Wolf encounter: A photographer on what humans have lost

Lasting impressionPedersen has experienced moments like this many times throughout his career and says each one leaves a lasting impression.No matter the reaction — fear, awe or shock — anyone who experiences close encounters with a wild predator, he said, “will feel different around the natural world than they did before”.The encounter awakens something primal, an often unchallenged part of our brain that forces us to recognise how thin the line really is between ourselves and the wild — and how quickly the illusion of control can disappear.For Pedersen, these encounters are not about danger but about connecting to something often missing in modern life: a deep, instinctual awareness and presence with the natural world.Wolves embody that awareness, he said. They are highly social, intelligent animals, shaped by strong hierarchies and a constant need to read the world around them.That perspective sits uneasily in Norway, where wolves are rare and politically contentious.In Norway, the wolf population remains small, at fewer than 100, and is largely confined to forested areas along the Swedish border. Norway also conducts an annual wolf hunt as a government-regulated population mana...