Wolves

Wolves are among the predators that may reclaim a place in the landscape after people disappear, but their role is neither immediate nor certain. The novel considers them as part of an ecological balance that could emerge over time, and as one pressure on domestic animals unable to thrive without human protection.

Return to the Landscape

While crossing the Colorado River into Arizona, Ish sees cattle grazing near the road. He reasons that, without ranching and regular human control, the herds could breed more rapidly. Overgrazing might eventually damage the range, but he imagines Wolves returning to the ravines and helping check cattle numbers. He expects the herds and their predators to reach an unwilled balance, with cattle continuing to thrive. This is a forecast, not an account of Wolves already hunting the cattle he sees.

The future remains open to competing possibilities. In the country beyond Kingman, Ish considers that cattle might multiply faster than predators could control them, stripping grass and changing the land. He also allows that disease could sharply reduce the herds, or that Wolves and Mountain lions might increase more quickly than he first supposed. He is confident only that a moderately stable arrangement will eventually form, perhaps allowing the land to grow more like it was before white settlement. Wolves therefore signify one possible mechanism of recovery, not a guaranteed solution or a return to a precisely known past.

Predators and Domestic Animals

Sheep provide a darker contrast to cattle. Their flocks persist for a time after human care ends, but they cannot reliably find water or manage hazards such as blizzards, floods, and cliffs. Meanwhile, Dogs run wild and Wolves, Coyotes, Mountain lions, and Bears prey on them. The flocks break into smaller groups and ultimately disappear. The account connects that vulnerability to generations of dependence on shepherds: protection has left the sheep without the agility and independence needed to survive alone. Wolves are part of this broad pressure, rather than the sole cause of the species’ decline.

Feral Pigs suggest a different outcome. They can live without people, and over generations become leaner, with longer tusks; the account says even Wolves and Bears give way before powerful boars. This contrast keeps the ecological picture from becoming a simple story of predators conquering domestic animals. Survival depends on how well each animal can adapt once the human systems on which some species relied have vanished.

Ecological Significance

Wolves occupy the boundary between Ish’s observation and his speculation. He does not encounter them directly in these passages; instead, he projects their future presence into a landscape where ranching, slaughterhouses, and human population control no longer operate. Their anticipated return helps him imagine ecological change as an uneven process: cattle may flourish, overgraze, or succumb to disease, while predators may eventually alter the balance.

That uncertainty is central to the Wolves’ significance. The novel does not portray nature as instantly restored when people are gone. It considers delayed changes, competing pressures, and different outcomes for animals shaped by domestication. Wolves may help regulate abundant cattle and contribute to the decline of sheep, while adaptable Pigs can withstand both human absence and predation. The resulting world is not simply a human world with its inhabitants removed; it is a changing system in which animals encounter conditions their former dependence or independence has prepared them to meet.