For the 2015 Chinese film “Wolf Totem”, 35 Mongolian wolves were trained in China for over 4 years by a Scottish trainer, who trained them to sit, snarl, and fight on cue. After filming, the wolves were ultimately relocated to Canada, since they only understood commands in English
Mongolian wolves (Canis lupus chanco) used in the film
In the novel and the film, Chen Zen is sent to work on the steppes of Inner Mongolia (a region of China) during the Cultural Revolution, and a government official orders all wolves in the region to be killed. The filmmakers used real Mongolian wolves (Canis lupus chanco) for the film. Annaud had experience filming with animals in his previous films The Bear (1988) and Two Brothers (2004), working with bears and tigers respectively. He said dogs were traditionally used to depict wolves in film but that he sought to use actual wolves to show authentically their hunting method.
Annaud and others visited zoos around China to find wolf pups to acquire for the film. He said, “Wol… Continue Reading (7 minute read)
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10 thoughts on “For the 2015 Chinese film “Wolf Totem”, 35 Mongolian wolves were trained in China for over 4 years by a Scottish trainer, who trained them to sit, snarl, and fight on cue. After filming, the wolves were ultimately relocated to Canada, since they only understood commands in English”
JimmiRustle
Yes, wolves would have hated it in Mongolia since hardly anyone speaks English
If you can teach English commands to a wolf, I’m pretty sure you can teach a Mongolian animal wrangler how to say them. Now they will pick up French instead and take up smoking and being unnecessarily argumentative.
Yes, wolves would have hated it in Mongolia since hardly anyone speaks English
I thought this story was going to end the same as the Whistler dog sled cull…
I was glad to be wrong.
If you can teach English commands to a wolf, I’m pretty sure you can teach a Mongolian animal wrangler how to say them. Now they will pick up French instead and take up smoking and being unnecessarily argumentative.
Wolf Totem by The Hu starts playing
But are they trained to understand *who’s a good boy?*
They all ended up in Quebec.
Andrew Simpson also trained the wolves in Game of Thrones. His ranch is near Calgary, Alberta.
https://instinctforfilm.com/credits
Was the movie any good?
I always think it is interesting hearing extreme film making stories like this especially when the film is bad or forgotten.
Where they only understood scottish
Also they tried to use cars during filming as little as possible so they wouldn’t destroy the grasslands.
Also China unbanned the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, to come make the film. He was banned for 7 Years in Tibet.
Also, I saw the movie… it was meh