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Brett Westwood meets a wolf and considers what wolfishness has come to mean in our culture and thinking. And how much does it have to do with the animal itself? From 2017

In this revised repeat of Natural Histories, Brett Westwood meets a wolf at The UK Wolf Conservation Trust at Beenham, near Reading and considers what wolfishness has come to mean in our culture and thinking. And how much does it have to do with the animal itself?

Taking part:
Mike Collins, wolf keeper and site manager
Claudio Sillero, Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Oxford
Garry Marvin, social anthropologist and Professor of Human Animal Studies at the University of Roehampton
Erica Fudge, Director of the British Animal Studies Network at the University of Strathclyde
Judith Buchanan, Professor of Film and Literature at the University of York

Original Producer: Beth O'Dea

Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 21 Mar 2021 06:35

Professor Judith Buchanan

Professor Judith Buchanan
Judith Buchanan is Professor of Film and Literature and Director of the Humanities Research Centre at the University of York and Director of Silents Now. She has expertise in the transmission of stories across generations and across media, in Shakespeare performance histories and in silent cinema.

Through the creative work of , she brings back little-known films from the silent era as a source of pleasurable engagement for contemporary audiences in the UK and elsewhere, thereby helping to ensure the preservation and ongoing life of a valuable but threatened part of our heritage.

She is the author of, among other things, Shakespeare on Film and Shakespeare on Silent Film: An Excellent Dumb Discourse and the editor of The Writer on Film: Screening Literary Authorship. She speaks regularly to public as well as to academic audiences and her voice-overs can be found on the BFI’s newly released ‘Play On! Shakespeare in Silent Film'. 

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Mike Collins

Mike Collins
Mike Collins trained as an animal behaviourist and is site manager and wolf keeper at the . He cares for 10 grey wolves, 9 of which have been hand raised and socialised, meaning they aren't as scared of people as wild or unsocialised wolves are.

He also trains work experience staff and educates groups of children and adults via talks and tours to teach them about the true nature and behaviour of wolves, which allows him to dispel some of the myths. He also teaches people about conservation work to protect wild wolf populations.

Dr Erica Fudge

Dr Erica Fudge
Erica Fudge is Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She is the author of a number of books and essays on human-animal relations in the English Renaissance and in the contemporary age.

Her work has also appeared in  magazine and she is the director of the .

Professor Garry Marvin

Professor Garry Marvin
is a social anthropologist and Professor of Human-Animal Studies at the University of Roehampton. He is interested in how animals figure, and are configured in human cultures. He has conducted research into, and published on, the place of bullfighting in Spanish culture; zoos as social-cultural institutions; the nature of foxhunting in England; taxidermy and memories of animal lives.

Among his recent publications are and, with Susan McHugh,

Professor Claudio Sillero

Professor Claudio Sillero
is the Deputy Director of the , at the University of Oxford, and has worked on many threatened species, including tigers, African wild dogs, jaguars, lions, hyaenas, fennec foxes and Andean cats.

As Chair of the he has a special interest in the coexistence of wild canids (wolves, dogs and foxes) and rural communities, and with the  he endeavours to protect the rare , Africa’s most endangered carnivore.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 26 Jul 2016 11:00
  • Mon 1 Aug 2016 21:00
  • Sun 21 Mar 2021 06:35

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