Inner-Wilderness.com

Workshop participants recently set out to practice a silent movement technique called fox-walking. The goal: to move silently and stealthily through the environment so as to not be readily heard or seen by the wild neighbors. Fox-walking is a stalking skill passed down from indigenous peoples worldwide, and perfected here in North America by some of the most skilled, the Apaches.

Fox-walking slows one down and frees one to keep one’s eyes looking ahead and around rather than looking at the ground. It minimizes bobbing body motions, helps make ones’ movement smooth and steady. You to feel like you are blending in with the natural environment—because you are!

In this day’s practice at the Belle Grae Inn, participants came back reporting that the pet dog of the inn was observing the practice and started a low growl at people sneaking around the grounds. A clear validation that participants were able to change their relationship to the environment! Feedback we get from other-than-humans is some of the most reliable and gratifying and tells us that we can create new relationships to the wilderness—even in downtown Staunton!

But, the question was raised, if fox-walking sets off alarms in animals, how does that help us? It’s great question which led to a discussion about how the domestic dogs may perceive change in human behavior and how that may or may not relate to wild animal responses. Also it allowed us to introduce the concept that nature has a baseline “language” that can be sensed by animals (and humans) which tells everyone that “all is well.” Often human behavior in the woods inadvertently sends messages of alarm out into the environment which is then picked up well in advance of our arrival by the birds and the other critters, giving them time to flee or hide before we even get near them. On this day, stalking behavior triggered an alarm response in the dog—who read fox-walking as a departure from baseline.

So while we learned that silent movement is one aspect of blending into the environment, the dogs taught us that we need to  learn skills for how to avoid alarming the birds and other critters. We left wanting to learn how our human presence can maintain the baseline of calm in the woods that animals need to feel safe and not flee from us.