To sustain these wolves, Xu Yonggui roams the grasslands every day, scavenging for dead sheep to feed them. For those carcasses that have been dead for a while, he even cooks them before offering them to the wolves.
Since it's prohibited to buy or sell dead sheep on the grasslands, when sheep die, the shepherds are willing to simply give them to Xu Yonggui. While a dead sheep can indeed feed the wolves for a few days, the availability of dead sheep on the grasslands is seasonal. During certain times of the year, dead sheep are scarce, forcing Xu Yonggui to buy meat for the wolves, which costs a few hundred CNY each time and only lasts for a few days.
According to Xu Yonggui's brother-in-law, over the years, Xu Yonggui's family has struggled financially due to raising wolves. They often find it difficult to make ends meet. However, a wolf is always a wolf, and it seems that they have not been swayed by Xu Yonggui's efforts. Despite being raised by Xu Yonggui and staying with him all this time, these wolves haven't shown the expected level of friendliness towards him.
Xu Yonggui mentioned during the recording of the program that when feeding the wolves, it's necessary to wear a work uniform. By "work uniform," he actually meant a regular T-shirt. Whenever he feeds the wolves, he puts on this shirt.
He didn't explain why this is necessary during the program. It might be because the wolves recognize the clothing or the scent. However, this so-called work uniform is already covered in scratches left by the wolves.
Xu Yonggui's hands and legs are also covered in scratches and bites from the wolves. Even on the day of shooting, he was scratched in several places by the wolves and had to deal with the wounds on the spot.
The saying "You can't tame a wolf" is prevalent in many regions, and the concept of "wild-eyed wolf" stems from this notion. Xu Yonggui's experiences seem to confirm this idea quite well.
So, the interesting question is, why are wolves untameable?
There's a simple answer to this question: wolves are wild animals. They haven't been domesticated, they possess instincts, hence they cannot be tamed.
But what exactly makes them untameable, or what constitutes this wildness?
I did some research, and there are indeed studies on this. Even if you raise a wolf from infancy, it's highly unlikely to develop any emotional connection with you. At least, that's the case with all the wolves studied in this research. The fundamental reason behind this is that wolves simply cannot comprehend your voice, gestures, facial expressions, or other cues.
In other words, wolves struggle to interpret whether your voice and body language convey friendliness or hostility. Therefore, they approach encounters with you with vigilance and tension, emotions that persist from infancy to adulthood.
However, when it comes to the close relatives of wolves - pet dogs, they excel the most in this aspect, as concluded by this study which compared the performances of pet dogs and wolves.
Researchers examined 44 puppies of Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, or Labrador-Golden Retriever hybrids, as well as 37 wolf puppies aged 5 to 18 weeks, making it the largest quantitative comparison to date between wolves and dogs[1].
Initially, the researchers tested the memory and problem-solving abilities of the wolf and dog puppies. They performed similarly in these non-social tests, which reflect their intelligence (there is a common misconception that wolves are smarter).
However, significant differences emerged when it came to tests related to social interaction with humans.
Compared to wolf puppies, dog puppies were more easily attracted to humans, demonstrated a better understanding of human gestures, and engaged in more eye contact with humans.
One of the tests involved placing a reward in one of two bowls and then providing cues by gazing at the respective bowl for the wolf and dog puppies.
Title: Study on Three Wolf Pups
In the study, out of 31 wolf pups, 17 consistently chose the correct bowl, while none of the 26 wolf pups performed better than random guessing in the tests.
Regarding gesture interpretation, over half of the wolf pups could adeptly interpret human gestures, whereas none of the wolf pups could perform well in this aspect.
One particular test involved 31 wolf pups and 26 wolf pups, each undergoing 12 gesture trials (six pointing and six marking). The results showed that 17 wolf pups performed above expectations (at least 10 correct responses out of 12 gestures), while none of the wolf pups exceeded expectations.
Furthermore, all the pups involved in the study sought assistance from researchers and approached humans, while wolf pups did not. For instance, when researchers entered the enclosure to feed them, almost all wolf pups gathered around the researchers, climbed on them, and licked them, whereas most wolf pups did not; they tended to hide in corners.
If you're without food, a puppy might stare at you, clearly seeking assistance, while a wolf pup won't engage with you at all.
Published in July 2021 in the journal "Contemporary Biology," researchers concluded that from infancy, puppies can pick up on human cues whereas wolf pups cannot.
This change is actually detectable at the genetic level and is fundamentally unalterable through environmental factors.
Another study, also published around the same time in "Contemporary Biology," revealed that the ability to follow human pointing gestures is highly heritable — with over 40% attributable to genetics.
Dogs, as humanity's earliest domesticated animals, might be the only species domesticated before the development of agriculture. They've lived alongside humans longer than any crops.
Throughout this lengthy domestication process, we've not only altered their appearance but also their cognition — at the genetic level.
Wolves have not been domesticated, and it's unknown if they can be, as modern pet dogs are not descendants of any extant wolf species; the wild ancestors of modern pet dogs are extinct. So, it's understandable that wolves are not easily tamed, and they may not even possess the same potential for domestication as the ancestors of pet dogs. References: 1, 2.
