Wolf and Man: Evolution in Parallel

Wolf and Evolution in Parallel is a collection of papers that discusses certain crucial attributes of humans including traits that are shared with other social predators. Some papers describe the wolf as the equal of man—the animal is a social hunter of large game, disregards human boundaries and properties, and consume livestock when it is necessary. The wolf's will to survive is as great as that of man, and brings along many resources to the competition. Several papers review the behavior and culture of man, wolf, dog, and the Chipewyan people who hunted caribou. Another paper examines the communication, cognitive mapping, and strategy in wolves and hominids. Hominids have developed cognitive maps, forced by their predation on large animals to cover wider ranges, to communicate and form complex sequences of utterances. One paper notes that the wolf was able to penetrate on every continent except Australia and Africa due to the Australian continent's isolation. In Africa, there is no ecological space for another highly organized social hunter of large game. The collection can be appreciated by anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and scientists involved in paleontology and human evolution.