I watched a great documentary lastnight on wolves; they were in Spain. The scenery was amazing and worth watching the show just for that. But I was watching it for the wolves and the wolf interactions. I have to admit there was some of the scariest wolf footage I've ever seen on a documentary.
I actually started watching the show as it was about 15 min. into it already. When I tuned in there was a very large pack of wolves that was trying to evict some of the male members. They do this by not letting the wolves eat or be inside the nucleus of the pack. Therefore they live on the outskirts until they move on and find another life on their own.
The scene I came in on was that of the outted members who had lost respect for the Alpha male and were challenging him due to starvation. It was obvious that they had lost any sense of reason and were now attempting to overthrow the Alpha. Several of the outted members were young, old or injured and they stayed on the outside. They were smart enough to know they had no place in the violence that was erupting.
Two of the members stayed together and moved off; a senior member and a young male. They went off to find a better life and this is when they ventured into a village where they feasted on grapes. I sat puzzled watching this "grapes?" If they can eat several lbs at a sitting then why can our dogs not eat grapes. This was very puzzling to me; so I'm off to do some research. I don't blame the wolves; they looked like really great grapes. And apparently this is very common with hungry wolves; it is easy picking so to speak.
The documentary ended on a happy note with the outted young male who had found a young female sitting howling with their new arrivals; three adorable black wolf puppies.
I saw this last night, too. I was just channel surfing and but the footage and scenary was amazing, so I watched the whole thing. I was thinking the same thing.. grapes? lol
ReplyDeleteThis is so neat. I watched the same special too. It came on twice last night. at 8 and at 10. I thought it was neat how the wolf (labo)howeled in the mourning of the "old one's" death. and this was some secret instinct that the original pack they were in somehow heard the howel and joined in the mourning. quite amazing. I was pretty shocked at the grape eating also! how amazing! plus wolves can run for hours???? man, i guess there's no point in running should you encounter one :-)
ReplyDeleteHello. I watched that documentary also, and I thought it was awesome. I told my dad (whos a dog lover) about it and he really wants to see it. I'm trying to find it on the internet, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of the documentary. If anyone remembers, you can e-mail me at Kateiross@yahoo.com Thanks!
ReplyDeleteApparently grapes only became toxic to dogs AFTER the 'American Poison Control for Animals' was formed in 1989. They charge a $60 'service call' for a 'dog eating grapes' type of 'emergency', and Veterinarians are only too happy to comply when a dog owner is in a panic state because his dog ate some grapes - then the dog of course must be admitted and put on an IV and hopefully the vet can 'save' him. No one has yet to identify the 'toxin' in grapes that 'kill dogs' by kidney failure.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had 7 acres of pinot noir, my dog followed the harvest crew and ate pounds of grapes. I asked around on vintners forums to find out if other people had had trouble with dogs getting sick from eating grapes (many many small vintners have dogs). No one reported problems. No one prevented their dogs from eating grapes. I now live in an area where there are lots of wild grapes. Many dogs eat them readily. Never heard a report of a dog getting sick doing so. I'm not saying the reports of grape toxicity are untrue. But in my experience most dogs do just fine eating grapes. I wish the experts could tell us why some dogs are sensitive, and give us a way to tell in advance which dogs are likely to have problems.
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