Series Thoughts: Kingdom of the White Wolf (Full Series)

• Released: August 25, 2019
  
• Total amount of seasons: 1
  
• Seasons watched: 1
  
• Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis

Researcher Ronan Donovan travels up north to study Arctic wolves.

My Thoughts

A wolf documentary series I kind of started to watch sporadically. You know me and my love for wolf content. And overall I do think this documentary series is good.

The first episode really delves into Donovan trying to find a pack of Arctic wolves to study. He does find one, however despite his best efforts the pack seems really stressed with his presence. And the whole goal of his project was to find a pack of wolves in this rough terrain that hasn't encountered humans before, thus lacking a fear of them. 

I also am very glad that, rather than pushing through, Donovan respects this pack enough to leave it alone. He tries a couple of times to get close enough to study them , such as by putting camera traps, but the wolves are just too uneasy with him around and he respects that and moves on to find a new pack.

The last two episodes follow the next pack he finds: a pack of Arctic wolves led by an older matriarch that does indeed seem to lack a fear of humans, so Donovan can get rather close to them to study them without them being needlessly stressed. From here on we get a lot of beautiful shots of the wolf pack in action; socializing, tracking and hunting. The ranks of the pack also change after their elderly matriarch goes missing, causing quite a stir among the younger wolves.

While I liked these episodes a lot, there's also points where I think Donovan did push too far in getting close to them. I get why he wants wolves that aren't afraid of humans to study, so he can get closer and all. But there's times where he throws keeping any respectable distance out the window and just starts mingling directly with the pack, with the wolves sniffing him and all. That's just too far, if you ask me.

Before, he was mostly just keeping a good distance, getting close but never too close. And that's good. That way the wolves are alerted of his presence without him interfering with them. But these are still wild animals that should be respected enough to keep a distance. He was literally in petting and sniffing range of these wolves, which is obviously a no-go. 

I don't recall him actively trying to pet them, but it's still far too close and kind of a disappointment, especially since he was so respectful of not pushing the wolves' boundaries in the first episode. Also if any of these wolves were to turn aggressive towards him (small chance, but can always happen) while he was this close, he'd not only put himself at risk, but also the wolf, which would mostly likely be shot if that were the case because it'd be deemed a dangerous animal to human. So it just doesn't feel like he's respecting the animals anymore when getting this close. 

That said, the documentary still is beautiful and educative. I liked following this pack and their struggles, and seeing them hunt and survive. I liked seeing the pups grow slightly and Donovan trying to do his research. I just think he should've kept a little more of a respectful distance with the second pack, even if they do not fear humans.