The wolf is coming

The wolf has re-inhabited the Danish nature, and where it was previously hated and therefore exterminated, it may be a different story when it returns after 200 years of absence. The wolf originally belongs naturally in the Danish nature, and the discussion about how we should handle its return is important. Most people are afraid of wolves, and there are plenty of stories that thrive well about the wolf's terrifying nature, despite the fact that few people have met a wild wolf.

 

Museum exhibitions

Age-appropriate dialogue-based tour of the exhibitions, where the focus is on the wolf's prey and its importance to the people who lived close to it, and have hunted it with every conceivable tool. We take a closer look at hunting weapons and trapping tools - which have often been very deadly.

Activity (age-specific)

For pre-school/intermediate level The focus is on learning about the human connection to the wolf throughout history; about the wolf as an ancestor of the dog, about the fact that wolves and humans have hunted the same prey, about the wolf as a threat to the farmer's domestic animals/livestock, about the wolf extinction in the early 19th century and about the wolf immigration more recently. The practical approach is to reconstruct the wolf trap that is found close to the museum and which has contributed to the wolf extinction.

The students visit the museum's Nature Workshop upon arrival, then we go into the forest and work on the reconstruction of the wolf trap. The wolf trap becomes a narrative and dialogue frame. We talk about human views of the wolf and why it was exterminated. We use fairy tales and stories to understand the views of the wolf at different times. We touch paws, skins, teeth and skulls and look at different hunting tools.

For school leavers The focus is on how the presence of wolves in Denmark has changed throughout history, on the view of wolves / people's view of nature at different times, on the efforts against it (legal/illegal), on folk beliefs, legislation, democracy, management of the landscape (wolf habitats) and on how we relate to the presence of wolves today. The students visit the Wolf Trap in the forest close to the museum and we look at the trap/reconstruction, the landscape as a wolf location, talk about the size of the wolf territory and the wolf's food sources. All with the aim of the students, when they return to the museum, working on the topic further in groups. The groups will be faced with tasks that require knowledge, collecting facts, using historical sources, knowledge of legislation, etc., examining physical objects, using statistics, maps and data. The course will clarify the issues surrounding wolf immigration and equip the students to become more objective and factual in the wolf debate.