When wolves howl, it provokes a deep, primal response in us - the hairs on the backs of our necks stand up, our pupils dilate, our bodies sing with alertness...and some of us break into a giant grin. What happens when you hear howling?
DISCLAIMER:Although this section of my website deals with Wolf Haven, it is in no way associated with Wolf Haven International, nor is it sanctioned by Wolf Haven. This is strictly something of my own undertaking, using materials given to my by Wolf Haven and learned elsewhere through books, documentaries, independent research, and my own experience volunteering and then working at Wolf Haven. The opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of Wolf Haven, unless expressly stated. Wolf Haven is not responsible for any of the content on this or any other section of my website. It is my hope that by having this content on my website that I will raise awareness of Wolf Haven and of the issues surrounding wolves in general. Any misinformation on these pages is entirely my responsibility, and not that of Wolf Haven. Further, it is impossible to speak in absolute terms when speaking of wolves; they don't "always" or "never" do anything - all things are possible.
Further, this page was written when I was a tour guide. I have since learned that much of this information is incomplete, and some of it is outright incorrect. I'm working to fix that in my "copious free time."
Wolf Haven Gallery - photos & videos.
Wolves are some of the most misunderstood animals of all time; instead of seeing the wolves' true nature, people have been conditioned over centuries to fear and hate this beautiful, caring creature. One of my missions in life is to educate the public about the wolf, its crucial role in nature, and the many issues clouding this species. The primary method I use in this endeavor is to work as an animal care specialist at a wolf rescue organization mentioned below, and the secondary method is this web page. I hope to introduce you to the wolves I know and love, as well as to the wolves in the wild. Once they enter your world, you may come to understand them, and even to love them.
This web page is already quite long. However, there is much more to come; I have so much I want to tell people about wolves! They are my passion, and I want to share them with everyone. My grandmother gave me a huge compliment when I called her on her birthday; she'd read this article, and she told me that she'd always feared wolves, but after reading this page, she said her fear began to diminish, and she could see the wolves through my eyes, and understood them better. That made me feel so good, to know that even people who have feared wolves for their entire lives of 75 years can overcome those fears when presented with the truth. I sometimes see this happening during my volunteer work, as well.
In August of 2002, I had the distinct pleasure of becoming a volunteer tour guide at Wolf Haven International, a wolf conservation organization based in Tenino, Washington. At least once every week, I drove down to spend the day educating the public about wolves and the issues surrounding them, and bonding with the sixteen wolves and two coyotes we have on tour. In January of 2003, I had the extreme fortune of becoming a full-time staff member at Wolf Haven as an office administrator. Then, in July, when the primary animal care specialist moved to another state, the fates smiled upon me once more, and I moved into animal care part-time. In May of 2004, I became full-time animal care, and am basically living my life-long dream of working with animals, and providing for their needs. I have many things I would like to say about my job as an animal caregiver, but first I want to go through and correct some of the things I wrote about earlier.
Here's a movie (about 2 megs) of Princess, one of our 12-year-old coyotes. It's a .mov format, so be sure you have a player such as QuickTime to view it, and there are other videos on the gallery page. In the mornings on my "hello" rounds, or whenever I go into the sanctuary by myself, Princess assumes her "stealth" position; when she hears me approaching, she'll hide in the shrubs at the leading edge of her enclosure, crouched down and ready to pounce. I walk up, and pretend not to see her, saying "where's Princess? Where's Princess?" Finally, she'll leap out of the bushes, and bound back and forth along the fence, inviting me to run back and forth with her (she also does this with other people at the sanctuary.) She'll keep it up longer than I can, running and jumping and wagging her tail, and she gets very excited when her prey runs and jumps and bounces along with her. The coyotes are the last stop on the tour, and generally aren't really social with the groups, but sometimes they come up to sniff folks. They can also be observed from the gift shop, through a large window.
The tours last about an hour, and cover everything from social behavior, hunting methods, political issues, anatomy and physiology, reintroduction projects and resistence to them, myth-busting, why wolves and wolf-dog hybrids are nearly impossible pets (only about 1 out of 100 wolves and hybrids work out as pets, and I'll go into that more later; but if you have had a wolf or wolf-dog hybrid as a successful pet, you are one of a very fortunate few,) and anecdotes about the wolves in the sanctuary. It's a great way to expose people to the truth about wolves, especially children; if we instill a love of wolves (or any other animals) in children when they are young, they will carry that love with them throughout their lives, rather than the fear or resentment they might pick up elsewhere. I feel that I am making an impact on people, and perhaps even on what will happen in the wolves' future. It is, without question, the most rewarding thing I have ever done.
Daily, people (educated, intelligent, wolf-loving people) say things to me that indicate how little the general public knows about wolves. One common misperception is that subspecies of the gray wolf, such as the Arctic or the Eastern Timber wolf, are different species entirely. Today, for instance, I had a guy tell me "Now I know the timber wolf is bigger than the gray wolf. We've got timber wolves in Montana, and they're a hell of a lot bigger." The gray wolf and the red wolf are the only two species on the North American continent. The gray wolf has 5 sub-species, the Arctic, the Tundra, the Eastern Timber, the Rocky Mountain/Plains, and the Mexican; you could line up all 5 of these subspecies shoulder to shoulder, and the only one you would be able to positively identify is the Mexi - it's smaller and much more reddish in color (to blend in with their desert environment.) The others are divided almost exclusively by where they live, not based on physical characteristics. Wolves in some areas can grow larger than in others, though, generally because prey is more abundant. The average adult male gray wolf is 80 - 100 pounds, nd the females run anywhere from 10 - 15% less, on average. However, in some areas such as Alaska and Yellowstone, where prey is very abundant, the wolves are averaging 125 - 135 pounds. The largest wolf killed weighed an incredible 173 pounds, and was trapped near the Yukon; this wolf was an anomaly, though, and we haven't seen another of that size.
Another common mistake is for people to think that all Arctic wolves are white; this isn't true. While statistically, the Arctic subspecies has the highest incidence of white wolves, they also have the highest instance of black wolves, and you can have black, white and gray wolves in the same litter. Further, Arctic animals are not so often white to aid with concealment; white hairs are mostly hollow, and are therefore more insulating in the colder temperatures of the far North. It comes in handy, though, that it helps the polar bears, snowshoe hares, and wolves blend in with their surroundings.
Helping people separate myth from reality is a big plus to being a tour guide. I also get to spend more than six hours in the sanctuary, and therefore a lot of time among the wolves. They are all in chain-link fence enclosures that have an eight-foot-high section, topped off by a three-foot tip-in, and there is also a three-foot underground skirt. Volunteers and visitors must also stay behind an additional short fence, which is about six feet away from the enclosures. Sadly, I am not allowed any physical contact with them, but this is understandable for obvious liability reasons. But I do get to talk to them, and "play" through the fence, and even with this limited interaction, I've formed really strong bonds with some of the wolves. A couple, they could pretty much take me or leave me, but those
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| My Teka-girl. Photo Julie Palmquist. |
Teka is, as of this writing, 7 years old, and is a very dominant, aggressive female. Most of the time, she walks with a limp on one of her front paws, which you can see in this short movie. I say "most of the time," because she is completely faking it. Wolves are whip-smart little buggers, with brains that are 33% larger than a German Shepherd's. A couple of years ago, Teka hurt her paw as she was tearing around her enclosure, and discovered that she got lots of extra treats and attention during that time. When she healed up, of course, the extra special stuff went away. Being the smart girl she is, she realized it was the limping that got the attention. Now, whenever there is a tour group in front of her enclosure, she limps pronouncedly. She limps most of the other times, too, if people are around, but if you watch her carefully for awhile, she forgets which paw she's supposed to be limping on, and will switch. Other times, she forgets entirely, and just walks or trots around completely normally. She's a very silly girl.
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| Teka howling. |
Her mate is Wolfie, a 4-year-old male wolf-dog hybrid. Wolfie is incredibly submissive, and this is a huge reason why Teka accepted him as a mate; she wouldn't have tolerated a mate who tried to dominate her in any way. Wolfie is a beautiful animal, but looks more like a German Shepherd than a wolf; his eyes are brown, and he has the Shepherd kind of coloring. We'll never know for sure what kind of dog he has in his genetic make-up, because at our current level of genetic technology, wolves and dogs are the same species; it isn't possible at this time to distinguish Wolfie's dog DNA from his wolf DNA. He is a very, very sweet animal, and tolerates Teka's bossing him around constantly with a very good nature.
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| The gorgeous Chinook. Photo Julie Palmquist. |
I try to impart how social a creature the wolf is during my tours - breaking all of the cold-hearted, unfeeling predator myths, letting people in on how gentle and nurturing the wolf truly is. Watching a wolf pack play together is one of the happiest things I can think of, topped only by watching the pack play with puppies. Wolves love puppies - they can't resist them! Each member of the pack raises the pups, plays with them, brings them food, disciplines them, and generally teaches them how to be wolves, and where they stand in the social structure.
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| The sweet & gentle Kiowa. Photo Julie Palmquist. |
On a lovely afternoon at the very end of October, I was taking the last tour group through the santuary; a young father, his 3-year-old daugher, and their very wolf-savvy friend. The little girl was exceptionally cute, and very well-behaved. She got a lot of attention from the wolves at most enclosures; they looked at her with enraptured eyes, very perked-up ears, and an expression of extreme interest. When we came to The Bachelor Pad (an enclosure with three seven-year-old brothers in it,) I was speaking about the Yellowstone disaster, and the little girl, a bit bored, started singing softly to herself, crouching on her haunches in that way that only very young chlidren can. Stormy, a huge, gorgeous black wolf with silver highlights, immediately trotted right in front of her, and stood looking at her, completely entranced. Then he invited her to play, something I've never seen Stormy do with a guest; he trotted back and forth in front of her, never taking his eyes off her, wagging his tail, play-bowing, with his head down and cocked to the side, a big huge relaxed grin on his face. It was absolutely adorable. Soon, his brother Sequoia became interested in what had Stormy so excited, and expressed interest, too. Sequoia and Cherokee, the other brother, are very shy animals, though, despite what the Wolf Haven website says; they aren't crazy about strangers, and tend to hide. But Stormy was absolutely beautiful, and we lingered in front of their enclosure for quite awhile, letting the little girl feel special, and making her dad feel like he had the bestest little girl in the world.
