The Way of the Wolf

"O grandmother, what large ears you have!" "The better to hear you with."
"O grandmother, what great eyes you have!" "The better to see you with."
"O grandmother, what large hands you have!" "The better to take hold of you with."
"But grandmother, what a terrible large mouth you have!" "The better to devour you!"
~ Little Red Riding Hood

I’m not a huge fan of the movement to pad the world in cotton-wool to ensure that today’s children need never have a bad experience. However, I wish Little Red Riding Hood’s parents hadn’t let her make the half hour’s journey through the woods to her grandmother’s house alone. Not only was the wretched child quite obviously uhm, developmentally challenged, her tale and others like it has contributed to one of mankind’s more reprehensibly actions. Despite there never being one single authenticated account of a healthy wolf attacking a human, fear and ignorance have led to these beautiful, social and highly intelligent creatures being systematically exterminated almost to the point of extinction throughout the globe.

This thought was weighing heavily on my mind as we drove through the gates of Colorado’s Wolf and Wildlife Center, founded in 1993 by a lady named Darlene Kobobel after she rescued a two-year old wolf named Chinook. Upon receiving 15-20 phone calls a day from people wishing to surrender ‘their’ wolves she realized the necessity of providing not just a sanctuary, but an educational facility as well. Today the center conducts tours and programs that focus on dispelling myths about wolves and other wild canids and helping people appreciate the role wolves play in their ecosystems.

Our tour began with the foxes which Darlene explained had been rescued from the fur trade. Education being the key, we learned in graphic detail exactly what the lives, and deaths, of these beautiful creatures would have been like if they had fulfilled their destinies. With a twist which would have been comical if it weren’t so tragic, Darlene explained that the reason two of the foxes were white in color, was because they had been bred that way so they could be passed off as arctic foxes and thereby command a higher price.

On then, to the wolves of which there are twelve in residence, two to each one-acre pen. We met Mika and Shunka first. As the weather is cool right now, the wolves are more active than in the summer, but there was none of the frantic pacing that you’d see with caged animals. Instead, these creatures simply wandered around, occasionally coming up to the wire to say hello. We’d all been warned to keep fingers, camera lenses and children well away from the fencing to avoid any playful theft and this was emphasized at the next pen where we were introduced to Troubles and Bandit. Troubles has a habit of snagging visitors’ gloves and shredding them the way our dogs take out squeaky toys. To date he’s snagged 54 pairs but he never managed to score any from our group.

Darlene did tell us though of the time he pinched her watch off her wrist and swallowed it whole. She was mostly concerned about what would happen when the alarm went off in a couple of hours but listen as she might, she couldn’t hear a thing. Until a couple of days later when she noticed a pile of wolf shit mysteriously beeping. After a good wash, the watch was found to be still working and while she declined to wear it any more, it can now be seen in a display case by reception.

Nikita and Princess were next. Nikita was an enormous bear of an Arctic wolf, looking something like a great Newfoundland. He spent the first three years of his life living in a 5’ x 8’ crate and when rescued; his toenails were over two inches long. His back legs had so little muscle he was unable to walk without assistance. However, he fell in love with CWWC’s first rescue wolf, Chinook and the pair were inseparable until the latter’s death in 2004.

Sabin was rescued from a college dorm where he spent his days locked in a bathroom and lived on a diet of cheetos and beer. Darlene didn’t tell us what happened to the future captains of industry who felt this was an appropriate way to treat a wild animal but hopefully it was something unpleasant. Sabin shares a pen with Raven, named because of the birds who visit her daily. There’s a shamanistic belief that wolves and ravens are closely linked so perhaps Raven is privy to secrets we’ll never understand.

Yukon spent the first 5 months of his life at a photography farm. I was aware that most photographs one sees of ‘wild’ animals are in fact, taken in captivity, (the cost and unreliability of the animals appearing on cue makes commercial photography in the wild impractical) but I had assumed this meant animals in zoos, refuges and sanctuaries like this one. I never knew that most of the images we see on calendars, mousepads, mugs and so on are of animals raised solely for that purpose, then abandoned once they’re no longer photogenic. Yukon was on his way to a roadside zoo before CWWC adopted him.

At the last pen, we met Wakanda an incorrigible ham, and his partner, the painfully shy Akela. Wakanda is the center’s Casanova and loves to kiss the visitors’ hands through the wire. So for a few minutes, I scrunched under his chin and stared deep into those dark, beautiful eyes. I’ve never had the privilege of being this close to a wolf, my spirit animal before, but I’ll carry that moment for ever.

The park also has a couple of coyotes, rescued from a facility which bred animals for use on 'guaranteed hunts'. Once a vehement anti-hunter, my views have mellowed somewhat, largely due to meeting people who kill for food rather than simply the sport of killing. However, I still can’t imagine what kind of deviant would enjoy a canned hunt.

The climax of the tour was when Darlene led us in a group howl. By us, I mean the visitors and the wolves. She threw back her head and performed an eerie imitation of a wolf howl, which we did our best to imitate. Dakari the coyote picked up the song and in a few moments we were joined by the wolves themselves.

Nobody can hear that primal sound without feeling their hair stand on end. Just like our ancestors did millennia ago. Thank goodness there are people like Darlene Kobobel to keep the wolf in our world.

(Interested in seeing some of the wolves? There are some photos here.)
A Collection of Images