The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Discuss wolves. (News, sightings, conservation, status, etc.)

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The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Sun Sep 25, 2016 9:04 pm

Welcome to the General Giggle Thread for Wolves. Any content that you come across in news articles, wikihow, wolf and wolf dog sites, or any source that (a is supposed to be educational/informative or (b is consumer-oriented can be shared that contains misleading/giggle-worthy wording, information, content, or commodities, e.g. dogs that are likely not wolves. As entertaining as sites like deviantART, etc., are, lets keep the giggles to sources that we would expect-- or hope-- to be educational or fair to the consumer. This thread has been created to share these misconceptions/poor wording because they, for our forum's purposes, are not, and we hope no one on this forum ever uses them to answer a question in Wolf Q&A.
(Note: Not everything you share has to be misleading/inaccurate. It can be something obvious in the context of the source, as you will see in my example.)

Disclaimer: While this is an educational forum and we do want to be critical, we also want to be respectful. This thread simply exists for the purposes of discussion and commentary, and is not meant to libel any specific owner of a source in any way.

Inspired by False advertising of wolfdogs, The Shaun Ellis criticism thread, [url=hhtp://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=45909&hilit=stereotypes]Wolf Stereotypes and Your Opinions[/url], The Wolf Mythbuster
Before posting on this thread, you need to ensure a few things:
I. the content you are about to share is entertaining (in your humble opinion) and is either painfully obvious or misleading
II. the content can be accessed by all audiences **and is appropriate for all audiences**
III. the content you have shared has not been DIRECTLY posted before or on another thread
e.g. there is a difference between merely stating a misconception (such as "wolves have alpha pairs") versus a source actually saying wolves have alpha pairs. Imaginary internet points will be awarded if the source is supposed to be considered reputable or is 'a big name'
IV. you include a link to where you found the information. If you do not, your post will be removed.
V. try not to quote entire articles/sources even if they are bad and their entirety is giggle-worthy because (a it's illegal and (b no one wants to read a wall of text in a giggle thread. If you must, share a few highlights from the article in quotes. If you need help with this, ask me or look at my posts for news threads. (You will find I only share the lede and maybe one or two sentences after, if that.) And, of course, please link back to where you found the information!


Example:
What better place to start than WikiHow?
How to Own a Pet Wolf
They are scary dogs but can be cute if trained well.
As cute as a baby bunny sleeping in a wine glass? Probably not.
Do not take a wolf from the wild.
I feel like this is obvious.
Become the Alpha. You have to be the Alpha of your wolf
Seems to just perpetuate the 'alpha' myth; I know the wolves in the article aren't wild/are supposed to be captive/'pets' but...

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Mon Oct 03, 2016 11:14 am

:raven: Sounds like something very reminiscent of what Shaun Ellis might conjure up!
I'll have to check out the comments.


EDIT: I regret reading the comments.

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by roguemoon » Fri Oct 28, 2016 11:58 pm

Oh this is such a good idea Koa! I'll have to track down a few wild 'facts' I've found. I remember reading once where someone said wolves grew bigger, stronger and darker in colouration when they 'take over as alpha'. Almost rolled my eyes out of my head.
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Noctis_ » Wed Dec 14, 2016 12:52 am

In Michigan, claims of wolf sightings were made to argue that protections for wolves should be removed and that state-sanctioned wolf hunts should be established.

In one of these claims, wolves appeared multiple times in the backyard of a daycare while the children were out playing, supposedly to attack the children. Apparently, "the family dog even faced down one of the wolves in the backyard... And, in fact, that wolf, apparently completely socialized to humans, was not at all troubled by the woman who owned the daycare screaming at the sight of this.”

http://content.dailypress.net/?p=544827 ... aims-.html
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Wed Dec 14, 2016 12:58 am

LunaWolf2468 wrote:In Michigan, claims of wolf sightings were made to argue that protections for wolves should be removed and that state-sanctioned wolf hunts should be established.

In one of these claims, wolves appeared multiple times in the backyard of a daycare while the children were out playing, supposedly to attack the children. Apparently, "the family dog even faced down one of the wolves in the backyard... And, in fact, that wolf, apparently completely socialized to humans, was not at all troubled by the woman who owned the daycare screaming at the sight of this.”

http://content.dailypress.net/?p=544827 ... aims-.html
And the claim was false, it seems? Lol, wonder what kind of dog the fictional "family dog" was. Thanks for sharing.

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Jeames » Sat Dec 17, 2016 6:15 am

This is a neat thread, haha. I should look for some of these kinds of articles, will keep me busy for a while for sure. :p

As for those FB messages, I really cringed at those... Wow.
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Sun Jan 01, 2017 3:14 pm

Overseen in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.:

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Writers Block » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:43 pm

Koa wrote:Overseen in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.:
Oi, yeah I was just there a few months ago and those little factoid cards are.... really simplified, huh? In this case, simplified to the point that it's not even accurate. Ouch.
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Sun Jan 01, 2017 5:31 pm

Mikazuki-Lynx wrote:
Koa wrote:Overseen in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.:
Oi, yeah I was just there a few months ago and those little factoid cards are.... really simplified, huh? In this case, simplified to the point that it's not even accurate. Ouch.
This was my first time visiting in years so I was curious to see how it had changed. I was surprised to see they did not even include a map of where the animals were located. You're right-- the cards are simplified and it really hurts this card.

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by duskypack » Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:10 pm

A person claiming that they have a 98% wolfdog that they found abandoned as a pup "just because they were omega wolfs". You go take good care of your omega wolfs pup, okay?
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:13 pm

duskypack wrote:A person claiming that they have a 98% wolfdog that they found abandoned as a pup "just because they were omega wolfs". You go take good care of your omega wolfs pup, okay?
Where was this?

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by duskypack » Sat Jan 21, 2017 2:55 pm

Koa wrote:
duskypack wrote:A person claiming that they have a 98% wolfdog that they found abandoned as a pup "just because they were omega wolfs". You go take good care of your omega wolfs pup, okay?
Where was this?
The comments section of an 'educational' wolf-related video, specifically geared towards younger audiences (that unfortunately reinforced alpha/omega terminology because it was about captive wolves, which is fine as long as they specify that wild packs are structured differently). Most of the comments section consisted of 'I love wolves!!!!' (with doubly the amount of exclamation marks and the occasional 'wolfs'). The enthusiasm of most of them was sweet but I really can't stand those who brag about having incredibly high-content wolfdogs, especially portraying them as acting like a big, wolf-like dog. This person then proceeded to act as if she was knowledgable about such matters and I was being rude by pointing out that wolfdogs don't act like that.

The video itself stated that 'alpha wolves eat first', among other things, in the context of a wild pack (outside of Yellowstone, I might add). The professionals they were interviewing never used those terms, but the narrator did as they gave "facts".
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Fri Jan 27, 2017 12:34 pm

duskypack wrote:
Koa wrote:
duskypack wrote:A person claiming that they have a 98% wolfdog that they found abandoned as a pup "just because they were omega wolfs". You go take good care of your omega wolfs pup, okay?
Where was this?
The comments section of an 'educational' wolf-related video, specifically geared towards younger audiences (that unfortunately reinforced alpha/omega terminology because it was about captive wolves, which is fine as long as they specify that wild packs are structured differently). Most of the comments section consisted of 'I love wolves!!!!' (with doubly the amount of exclamation marks and the occasional 'wolfs'). The enthusiasm of most of them was sweet but I really can't stand those who brag about having incredibly high-content wolfdogs, especially portraying them as acting like a big, wolf-like dog. This person then proceeded to act as if she was knowledgable about such matters and I was being rude by pointing out that wolfdogs don't act like that.

The video itself stated that 'alpha wolves eat first', among other things, in the context of a wild pack (outside of Yellowstone, I might add). The professionals they were interviewing never used those terms, but the narrator did as they gave "facts".
Do you have a link to the video? I would love to read these comments myself.

Even with specification regarding "captive" or "wild," I still think a younger audience would be at risk of internalizing the inaccurate terms and extending them to wild wolves. I feel like it is so ingrained in our social mentality that the risk still stands. The terminology is used not only to inaccurately describe wild wolves, but also dogs and even other people.

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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by WindDancingHowl » Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:35 am

This isn't about real wolves, but I thought it was pretty funny. I found it when I was searching "wolf names"(I know, I'm not very imaginative xD)
http://m.wikihow.com/Create-a-Wolf-Pack
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Re: The General Giggle Thread for Wolves

Post by Koa » Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:18 pm

WindDancingHowl wrote:This isn't about real wolves, but I thought it was pretty funny. I found it when I was searching "wolf names"(I know, I'm not very imaginative xD)
http://m.wikihow.com/Create-a-Wolf-Pack
That is pretty amusing. I like how one of the questions toward the bottom asked if dogs should be in wolf packs instrad of humans.

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