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Wolves are howling their way into Indians’ mobile phones, laptops, tablets and flatscreens as the media fans out and reports from the riverine plains of Bahraich in a remote corner of north India where a lupine paw is suspected in nine, mostly child, deaths.
The reaction has been influenced by popular culture biases. Many content consumers have responded with memes and comments about a recent Bollywood film with a werewolf theme. Others have been shocked to find that India is home to wolves, as some comments this writer came across on a popular social media platform showed.
But as concerns crop up about the fallout of the 24X7 breathless coverage on the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), a species on the brink of extinction, a video from across the Arabian Sea is inspiring hope for its cousin, which is similarly imperiled.
Like India, the Arabian Peninsula is not the first place one would associate with wolves. This is given that the wolves of snowbound boreal forests in Eurasia and North America form the dominant image of the species in popular consciousness globally.
However, what most people don’t know is that Canis lupus is a wide ranging and highly adaptive species. With almost 40 subspecies, the wolf lives in a wide variety of habitats which include high mountains like the Himalayas, plains like the Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia, the Deccan Plateau, the icy tundra of the Arctic and deserts like the Thar, in addition to the taiga.
The Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs), like the Indian wolf and the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is Endangered as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Together, these three form the southernmost subspecies of wolf. They also inhabit mostly arid landscapes.
The Arabian subspecies, the smallest in the world, has been persecuted throughout much of its range where pastoralism is prevalent and tolerance of wolves is low.
Which is why the video in question brings hope.
Wildlife conservationist Stephen Browne from The Royal Commission for AlUla, shared a video recently on his social media handle.
It showed an Arabian wolf chasing the young of an Arabian oryx in the Shaaran Nature Reserve. The reserve is located in the Madinah province in the historic Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The video, shot by Royal Commission for AlUla wildlife ranger Abdullah Haifan Alenezi, also showed the female oryx defending her young from the wolf.
“Amazing footage of a female Arabian oryx defending her calf from an Arabian wolf, taken by The Royal Commission for AlUla Wildlife Ranger Abdullah Haifan Alenezi in Sharaan Nature Reserve, near AlUla, Saudi Arabia,” wrote Browne in his post.
A later post by Browne also showed the wolf galloping into the arid landscape of the nature reserve.
Interestingly, the oryx has been reintroduced into the reserve, Browne revealed.
Down To Earth had reported on the charismatic antelope a few years ago. Spread across Africa and the Middle East, especially the Arabian Peninsula, the antelope is said to have inspired the medieval European legendary creature, the unicorn.
Oryx had been wiped out in many areas of the range across Africa and Arabia. But currently, captive animals are being reintroduced in these locations, in a major step to revive the species in the wild.
“The Royal Commission for AlUla was established to protect and safeguard AlUla, a region of outstanding natural and cultural significance in North-West Saudi Arabia,” according to the organisation’s social media handle.
It is “embarking on a long-term plan to develop and deliver a sensitive, sustainable transformation of the region, reaffirming it as one of the country’s most important archaeological and cultural destinations and preparing it to welcome visitors from around the world”.
The video is thus a welcome development for a species fighting for survival in its range. One hopes that there will be more videos one day, showing dhib, as the wolf is called in Arabic, galloping, hunting, foraging and howling in the arid landscapes of the Arabian Peninsula, of which it is a specialist.