Interview with travel and nature author Adam Weymouth — ‘cene Magazine

Instead of politicians helping to navigate the threat of the wolves to farmers’ livelihoods and thus enable an environment where man and nature live as One, they’re simply changing the semantics of how ‘endangered’ such species are. By moving the goalposts, politicians skirt the issue. 

What is enthralling about Weymouth’s expeditious tale is that by retracing Slavc’s steps, he himself becomes Slavc. The proverb says that ‘Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes’. Weymouth says instead “Before you make eco-critical decisions on the morality of wolf population control, at first retrack the paws of the scientifically studied Slavc”, but I’m not sure that’s as catchy. 

Yet by Weymouth retracking the wolf’s footsteps, he emphasises the complexities of the argument. Although he is largely impartial, weaving the intricacies of the issue brilliantly, what is unique about his epic narrative is that through Weymouth’s almost anthropomorphic transformation/becoming Slavc he creates, as all great literature does, empathy for Slavc. It’s not often we feel such understanding for these creatures.

We are predetermined by fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood to see wolves as a threat, a danger to our grandmas. They are in our popular vernacular as evil villains; if someone is deceptive, they are a ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’. They instigate impending doom in our culture as they howl up at the moon – cue dark nights of the soul, Weinstein levels of horror. 

Yet as he tracks Slavc he inevitably also creates a counter-argument. Weymouth meets farmers on his trail and keeps a close conversation with scientists, conservationists and environmental academics, too. What is constantly highlighted is that the situation is deeply complex. Although Weymouth urges that “coexistence is possible”, he cites the internal division between farmers as yet another issue, explaining how some farmers are putting up electric fences and working with guardian dogs but as a result become ostracised by opposing farmers who see this as an act of capitulation.

“If you’re going to start protecting your flock, then you’re essentially accepting that the wolf is there to stay,” he says 

One of the most interesting insights Weymouth exposes is not merely the political debates that are raised around the evolutionary ethical arguments between farmers and scientists but also that the dispersion of the wolves mirrors human politics. 

For example, he writes about how the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism enabled, once again, wolf dispersion. In our chat, Weymouth explains to me how in Donald Trump’s first administration the wall that goes along the US-Mexico border “is the most harmful border on the planet, not just for people but for animals as well – the wolves that live on either side of the Mexican border and there’s literally hundreds of other mammals as well that are being impacted.” 

He goes on to tell me these walls are only exacerbated by climate change because species are now trying to move farther north. He also recognises similar climate effects of various walls along China and Myanmar, as well as the India-Pakistan border. 

In short, Weymouth displays how man-made political mechanisms play out in not just the human world but the natural world. By doing so, he reminds us of the pivotal role we play in the entire ecosystem. Lone Wolf is essential reading not only for keen readers of travel, nature and animal writing but for anyone interested in history and geopolitics. 

Lone Wolf is published by Penguin Random House.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/448173/lone-wolf-by-weymouth-adam/9781529151947 

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