Uncle Henry´s Universe.

It was a
gorgeous day in the wolves’ tracks, with continued course straight into Norway.
I became more and more convinced that it was the Gräsmark couple I followed, but
the response in the form of droppings and urine was not found until late in the
day. (And the test results come first in a week or two.)
They
crossed each lake or river they encountered, and I had to go around according
to the safety rules that we have, and which I support with all my heart. The
ice is very sneaky this winter, so I do not take risks.

Even today
I found a moose killed by wolves and it was also completely eaten. It was an
old moose with much worn teeth. The front teeth in the lower jaw were worse
than I’ve ever seen before.

Wolf pack territory changed between years and overlap at times. When last year I thought I tracked the Kerto pack, DNA analysis showed that it was the Gräsmark pack. In January this year, I once again tracked in exactly the same place, and I thought it was Gräsmark … But it was Kerto! Today I tracked again, in the same place as before, and that should reasonably be Kerto because they ate of the moose they killed in January … but the tracking went to our neighboring country, Norway… And that is Gräsmark territory. Perhaps I will get answer during tomorrow’s tracking.

When the wolves cross the watercourses I have to take me around in some other way. It often makes the walk twice as long. Tracked down to the river and went back the same way, then took the car via Norway into Sweden again, and continued to track when the tracks were found. Wolves do not care for cold water. Wolf trackers do.

There is
not much left of the moose calf that wolves killed in late January. Hungry
wolves, red foxes, raven and one or two golden eagle has had a feast. Voles,
mice and small birds continue partying, and thereafter hand over to insects and
even smaller organisms, the natural cycle.

Early
morning in the tracks of two wolves that made a short visit to the village,
frightened a horse to panic, and created hot topic to discuss while visiting
the villages only general store. I follow the tracks down to the lake, where
the wolves have been hunting roe deer in the grove surrounding the changing
cabin, at the local beach.

Then we
returned to the mountains. Raven calls out, there is a moose killed by wolves
somewhere in the dense forest around me, but I find it not. The tracks carry on
and I follow, always looking for pee and poo. (DNA – samples that hopefully
makes tracking valuable for our work)

Lunch on a
stump with a view of the landscape, sunshine and a few degrees, it starts to
feel like spring already. A black tit singing eagerly from the top of a fir tree,
as a non-lubricated sewing machine “, sittju-sittju-sittju-sittju”.

The light
begins to return, working days become longer. At dusk, another wolf pair
walking along a river, sometimes eerily close to the fragile ice edge. You need to be vigilant, but it is also part
of the job, to assess the risks related to different types of terrain and
circumstances.

I found
both pee and poo during the tracking. It was a good day.

The track
tells; that alpha male and alpha female frequently urine marks together in the
same place and both with lifting legs, and in this case that tracker preparing
samples for the DNA analysis.

The track
tells; that other, low ranking members of the family urinating in a squatting
position. Anatomy Knowledge need not be particularly impressive to see if it´s
a male or female that eased the pressure.

The track
tells; that an old root cellar can give a little warmth and security for some
scabies infested young wolves during the coldest period so far this winter.

The track
tells; that even a wolf weighs lighter than that chubby tracker!

This Week
wolf tracking has been done in about 20 degrees below zero and with snow to the
knees. Now is the winter for real. It´s demanding but beautiful, the job is not
so bad right now!

When the
snow is deep and loose, moves the wolves in the same manner as the lynx. They
usually go where it is least snow, through the bushes and under dense trees.
That is when the tracker’s main equipment is a proper hood!

If you do
not have a hood, you have to tighten your belt, then the snow will at least do
not extend below the lower back …

I have just read
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen and am still a bit overwhelmed. He is a very entertaining
writer and it feels immediately as if we were soul mates. He does not like
moose, and I understand him. American moose seem to be seven times worse than
our Swedish.

The story about his
apprenticeship period with the new dogs, the dogs from hell, was incredibly
funny and reminded me of my time as a horse coachman in forest work. The timber was heavy and the horse did not
have the same understanding of how the work would be carried out, as I had. It
hurt both body and soul. Learning time is often quite painful.

Iditarod race is
probably not for me, seems to be terribly demanding, but it was an amazing trip
to read about. Read it!

During the time
that I read often returned the memory of an old workmate, Grizzly, a stunning
mix between Greenland dog and an unusually large German shepherd. He became an outstanding friend and companion
during ten working seasons in the wilderness. 55 kg muscles in a sweet little
doggy.

He tracked better
than me, especially on bare ground. He worked very methodically, from footprint
to footprint. He was a nature lover with a very big heart and even tried to
spend time with an adult male lynx. (Holy shit what angry it became!) It went
better with wolves, them he was dancing with a few times. He was pretty hungry
and got a very special look when he saw squirrels or reindeer, the same big wet
eyes that I get when mashed turnips with pork served on a plate …

The only animal
he did not like was the bear, it scared the crap out of him. Therefore I always
knew if there were bears around when I prepared our night camp. It’s safe and
cozy with a four-legged companion at the campfire, except when they are staring
stiffly out into the darkness and growls …

It happened that
he almost scared the life out of a hunter or fisherman who we met during our wanderings;
he was sometimes quite similar to a wolf. About the same size and color
coverage, at least for those who were not used to seeing wolves.

We had a deal; he
did not need to have a leash if my commands were obeyed. From the first week we
had developed a common language that was based on thin whistles, small gestures
and appealing looks. At least it was my communication with him, he answered
mostly with a low voice Woof.

On one occasion
when twilight prevailed, I suddenly saw him at his own journey of discovery at
the edge of a bog next to our camp. I got pissed; he broke our agreement so I
took the leash in my hand and walked with firm steps to connect him. When I
reached halfway, I suddenly hear rustling sound behind my back. It’s the dog
who had just woken up and rushes up from his bed hidden under a spruce. What I
was about to hook up was a wolf …

The last
working day was evocative. Not only for Christmas and New Year’s leave is
waiting with lazy days into the sofa, but perhaps mostly because I track four
wolves through a seductively beautiful pine forest where fresh snow attached to
the trunks of the strong wind.

The work
will be extra challenging and stimulating when tracking conditions are
difficult, when you get to use all the knowledge and experience that the years
given, to follow the pack in the grooves. Blueberry bushes wearing less snow where
the wolves went before the recent snowfall.

Despite 5
cm of fresh snow that fell during the night are the traces of wolves that went
here two days ago yet easy to follow. (At least here, in the easiest parts 😉

At the
river, it stops for this year. The
wolves have waded across, but I think that’s enough for me today. Now is the
time to take time off over Christmas and New Year.

On the
riverbank do I find a previously dialed prey, a young bull moose. The wolves
have investigated whether there is anything more to eat but everything seems
consumed. However, I am convinced that the pack got more food, a Christmas
Moose to revel on weekends to come.

During the
trip home, I suddenly see a wolf. It jumps down on the road ahead, look at me,
shouts something and then disappears into the forest again. I thought it
shouting something about Merry Christmas but I might just imagining, perhaps it
was instead something that, Dammit, there is that madman again … no, I choose
probably the Christmas message.

Hello fluff brain, I´m here!

I got some
quality time with our local wolf pack yesterday. Lovely! It is important to
take the opportunity, in early January begins the hunt and this flock is one of
four that will be pushed away.

I track at
least 5 wolves, one set of parents and their puppies. There is much playing along
the tracks. (We always track in the reverse direction, to see what they have
done in recent days) My job right now is to collect samples of urine and
droppings for DNA analysis, it is important that the hunt takes place at the
right individuals because we have high inbreeding in our wolf population.

First, I
discover a wolf tail wagging, it pops up occasionally between some small trees,
a moment later, I see the whole wolf. It is a young wolf hunting voles. It is
so preoccupied with the pursuit that it does not notice my presence. (Youth, parents
free and out on their own adventure)

Always
wonderful to observe nature at close range, get to fuse with the surroundings,
become a stump for a few hours, just to be a moment in time. Wolf concludes his
hunting, studying the surroundings, vents in the attic, rest for a while,
walking around and seem bored, eat a little bit of a moose calf that flock
killed two days ago. (Moose cow is still attracting it, I hear her several
times during the day)

It is not until the wolf leave the place and trudge off
through the woods that I dare to move. Infinite frozen with aching joints, it
was 13 degrees below zero yesterday, but happy. I like wolves.

I guess I’m
somewhat of a lone wolf. Listening, observing and pondering over the order of
things. I have over the years spent long periods alone in the wilderness, by
the campfire, or in the endless book of tracks and characters that always
surrounds us. Perhaps I have become wiser, or maybe it’s the other way around
so that I understand even less than I did before. Most of it is simple and
obvious, yet so incredibly complicated.

When I
started working with wolves in the mid-eighties, we estimated that there were
three individuals in Scandinavia. Today, we believe that there are about four
hundred. The work of ensure an endangered species now turn to management. There
is talk of extensive hunting of wolves, maybe already this winter. I’m
ambivalent, not entirely comfortable with the idea; it will probably take some
time to get used to.

Hundreds of
wolf meetings have given me endless joy, some more amazing than others. Like
when I encounter a wolf pack in heavy snowfall, with course straight towards
me. I stand stiff as a statue, waiting for a big rock to hide me from the
wolves. When that happens I lie flat in the snow and trying to look like a
stump or something. It works well, almost too well. I allow myself to snow over
and end up next to a resting wolf pack. For almost two hours!

I freeze
like a dog but force the body to endure the cold. The reward becomes a variety
of observations of social behavior among young wolves and alpha female. Bickering
around an old blade-bone, affectionate play and, not least, my own sense of
almost being one of the gang.

In three days I have lagged on my Nikon D600. Three
days in difficult terrain, with demanding tracking and the savage at times bad
weather. Snow and moisture on all equipment and not a single photo has been
taken! So this morning I decided to leave the camera at home … And we joked
that I would surely get to experience things that I dreamed of to shoot. I
agonized ahead of the decision. The wife came with the brilliant idea of that
such an event is no failure, it could always be a blog post out of it!

So dear friends, here’s the story; Suddenly, I froze
at the stage when I realized it was a wolf asleep in front of me … I was
standing on top of a pointed stone and slid all the time with my feet in the
snow. The wolf slept very deeply. Sometimes it stretched on like a cat, it
seemed to feel really good. I sent a thought to my Nikon D600 that can be
focused manually, is very bright and a wonderful camera …

I managed to quietly take off my backpack and clamp it
down in the snow next to my sliding feet’s. The wolf raised his head and
listened in my direction, lifted his nose and sniffed but found nothing
suspicious, and then fell asleep again. Got slowly and carefully up the pocket
camera and took some pictures through the brushwood forest. The distance to the
wolf was barely 70 meters.

After 5 minutes of balancing, I slipped to the stone
whereupon the wolf immediately woke up. It looked at me for a few seconds and
then slid down into the snow and disappeared among the bushes.

On several occasions during the day, I heard the
wolves howling around me, I understood that they were close because the concert
was deafening, but thought they had left the area when I was on my way home. I
do not need to mention that I was not the least bit scared when I saw the
bloodthirsty beast straight in the eye.