'Animal,' Episode 5: Wolves

[0] Hey, it's Michael.

[1] Today, we have something really special for you.

[2] A blissful break from the news.

[3] It's a news series from NYT Audio called Animal.

[4] My colleague, Sam Anderson from The Times Magazine, traveled the world to have encounters with animals, not to claim them or to tame them, but just to appreciate them.

[5] Each episode is a journey to get closer to a creature that Sam loves.

[6] For the next six weeks, we'll be running this limited series every Sunday here on the Daily Feed, but if you want to hear all the episodes right now, you can search for it wherever you get your podcasts.

[7] Today, episode five.

[8] Take a listen.

[9] From the New York Times, this is Animal.

[10] I'm Sam Anderson.

[11] Episode five, Wolves.

[12] Okay.

[13] Well, we should...

[14] The shop closes at six.

[15] Do you think we'll be back by then?

[16] Yes, 5 .15.

[17] Uh, maybe.

[18] I can't imagine that don't be like a ton to do that.

[19] No, I agree.

[20] I don't think we need to do that much.

[21] I mean, we just want to make the pilgrimage to the statue, yeah.

[22] Okay, okay.

[23] You know about the statue?

[24] No. Okay, we're going to tell you in the car, and you can tell the driver.

[25] The first thing I remember about our trip to the wolf statue is that we almost didn't go.

[26] People told us not to bother.

[27] The memorial is out in the middle of absolute nowhere on the edge of this tiny village in Japan.

[28] It would take all day to get there and probably be a giant anti -climax.

[29] But I was already in Japan because I was working on a story for the magazine about Hayao Miyazaki, the animator.

[30] And since I'd come this far, I just felt like I really needed to do this.

[31] That's really pouring.

[32] Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

[33] Regular train from Kyoto to a smaller city called Nara, which is famous for its deer.

[34] We come out of the train station and it's pouring rain.

[35] That's another reason not to go on the pilgrimage because it's just soaking rain constantly all day long.

[36] I'm with Crystal Duhame, who's carrying a gigantic microphone around everywhere.

[37] And then Samson Yee, our incredible interpreter.

[38] And so we step out of the train station into the rain, and there's this black car waiting for us.

[39] And outsteps our driver, who's this 30 -something man, nicely dressed.

[40] He's wearing like a gray suit, the red tie.

[41] Samson talks to him and says his name is Diceke, Dyske's son, to be polite.

[42] And Samson climbed into the front of the taxi to sit next to Dyske so that he can interpret our conversation.

[43] Yes, it's okay for you to record his dog.

[44] He might not be able to meet your expectation.

[45] We start heading out of the city on this kind of wild, windy back road, and immediately we're sort of in the middle of nowhere, and it's still pouring, it's foggy, we're passing through woods and bamboo, and it is really beautiful.

[46] It feels like we're driving into an old landscape painting.

[47] So, Samson, let me tell you about the statues, since you have no idea what we're doing.

[48] Yeah, I remember asking.

[49] Um, well, maybe ask Daisuke if he knows anything about the Japanese wolf.

[50] Can you ask Daiske's son, our driver, if he knows anything about the Japanese wolf?

[51] So Samson did, and no, he'd never heard about it.

[52] But...

[53] I don't know anything about the wolf, but I love animals and I have a Chiba one at home.

[54] I have a Chihuahua.

[55] What's the name of the Chihuahua?

[56] What's the name of the Chihuahua?

[57] Gautaro.

[58] Gautaro.

[59] Gautaro.

[60] Gautaro.

[61] Boy's name.

[62] It has a boy's name, but it's a girl.

[63] And Samson laughed because Gotoro is a very male Japanese name.

[64] It's like, apparently like some kind of warrior name.

[65] He said the Chinese character for it means like hard metal.

[66] And Daiske named this chihuahua, the most masculine, tough name he could think of because chihuahuas are so fierce and have such strong personalities.

[67] So he did that deliberately.

[68] And the fact that he would connect that to wolves.

[69] That was the funny thing about him.

[70] It's like instantly we said wolves and he was like, oh, I love animals and I have a dog, a chihuahua, which is on one hand a hilarious answer.

[71] But on the other hand, makes perfect sense because wolves and dogs...

[72] I came to learn on this trip are essentially the same thing.

[73] I mean, we went to talk to one of the great dog scientists on planet Earth.

[74] And he was telling me that dogs are really just wolves that have developed over thousands of years, a very intimate relationship with human beings.

[75] He's done all this incredible research, including discovering that dogs cry, when their owners come home after a long period away, they have moisture in their eyes.

[76] And wolves don't.

[77] So that's one of the ways they're different.

[78] But otherwise, it's more a continuum than it is a bright line that divides them.

[79] So Daiske got that right away.

[80] He was like, you're asking me about wolves?

[81] I'm going to talk about my dog.

[82] I'm just explaining what we've been doing in the last few days.

[83] So I'd been spending the last few days of my trip in Japan learning about wolves.

[84] And so I started telling Daiski -san the epic saga of the Japanese wolf.

[85] The basic stories, there used to be wolves in these mountains everywhere all over Japan.

[86] I think of a wolf as an American, I think of like a big timber wolf or a gray wolf, like a big snarling, mean dog.

[87] Japanese wolves were different.

[88] They were smaller and sort of a reddish khaki color and cute.

[89] Weirdly cute for a wolf.

[90] Before I went on this trip, I read this book called The Lost Wolves of Japan by a historian named Brett Walker.

[91] And basically, for many thousands of years, wolves roamed all over Japan.

[92] And people revered them.

[93] They saw them as sacred guardians.

[94] They protected crops.

[95] People worshipped at wolf shrines, and they left offerings of rice and beans outside of wolf dens.

[96] But then in the 1700s, there was this big rabies outbreak that made wolves actually quite dangerous.

[97] Wolves were killing people.

[98] And then in the 1800s, there is a huge cultural shift in Japan where the country started to, quote unquote, modernize.

[99] People started doing Western -style agriculture, huge cattle herds.

[100] And so wolves began to seem like pests.

[101] They were killing livestock.

[102] They were...

[103] you know, encroaching on these cities that were growing deeper into the wilderness.

[104] And so Japan decided it was done with its wolves.

[105] And the government sends out these hunting parties to systematically exterminate the Japanese wolf.

[106] And they did.

[107] They used guns.

[108] They use poison.

[109] They used traps.

[110] As far as we know, the last...

[111] Japanese wolf was killed in 1905 and it's historically documented and they know where it was exactly and they know which wolf it was.

[112] It was a male wolf and it was brought dead and sold to a Western man in 1905.

[113] They say the last known Japanese wolf, it was seen kind of skulking around this lumber yard in a little remote village.

[114] And somebody shot it and sold it to a Western man who was passing through town collecting zoological specimens.

[115] And so this statue that we're going to is the memorial to that last wolf.

[116] It's a black metal statue based on the body of that wolf near where that wolf died.

[117] And so we were driving out to sea.

[118] I'm really happy that I'm able to be part of trip because I really love dogs myself.

[119] And I'm able to maybe share how you might feel about this trip or going to look for the dog, look for the wolf.

[120] Daiske was the chatiest, probably the chattyest cab driver I've ever had.

[121] And whatever he talked about, it always came back to Gotoro.

[122] For instance, he was telling us like, oh, I'm a YouTuber.

[123] And I have a YouTube channel about cars.

[124] And I said, oh, what's the name of the YouTube channel?

[125] Because I immediately wanted to look it up.

[126] And he said, something, something, I don't speak Japanese, so I couldn't understand her.

[127] But I distinctly heard the word Gotoro.

[128] I said, wait a second.

[129] Did he say Gotoro again?

[130] Is his YouTube channel named after the Chihuahua?

[131] And Samson said, yes, it's basically driving with Gotoro.

[132] Okay.

[133] driving channel.

[134] Wow.

[135] So she really likes a dog.

[136] Yeah.

[137] He really like the dog.

[138] Yeah.

[139] He really like that.

[140] Yeah.

[141] He really like that.

[142] So where are we?

[143] We really are out in the middle of nowhere on this tiny road.

[144] So we are in this car for a very long time, driving on these windy roads into the mountains, through forests, there's just occasional houses, fog, still pouring rain.

[145] And then Daiske -san starts telling us his life story, which turned out to be much more than we were prepared for.

[146] So we are still in this car.

[147] Maybe we're halfway into the trip at this point.

[148] And Diceke started ruminating and then told us the entire story of his life, basically.

[149] I remember Samson being like, okay, he's telling me his life story now.

[150] So he's talking about his life story now and how he used to live in Osaka.

[151] So he got married with his wife in Osaka and lived there for two years.

[152] He used to drive a garbage truck.

[153] And his wife's dad, after they got married two years, asked him to come live with them.

[154] So his parents -in -law asked him to come live with them.

[155] And her dad, the wife's dad, worked at the same taxi company as this company.

[156] and hence he and his wife and Bautaro moved from Osaka to Kyoto, to Nara and lived with his father for four to five years.

[157] But then his father -in -law left the taxicum.

[158] So, yeah, he's a garbage truck driver in Osaka, and he got married, and they agreed to move in with his father -in -law, his wife's father.

[159] In Japan, traditionally, is a very hierarchical society, so your wife's father would be someone you pay a lot of respect to.

[160] So they moved in with him.

[161] So actually, his father -in -law didn't like animals at the time, but then he knew that if...

[162] Saka's family would come and live with him, the dog would come along, the Chihuah will come along.

[163] And because Gautaro is a dog you have in the house, so his father -in -law knew that, and then they brought the dog over.

[164] Because they're going to get it, right?

[165] Because the dad left his job and no longer.

[166] Because the dad left his job and no longer drive, his father -in -law is at home all the time.

[167] So he started, the father -in -law started being really rough to the Chibawa.

[168] So like violent.

[169] So Daiski says a couple times he came home from work and it seemed like Gotoro was hurt.

[170] And there'd been no one home all day except Gotoro and the father -in -law.

[171] Yes, right.

[172] So at the time, for the first and second time, when he saw the scars, he knew immediately that the scars on the dog was caused by a person.

[173] So unless there is some thief we broke in the house, it could only have been his father -in -law.

[174] So he approached his father -in -law and told him that to stop.

[175] stop hitting a dog and he was telling his father -in -law that you wouldn't like you wouldn't like it if someone hit your grandson or grandchild his son or child so so please stop is what he said I want him twice we talked about it The third time?

[176] The third time?

[177] When I got home, so the third time, the Chihuahua was really red and was like bulging.

[178] When I got home, so the third time when I got home, the Chihuahua's left eye was like really red and was like bulging.

[179] We took the Chihuahua to the hospital and he lost his left eye.

[180] And, well, it's a dog, but, you know, it's family.

[181] I also, even Gotaro is a dog.

[182] Gotaro is also family, and I just couldn't forgive him.

[183] And I told him that we just can't live together anymore.

[184] So, and I told him that we just can't live together anymore.

[185] Solar panel.

[186] And then, then, then, then, well, yeah, it's going to go, and we decided to leave his house.

[187] And we decided to leave his house.

[188] Yome and the other than, both of it.

[189] So, that's, that's, you know, if they're going to do.

[190] I told my wife and my children that they are free to stay if they want.

[191] So my wife can stay with his parents if he's dad if she wants, but I'm leaving.

[192] I'm leaving with Kodalo.

[193] And then, we're, our family, um, we're, our family, and, and my son, and Chihuahua, and then, um, we're going to, and then, another place, another, another, another new life.

[194] In the end, there are five of us, um, me, my wife and my two children, and Chihuahua, left that house.

[195] Now we're living, um, away from the dad.

[196] We never, we never see her dad ever again after that incident.

[197] When we've never, we, we never see her dad ever again after that incident.

[198] When we fact -checked the story, we talked to Diceke's wife and the vet who treated Giotro for her injuries.

[199] And they both corroborated what Diceke told us.

[200] And We tried to reach the father -in -law directly, but we weren't able to talk to him.

[201] Daiske told us his father -in -law denied herning Gotoro.

[202] We also found out a couple of other things.

[203] First, Gotoro actually lost the vision in her right eye, not her left.

[204] It was a detached retina.

[205] And also that Gotoro was not always named Gotoro.

[206] Originally, she was named Love.

[207] That's actually the name the vet knew her by.

[208] And Diceke says when his father -in -law got angry, he would shout the word love over and over.

[209] And Diceke decided he didn't want to relive that trauma anymore.

[210] And that's when he thought of this name Gautro.

[211] He wanted to give the dog this tough warrior name.

[212] I'm not so sorry it's son, sorry the story's gone all serious, you know, that's, that's very intense.

[213] So this, so this, so, go to row has no left eye.

[214] Gautaro has no left eye.

[215] Right, so, so, so, right.

[216] So, so, so, right.

[217] But, you know, like, it's, like, um, Men is that, well, that's it.

[218] He's almost in the hushabye.

[219] So, that's the human's more, well, in life, but...

[220] So, so he's saying, how, you know how when humans...

[221] Like you, Agiscian, actually.

[222] You know how when humans, when you lose sight, use your sight of one eye, it can really affect your everyday life but then it's not so much for a dog because for a dog of course the dog can see but he also relied on his smell a lot more so perhaps it doesn't affect the dog's life it's interesting when he said life when he referred to the dog, he says, Jinse, which means human's life.

[223] So he really think that the dog is just like human.

[224] And the fact that he has lost his left eye might not have as much of the effect to the dog as it would, it was a person.

[225] I mean, kind of, like, kind of, like, kind of side of, from, from, it's kind of thing, but...

[226] Yeah.

[227] Yeah.

[228] Yeah.

[229] Yeah.

[230] Yeah.

[231] I mean, despite the fact that the incident made me really angry and really sad, and it was like a huge thing to me. I mean, despite the fact that the incident made me really angry and really sad and it was like a huge thing to me, Perhaps, and I try to think it this way, I try to put it this way.

[232] Perhaps for the dog, it's almost like a blocked nose, you know?

[233] And maybe it's not that big a deal for it.

[234] I try to think it like that so that I can keep my keep safe, I guess.

[235] And it's really, you know, the dog itself is really healthy, and Gautaro is just fine, doing just fine.

[236] If we have a chance, later, I can show you a video of Gautaro.

[237] And he's saying how Chihuahua, like, like, wolves, How to?

[238] So, I just saw a sign that said the name of where we're going.

[239] Yes.

[240] What is it called again?

[241] Yeah, and it had a wolf on it.

[242] It had like a little wolf silhouette.

[243] Did you see that?

[244] I think we are closer, maybe four or five minutes away.

[245] Okay.

[246] Wow, this life of story of his has become so much more intense than I imagine.

[247] I thought we were just going to sell a taxi and go and see a statue.

[248] Gotolo.

[249] Yeah, I mean, as we approach the wolf statue here, I think...

[250] That's actually the perfect conversation for us to have approaching this statue.

[251] Because part of why I think I felt drawn to see this statue was that it does represent one individual animal.

[252] It's not just a symbolic wolf.

[253] It is an animal that was as much an individual as Gotoro or as Walnut, my dog, or as any of us in this car.

[254] This was a specific creature.

[255] And as the last wolf, It had lost everyone.

[256] It had lost its family.

[257] It's friends.

[258] It's a whole community in pack.

[259] And that's just...

[260] That's really deep to think about.

[261] So, yeah, suddenly we're there.

[262] It's just like the GPS was like...

[263] This is it.

[264] We're here.

[265] And it was really a nothing.

[266] Like it was...

[267] It's really quiet, maybe because it's Sunday as well.

[268] There was like a little roadside sign, and then you just had to kind of pull off the road onto the shoulder.

[269] Traffic, you know, cars driving by, we're just right there driving by right next to you.

[270] And so it was really a nothing of a sight.

[271] That said, we get out, it's pouring rain, Diceke gives us umbrellas, and it's so beautiful.

[272] We truly are out in the country.

[273] I mean, there's a road that runs by, but right on the other side of the road is this beautiful river rushing with all this rain.

[274] And then just these cascading mountains with fog all over them that really look like a beautiful classic Japanese painting.

[275] Be careful.

[276] I don't think car stops.

[277] I don't think anyone ever comes here.

[278] It was completely quiet, except for when occasionally a car would go racing past.

[279] There's a big sort of stone tablet with a lot of Japanese on it that Samson read to us.

[280] What does it say?

[281] So it says wolf died and its spirits exist, lives on.

[282] So wolf dies, but its spirits live on.

[283] I feel like shy to approach the wolf.

[284] We've come all this way, and I feel like hesitant to.

[285] But I guess let's go see them.

[286] There was something really powerful about the scale of it, being the actual scale of the body of the animal itself.

[287] It's so much smaller than I thought.

[288] I've seen a photo of it before, but standing in front of it, It looks like a pet dog.

[289] It looks like a pet dog.

[290] It looks like a million dogs that I've played with.

[291] Just kind of like a small, medium dog.

[292] It's just like cute.

[293] But it's also fierce.

[294] It's this black metal.

[295] It's got its mouth wide open.

[296] You can see its teeth.

[297] I think it's howling.

[298] Which reminds me they call it, hold on.

[299] Looking at my Japanese term.

[300] I'd learned this word earlier on the trip, this incredible Japanese word, which is power spoto, which is just adoption from English, power spot.

[301] So just a place that's really full of power.

[302] And this, to me, standing by this statue was powerful.

[303] Just this humble, modest little thing, kind of an afterthought of a memorial.

[304] one uh japanese term from the book we were reading um it says the japanese once revered the wolf as obuchi no magami or large -mouthed pure god and you can see the large mouth i mean the jaws are wide open it's howling i really would love to hear what that howl sounds like so yeah we stood and um Samson, who, one of the great things about Samson is he's just completely unflappable, unimpressed by anything.

[305] So how do you feel, having been on this journey with us?

[306] Knowing all that you know now about the wolf's story, coming all this ridiculous way to make this pilgrimage to stand at this statue that no one ever comes to, I think, pretty much.

[307] How do you feel standing in front of it?

[308] Was it worth it?

[309] Do you feel anything?

[310] When I first heard about the story that we were going to go after an animal that was supposed to be extinct, like over 100 years ago, I wasn't sure what I was going to expect.

[311] And then we're here now.

[312] And I do feel listening to you talk about how this guy here we have in front of me, particular, lost everything.

[313] And he's the last one.

[314] Like, what would the last statue of a person be like?

[315] What would the last statue of a dog or a cat be like?

[316] How would human think of that?

[317] Especially in Japan when he is literally a god, big god.

[318] And now he's just a stone in a middle of street.

[319] And it's even difficult to park your car because there's no road to this thing.

[320] Whilst we pray on other things that we call God, that has replaced this thing.

[321] I think that's pretty deep now.

[322] Yeah, so you're having some feelings and thoughts.

[323] The unimpressible Samson.

[324] It's kind of sad what you think about it.

[325] It is really profound.

[326] This was the last thing of its kind.

[327] And the rain is coming down, it's just like soaking, it's like dripping off the fangs of the statue.

[328] And then Daiscape pulls out his phone.

[329] and says, oh, I want to show you a picture of Gotoro.

[330] Sure, let's see, Gotoro.

[331] And as we're standing next to the statue of the last Japanese wolf, he shows us on his...

[332] on his phone screen, this picture of this little white chihuahua.

[333] She's so cute.

[334] We were just like, our hearts melted.

[335] She's laying on her side in like a nest of blankets and having her belly rubbed and her eyes are closed.

[336] And it just looks like the sweetest little thing and like she's so happy in heaven.

[337] One last question for Daiski -san.

[338] So...

[339] The wolf is howling.

[340] I really wonder what its howl sounds like.

[341] And I wonder if maybe while he's waiting, could he find that video he told us about?

[342] So he went back to wait for us in the car and we stood for a while longer in the rain.

[343] And then eventually everyone was starving and we had to go get something to eat.

[344] And we got back in the car and Daiske said, ah, I found it.

[345] I found the video.

[346] And he played us this video.

[347] Of Gotro the Chihuahua howling her little brains out at an ambulance.

[348] And it's like the most like...

[349] Tender.

[350] She's howling so hard.

[351] And it's such a soft little, such a soft little tender Chihuahua howl.

[352] It's so primal.

[353] Imagine it coming out past the fangs of this of this Japanese wolf echoing across the wilderness.

[354] Gotoro.

[355] This episode was produced by Crystal Duhame and Larissa Anderson, with help from Caitlin Roberts.

[356] It was reported by me, Sam Anderson, and edited by Larissa Anderson and Wendy Doer.

[357] It was engineered by Marion Lozano.

[358] The executive producer is Paula Schumann.

[359] Original music by Marion Lazzano.

[360] Fact -checking by Samson Yee and Josh Hunt.

[361] Special thanks to Jake Silverstein, Sasha Weiss, and Sam Dolnik.

[362] Very special thanks to Songwu Kim, Alex Martin, Hiroshi Yagi, Hiroyuki Yoshimura, Hajime Suzuki, and Takafumi Kikusui.

[363] Thank you so much for teaching us all about the Japanese wolf and its relationship to dogs and humans and crying and all of that.

[364] You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you get podcasts or visit our website at n .ytimes .com slash animal.

[365] I'm Sam Anderson.

[366] Thank you for listening.