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 Wolves are not vegetarians, and neither are most of you." That got a laugh out of the kids I was teaching about wolves and set a good mood for the rest of my time as an instructor for the Wilderness Awareness School through the Wolf Education & Research Center.
That week we were going to be tracking animals in the Frank Church Wilderness, and while we all were excited to be out in the wilderness, looking at animals and searching for the signs they left behind as they traveled, we were especially anticipating finding signs of wolves.
After my talk to them about wolves, none of them seemed to have any real fear of wolves, but they had probably never actually had a real fear of wolves and were all very open minded.
Wolves are less dangerous than mountain lions, bears, and even deer, yet people are still afraid of them. Dogs may get the prize for attacking the most humans as far as non-human animals go: every year in the U.S., 5 million people, or about 1 out of 50, are bitten by a dog, and 10-15 people are killed by dogs.
I'm from Minnesota, where wolves never went extinct, and they are essentially a non-factor in most people's minds. They don't attack people and the damage they cause to the deer and moose populations, as well as the livestock, is minimal to insignificant. But the kids I was with were all well informed and weren't afraid of wolves.
The kids and I really hoped to see wolves or at least hear them even, but that never happened. For us, it was exciting enough that we eventually did find wolf tracks and took a few casts of large wolf prints. None of us really expected to see wolves but we would have all liked to.
We saw two black bears during the trip, and that was great, but it really makes you think about how wolves live at higher densities than black bears and yet are seen by people less frequently. They really are elusive animals. Thus it was that amid a week of hiking, singing songs, and kids throwing rocks as heavy as they could lift into a roaring river that awe was found in thinking about the lives of the creatures we tracked and how lucky we were to be able to walk in their footsteps.
Chiji Ochiagha, Summer 2007 Intern
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This area is devoted to the memoirs of those dedicated, and slightly crazy, individuals who live in Wolf Camp. A rustic setting devoid of electricity, plumbing, and phone service, camp is located just outside the pack's enclosure and residents live in tents year round. The Wolf Center's resident biologist and typically 2-4 interns inhabit the remote camp to ensure the welfare and security of the pack every day and night, regardless of the weather or danger. Such a life provides a deep insight into the pack's life and essentially causes the Wolf Camp residents to live in harmony with the other forest inhabitants. Life in Wolf Camp is nothing less than an adventure. These are our words. 