0:00:04 > 0:00:06WOLF HOWLS
0:00:08 > 0:00:10SOULFUL SINGING
0:01:04 > 0:01:05WOLF HOWLS
0:03:45 > 0:03:47If you watch wolves hunting today,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50you'll notice a number of key features.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53They certainly work as teams and they'll have grown up with each other,
0:03:53 > 0:03:54they'll know each other inside out,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57they will notice little changes in the body language
0:03:57 > 0:04:01and behaviour, and don't have to make noises as they're hunting.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05They will, very quietly, encircle prey, ready to then attack,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08or they will even form a circle that another member of the pack
0:04:08 > 0:04:11will drive prey into that group.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15People who work with gun dogs will know exactly how that works,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17you can train dogs to do these things,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19and that's because they are innate skills of the wolf.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23And many of those are transferable across to human hunting,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25so how much early peoples might have
0:04:25 > 0:04:28learned from the wolves is obviously a matter of conjecture,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32but it's quite likely that they looked to the wolf as a supreme
0:04:32 > 0:04:34hunter, and would have really respected them,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37and copied some of their better techniques.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04WOLF GROWLS
0:08:49 > 0:08:52WOLVES HOWL
0:11:37 > 0:11:40WOLVES HOWL
0:13:17 > 0:13:21We have a very rich resource here in our museum.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24What we have is a large collection of bones from Irish caves
0:13:24 > 0:13:27that were collected mostly in the early 1900s,
0:13:27 > 0:13:29by a group of scientists who were systematically
0:13:29 > 0:13:33working their way through Ice Age deposits in those caves,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38and, as they documented in their note books, they found hyena bones,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40they also found wolf bones,
0:13:40 > 0:13:41which probably wasn't as big a surprise,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45because with the history of wolves, and the historical records, and so on,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47people knew wolves did live here in the past.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52What it gives us, then, is a resource
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that you could compare individual bones,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59like this excavated bone from one of the Irish caves,
0:13:59 > 0:14:00the lower jaw of a wolf,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05with the lower jaw of a wolf that they'd bought in the early 1900s,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09and, look at the curvature of the lower jaw
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and look at the depth of it, as well,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16to draw distinctions between domesticated dogs and wolves.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41CHURCH BELL CHIMES
0:19:00 > 0:19:02WOLF HOWLS
0:19:14 > 0:19:17There are a large number of superstitions and the use
0:19:17 > 0:19:20of wolf parts in medicines throughout Ireland,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23and Europe, as well, and we have good records of some of these,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26for example, wolf tooth was used as a huge charm,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29or protection against evil, and also protection against illness,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32and there almost a mini-trade in wolf teeth coming from Ireland,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36going to England, at various stages throughout the 1600s and 1500s.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26A whole series of books from the Bristol Port
0:20:26 > 0:20:30have survived from 1492, and these books record the trade from Ireland
0:20:30 > 0:20:35of a large number of products and shipping across the Irish Sea.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Included in this trade, were a remarkable series of records
0:20:38 > 0:20:40of wolf skins being exported from Ireland.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43These were quite expensive items in the record itself,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46some of the most expensive skins being exported from Ireland,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48and this tells us there was the hunting of wolves
0:20:48 > 0:20:50for commercial gain in Ireland,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53but it also tells us that there was a huge wolf population still
0:20:53 > 0:20:56surviving in Ireland right up until the 1600s.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54WOLF HOWLS
0:23:26 > 0:23:29- VOICE-OVER:- I heard tell of a traveller recently,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32making his way from Roonith to Drummin.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34At Cregganbun, believing he had travelled the most dangerous
0:23:34 > 0:23:38part of the journey, he gave his dagger and only weapon to a man
0:23:38 > 0:23:42returning to the East, only to be killed by a wolf further along the way.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28WOLVES BARK
0:24:33 > 0:24:35WOLF WHIMPERS
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd