‘Dynasties’ Recap: ‘Painted Wolf’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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​Over the course of the past few weeks, BBC America’s powerful documentary series, Dynasties, has provided its audience with some downright incredible moments. The kind that outright give said audience pause, simply due to the fact that this series holds nothing back. For this show features nature in the raw, and all the savagery of the world is on display here. But the series also deserves some credit for finding a way to uncover some of the majesty that nature is also known for since we have been treated to some wonderfully beautiful moments in this saga. However, there is only so far a story can go in restricting the unrelenting forces of nature and last night’s episode of the show, ‘Painted Wolf’, went to some supremely heartbreaking places as we watched the cruelty of nature shape a heartbreaking story.
 
Now, in this particular tale, we were transported to Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, near the banks of the Zambezi to meet a pair of painted wolves named Tait and Blacktip, who also happened to be mother and daughter respectively and well, while that has the makings of a cute and precious reunion story, it was anything but. For we came to learn quickly that these majestic canines are pack animals that need lots of room to spread out and hunt and Blacktip’s growing pack…was running out of room, and the only way she could properly care for all of them, was to move them into larger territory and that meant bad news for mom and her pack. Because in swift and devastating fashion, Blacktip and her pack drove her mother out of her comfortable and fruitful territory, and that stunning moment was merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this harrowing tale.
 
After all, that power play by Tait’s daughter happened within the first ten minutes of the show and Blacktip’s decision to make her pack’s well-being a priority over her mother’s, left Tait in quite the dangerous place. For now, she was in territory dominated by lion prides and her pack struggled mightily to survive and while it seemed for a moment that this was the way forward for both packs, Blacktip had other ideas in mind. For while Blacktip’s pack were well fed and thriving, she could not risk a counteroffensive by her mother and led her fellow painted wolves into that dangerous territory to drive her mother out of this area once and for all, and this turned out to be quite the costly mission. For the journey was long and arduous and competing predators waited at every turn, and were able to seize one of Blacktip’s pups, and while they seemingly overcame that painful loss, another member of the pack being devoured by crocodiles was more than they could bear, and they returned to their original home…
 
Yet while that seems like quite the bittersweet ending for Tait, since she and her pack would eventually be able to return home to their fruitful stomping grounds, there were still more tough moments to be found in this tale. Because while the pack did indeed return home later on, they did so without their leader. For age, and an unfortunate encounter with lions led to Tait and her alpha male’s demise and well, when all is said and done this really was the darkest episode of this series to date. Because the positive and redeeming moments we were privy to in earlier episodes, simply were not present here. There was no understanding between mother and daughter, no teamwork to be found. Just the fight for survival and a visual embodiment of survival of the fittest and that made this episode tough to watch at times since it really did feature some uncomfortable moments.
 
But alas, this is nature in its purest form, a place of chaos, where only the strongest see tomorrow and while that harsh reminder made this episode difficult to get through here and there, I applaud this series for taking the time to show us this. For that is what great documentaries do, they show us a moment in time without interference or clever editing and direction to make said moment palpable to an audience, and well…despite the heartbreak and devastation found in this tale, there was one bright spot to come out of all of it. For in the end we learned that Tait contributed plenty to the future survival of her species, since her genes are present in so many painted wolves out there, and that is beautiful in its own right since she in essence, lives on. But wow, what a story this turned out to be, for it was powerful and moving and I truly am impressed with everything Dynasties offers up and I cannot wait to see what the next and final episode of this majestic series has in store for us. Until next time.   

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