Life as a wolf

 Life as a Wolf
Dundreggan Project Wolf

In 2016 and 2017 at Trees for Life, Dundreggan, a remarkable project invited small groups of people to spend a month at a time as wolfpack, watching, prowling, patrolling the woods to keep the deer away from new saplings

 

As part of encouraging wider participation in The Last Wolf project, we’re featuring exciting artwork and projects from other people that draw upon ideas about the connections between people and the world around us. This is the first of those posts. Here, in the woods of Dundreggan, from whence we have lost our wolves, there was a fascinating experiment inviting humans to explore a wolf's way of being…..

 

Conceived by Doug Gilbert, the manager of Dundreggan at the time, the humandwolves project was challenging and inspiring and regrettably shortlived! It created fascinating insights into how humans connect to natural spaces and other species….

 

For The Last Wolf, it offers us some wonderful reflections from the humandwolves about just being so immersed in a landscape and a role within a habitat. 

 

If these people were humandwolves – what would you choose to be?

 

Poet Alec Finlay gathered responses to a questionnaire from the participants and out of that grew the poem below

 

See more about Alec’s work here: https://petrichormag.com/current-issue/

 

And the full text of the poem is here: https://petrichormag.com/22-alec-finlay/

 

 

I was a humandwolf

I felt very natural
        very human
          on my nights as a wolf

          walking the routes
          as tracker and hunter

           connected to the land

              with favorite places for sleeping

                and spots to watch from

                  waiting by the tree-line at dusk

                   content to be silent

                                becoming part of the wood

                                    familiar with nooks
                                      and crannies

                                    patterns of growth
                                      and decay

I felt safe in the woods
   with an underlying awareness
      I had a purpose

                                  when I’m out there
                                  I want for nothing
                                                                   (except maybe dry socks)

                                                                   when I’m back home
                                                                   I want more than anything
                                                                   to go back.

 

 

(II)

looking for signs
                                                                        hoof-
                                                                        prints

                                 scat

                                                    hair
in the dark
                                                                                             trails
                                           head-
                                        torches

                                                                  sniffing the air for
                                                                  the musty order

                                              bright reflections
                                         of cornea

your senses pick out

                                                                       faint smell
                                                                       of something
                                                                       that just passed

(III)

 

while being a wolf
I dreamt of deer
and the moon

                                       because of the dreamlike nature
                                       of the nights by night
                                       the veil becomes thinner
                                       lucid dreaming easier

 

 

This poem is composed from answers to a questionnaire completed by ‘humandwolves – individuals who volunteered to join one of the four wolf packs, in 2016 and 2017, at Trees for Life, Dundreggan. Each pack spent one month as a ‘humandwolf’, warding deer from saplings.

Project Wolf was conceived by Douglas Gilbert of Trees for Life

The Humandwolves:
Martina Baltkalne
Millie Barrett
Nick Belt
Lotte Brockbank
Liv Glatt
Claire Large
Matt McMullen
Lorna Meek
Chanel Valento-Bovell
Alex Volkers

All photos by Mhairi Law for Alec Finlay's Humandwolf Project, 2017 

 

Public events in Moray and Inverness

 The Last Wolf

free public events

October 2026

Tuesday 13^th Lost animals and wonderful places

·      Elgin Library, Crooker Park, Elgin, IV30 1HS, 11:00 - 16:00

https://fb.me/e/6D4SUiEcO

Wednesday 14^th, The Last Wolf and Other Lost animals 

·      Inverness Museum, IV2 3EB 10:30 - 15:30

https://fb.me/e/bEUBvAzp9

make your own folded animal

Thursday 15th, Lost animals and wonderful places

• Nairn Museum, Viewfield House, Viewfield Drive, Nairn, IV12 4EE
•     10:30 - 15:30
• https://fb.me/e/4xa9CuTKt

Friday 16^th: Lost animals and wonderful places

·      Forres Library, House Community Centre, High St, Forres, IV36 1BU, 10:30-  13:30

https://fb.me/e/9PBxXMaEf

What's all this about?

There are “last wolf” accounts found all over the UK. From full scale dramatic descriptions to a single sentence in a history book, we have noted the departure of this iconic predator. Accounts are almost always congratulatory which might reflect the impact wolves had - or were accused of having – or might have had - on local communities. Rarely is there any thought of what the bigger consequences of losing wolves might mean.

The Last Wolf project coincides with Caroline Bury's Ghosts in the Wood exhibition at Løre Gallery in Forres and sets out to encourage us to pause, reflect and be creative about how we feel about this changing world, about the animals we've lost, the ones we might be losing - and the ones that are coming back whether we like it or not! And its not just animals - if you're into plants, you could think about Ash Dieback and Sudden Larch Death.

Find out more about the whole project here: https://creepingtoad.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-last-wolf.html

Explore those changing landscapes of plants and animals in Scotland. A good starting point is to visit the Nature Champions website for more information and more species and habitats to think about!

where would you like to meet your animal?

Planning Public Events

With funding from the Pebble Trust, we are arranging public events and sessions in local schools.Make your own animal model and a pop-up landscape of the place where you would like to meet your wolf, frog, wild horse, mouse, eagle….

(and many thanks to Moray Council and Inverness Museum for their support!)

Details

These events are

·      free

·      no booking or tickets needed: just drop-by and join in

·      young people under 12 need to bring a grown-up with them

·      allow 45 minutes for the activity

·      Find out more: @creeping toad

·      https:// creepingtoad.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-last-wolf.html

 

Underground Nairn

 Nairn, underground

celebrations with 

the Nairn Book and Arts Festival, 2026 

Welcome to the world beneath the town.

Under leaf-litter and stones,

Under tree root and turf,

Tarmac and soil,

There is a world of wonders and marvels.

We have reached the end of another hectic week of adventures in Nairn as part of the Nairn Book and Arts Festival

THE BLESSING

By the tunnelling of moles

And the burrowing of worms:

By the beat of the centipede’s dance

And the marching of ants;

I have been coming here for about 5 years, working with schools during the Festival, picking up a sense of celebration in the theme of the year.

This year we dived into a world undergound and overground (and only adults of a certain age then almost instantly start singing Wombles songs!). 

With our school workshops this resolved into underground animals which included the likely (centipedes, rabbits, mice, foxes, ants) and the more remarkable (unicorn moles, rainbow worms, earth dragon…)

 

=

By the running of mice
And the drumming of rabbits;

By the persistence of moulds

And the dry slither of a snake;

 

Over the days I collected images from our young artists and stirred them into a mud-wallow of a poem to welcome human visitors to our underground world at the end o the Festival Parade (including The Blessing included here, the opening quote is from a longer piece)

The Parade itself featured a spectacular beetle and an immensely long adder and millipede…and some 300 people walking, dancing, laughing and revelling in the rhythms of the local Penguin Tuxedo Orchestra and Ewan Mitchell and his band

 

Many thanks to everyone! 

Including

• Nairn Book and Arts Festival: staff, trustees and volunteers!
• Auldearn Primary School
• Cawdor Primary School
• Millbank Primary School
  Rosebank Primary School
• Amy from Naturally Useful
  

 

We send you on your way

With joy and love and wonder.

 

A river in a classroom

 Unfolding rivers

Moorlands Wild Weeks 2026

Endon  Hall's kingfisher

In June, Creeping Toad visited three schools in the Staffordshire Moorlands as part of Moorlands Climate Action's Wild Weeks initiative

These were three days of laughter, excitement and some wonderful creativity. As a quick follow up, here are some words and images from those days....with another river of words after the gallery below

The River

I am the river that whispers,

Slow and deep, 

Cold and murky,

This pool is calm

But then I run wild

Rough, choppy,

Mumbling, muttering

Tumbling, 

Bubbling,

Troubling.

Leek First School

We stand on the riverbank, watching

Water for tea!

Water for feeding,

Water for fishing,

Water for drinking,

Water for drowning,

Water for sinking,

Water for boating,

Water for skiing,

Water for skating,

Water for baptising.

 

This river offers us all that we need

And can take all that we are….

(Endon Hall Primary School)

With many thanks to all the young artists of All Saints CE First School, 

Endon Hall Primary School and Leek First School

Endon Hall Primary School

Endon Hall Primary School

Endon Hall Primary School

Endon Hall Primary School

Leek First School

Leek First School

All Saints CE First School

All Saints CE First School

All Saints CE First School

and Leek First School explored their own river....

OUR RIVER

 

Calm water,

Runs deep and warm and friendly

With pools to hold you

And ripples that play with you.

 

But there are rapids in this river,

Running, racing, raging, 

Rushing, thrashing.

Wild.

No friendship here.

No hope for the swimmer caught in the current.

 

But this river is special,

Unique,

With its mysterious blue fish,

The fish that come to you if you step into the water.

This river is

Shaped with love and imagination, 

With pools and rapids and long, flowing, sweeping stretches.

Spooky corners under old stones,

Bridges with dripping shadows,

Mysterious pools,

Mystical, magical moments,

When mist gathers at dawn,

All these make this river,

Our river,

Delightful.