

should know that in over 100 years,

there have been only two fatal attacks

in the whole of North America.

In that same amount of time,

millions of wolves have been slaughtered by people,

largely because they're seen as vermin that create problems for man.

But today there is hope.

Attitudes are changing, and I've witnessed first-hand

the work people are doing to give wolves a second chance.

They are the embodiment of the wild.

Highly intelligent, complex and dignified creatures,

and before it's too late,

we need to give these animals the respect they deserve

and learn to live alongside them.

HOWLING

'Join me next time for more Deadly Pole To Pole.'

Wolf!