Canada mourns Takaya – the lone sea wolf whose spirit captured the world

The life - and this week's sudden death - of the legendary wolf shone a light on the often-strained bond between humans and wild animals

When Doug Paton burst from his trailer on a warm spring afternoon, he expected to confront yet another stray dog agitating the livestock on his sister's farm outside Victoria, a city on Canada's west coast. Instead, standing barefoot in the grass, he found himself face to face with a wolf.

"It stopped dead in its tracks and it stared me down," he says. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the wolf trotted away, pausing once to stare back at Paton before clearing a five-foot metal gate and vanishing.