Never Cry Wolf Timeline

The Three Catfish

1 CE

Mowat brought three catfish home from the pond that he found them in. They fascinated him because despite them being just out of the water they refused to die. So Mowat took the three catfish home and not knowing where to put them settled on his grandma's outhouse. Later that night his grandma got a special surprise when she went to relieve herself.

Mowat is introduced to "Wolf juice"

2

Mowat is offered a drink called "Wolf juice" by an old trapper. "Wolf juice" is a combination of Moose Brand Beer and anti-freeze alcohol.

Mowat meets Mike

3

Mowat lands in essentially the middle of nowhere and is forced to set up base somewhere. He then encounters lots of dogs that he mistakes for wolves. The dogs are unfortunately not wolves, but they do lead to the meeting of Mike, a trapper.

Mowat meets George

4

Mowat had yet to see a real wolf when he thinks he hears the cry of one of Mike's husky pups. Mowat goes out to find the lost pup and hopefully rescue it. Instead he comes face to face with a full grown arctic wolf. The wolf immediately takes off at a speed that almost constitutes flight.

George and Angeline play tag

5

On Mowat's first day of observation he notices two wolves coming up the hill towards him. Mowat gets worried that they might notice him so he hides himself away in some rocks. Needn't had he worried though, as the wolves pay him no mind. The wolves also begin playing a game of tag, where a wolf is tagged when they are nipped on the back, ending with them both sliding down a hill.

Mowat discovers the Wolves' den

6

Right after Angeline and George's game of tag, Angeline disappears. Mowat goes to see what happened and sees that Angeline has not in fact disappeared and has instead gone back to their den. This is a big discovery for Mowat, because knowing the location of the wolf den will allow him to more precisely observe them without having to guess where they will be.

The Watcher is Watched

7

On the second day of observation, Mowat attempts to spy the wolves again. But to his dismay the wolves are nowhere to be seen. Mowat sees no sign of the wolves all the way two in the afternoon, when he gets up to relieve himself and is surprised to see the wolves lounging not twenty yards behind him. Instinctively Mowat attempts to retain his dignity and hastily shoos them away.

Setting up Camp

8

Mowat decides that the best way to observe the wolves is to be closer to them, so in that way he can observe them almost constantly. So Mowat leaves Mike's cabin (who is nowhere to be seen) and pitches his tent on one of the wolves' main hunting paths.

Claiming Territory

9

Now Mowat has pitched his tent and has seen the wolves marking their territory. Mowat decides that as an experiment he should mark his own territory, so he goes about in a circle around his tent, marking his borders. This takes him the majority of the day and requires many trips back to the tent for more tea.

George's Response to the new territory boundaries

10

When George comes by and sees the new territory that is overlapping his own territory he lays down outside of Mowat's territory and waits. Mowat is starting to worry that he has committed some major breach of wolf etiquette when George stands up and walks over to the new boundary. George then starts systematically marking the other sides of all the locations marked by Mowat, thereby establishing the borders of the territories.

Napping like a wolf

11

Mowat realizes that now that his tent is set up so he can observe the wolves from inside of it, he is finding it hard to sleep as he doesn't want to miss anything. He realizes that if he learned to nap like a wolf he would be able to be in time with there sleep schedules and wouldn't miss anything. A wolf sleeps by taking a 5 minute nap, getting up, walking around in a couple of tight circles, falling back asleep and repeating the whole process.

Meeting Uncle Albert

12

Throughout his observations Mowat tends to notice the presence of a third adult wolf in addition to George and Angeline. He dubs this other wolf "Uncle Albert" as the wolf is clearly not actually in a relationship with either of the adult wolves but helps with the hunting and sometimes watches the pups, kind of like an uncle.

The wolves' hidden diet

13

As fall approaches, Mowat begins to worry about the wolves' food supply, as all the caribou have moved away already. The fact that the wolves are staying apparently well-fed and energetic confounds Mowat and he is determined to find their food source. Around this time Mowat himself starts to have problems with the local rodent population, with mice overrunning Mike's shack and sometimes having their children in Mowat's pillow.

Mowat undertakes the wolves' diet

14

Wondering if a diet consisting of only mice can sustain living creatures, Mowat attempts to do an experiment where he takes two of Mike's huskies, and feeds one only mice and the other a typical husky diet. Unfortunately Mike has not returned and Mowat is forced to attempt the experiment on himself.

Ootek gives invaluable information

15

Mike's Eskimo friend Ootek arrives and helps Mowat's investigation by giving information about the wolves that would have taken Mowat weeks if not months to figure out. Things such as that wolves prefer ground squirrels to caribou as they taste good and require less energy to catch.

Angeline goes hunting

16

Near the end of June, Angeline shows clear desires to go hunting. George fully supports it and continually attempts to get her to go with him and Uncle Albert. Angeline always stays close to the den though and returns soon every time. Albert at one point takes the hint and stays home with the pups to allow Angeline and George to go hunting together.

The wolves move to their summer home

17

The day after Angeline goes hunting, George returns alone. George and Uncle Albert then take up vigil on viewpoints surrounding the den. Angeline then appears, taking the pups one by one to the wolves' summer home. Ootek assures Mowat that he did nothing wrong and that the wolves do this every year.

Angeline feeds the pups

18

One morning Angeline meets the pups in the ravine and begins regurgitating about 10 pounds of half digested meat for them. Then she lays down and waits for them to eat.

School is in session

19

Now that the pups are partially grown, they can begin learning how to hunt. That day all of the wolves (including an unknown dark grey wolf) are lounging about near some caribou. Only George seems active and he convinces the other adults to get up. The adults then go around behind the caribou and run them right into the pups, giving them a chance to hunt.

Excruciating detail

20

As part of Mowat's research, he is supposed to examine the amount of plants and the density. This is accomplished by throwing a metal hoop and examining everything inside of it.

A parting goodbye

21

Having given up hope of the pilot that Mowat had hired ever coming back, Mowat is surprised when Ootek bursts in and tells of a plane flying overhead. Mowat uses smoke beacons to get its attention. Realizing that he doesn't have much time Mowat runs to examine the cave, where he runs into Angeline and one of the pups.