Elli H. Radinger

It is quite fitting that Elli H. Radinger (1951), the most renowned wolf researcher of Germany, is coming to our festival now because after all, she is visiting a country that chose the wolf as its national animal. It is a perfect moment to get to know wolves a little better with Radinger’s help. Konrad Lorenz wrote in his famous 1963 book On Aggression: “The most aggressive mammal according to proverbs, the wolf, Dante’s bestia senza pace, is the most loyal of all friends”. In her book The Wisdom of Wolves (Die Weisheit der Wölfe, 2017), Radinger agrees: wolves care for their old and injured, lovingly raise their offspring and are actually more similar to humans than we can imagine. Her book about the domesticated relatives of wolves, The Wisdom of Old Dogs (Die Weisheit alter Hunde, 2017) looks at what we could learn from dogs, how we could use their trust, patience, gratitude and intuitive wisdom as examples. Elli H. Radinger talks to Peep Männil, Chief Expert at the Environmental Inspectorate.