Canada mourns Takaya - the lone sea wolf whose spirit captured the world [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

The life – and this week’s sudden death – of the legendary wolf shone a light on the often-strained bond between humans and wild animals

by Leyland Cecco
Fri 27 Mar 2020 07.19 EDT Last modified on Fri 27 Mar 2020 08.12 EDT

When Doug Paton burst from his trailer on a warm spring afternoon, he expected to confront yet another stray dog agitating the livestock on his sister’s farm outside Victoria, a city on Canada’s west coast. Instead, standing barefoot in the grass, he found himself face to face with a wolf.

“It stopped dead in its tracks and it stared me down,” he says. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the wolf trotted away, pausing once to stare back at Paton before clearing a five-foot metal gate and vanishing.

“Just like a person, you might not remember a name, but you never forget a face,” he says. “I’ll never forget that face as long as I live. I just close my eyes and see it.”

After leaving a breathless Paton back in 2012, the young wolf traversed nearly 25 miles of urban sprawl, taking shelter in the backyards and parks of British Columbia’s capital, until he reached the south-east tip of Vancouver Island. From there, the wolf swam nearly two miles towards a scattering of tiny islands within sight of the city.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/canada-mourns-takaya-the-lone-sea-wolf-whose-spirit-captured-the-world-aoe