Wolf Intensive Weekend

Hello All!
This weekend I was lucky enough to attend a 3-day Wolf Intensive Weekend at Wolf Park in Battle Ground Indiana. It was pretty cool, but before I go into details I will provide a brief overview. So, here is wolf park:

I believe Wolf Park is approximately 75 Acres in total. The large red enclosure is where the main pack lives. Right now, the main pack consists of three males (Wolfgang, Reudi, Wotan) and one female (Dharma). Darma and Wolfgang are the parents of six puppies that were just born at the beginning of April. These puppies live in the enclosure that is highlighted in yellow. The enclosures highlighted in orange is jokingly referred to as the "retirement community", which is where older wolves go once they get too old to endure the rigors of the pack. Two coyotes (Twister and Willow) reside in the pink-highlighted enclosure, while two foxes (Ember and Devon) live in the enclosure highlighted in indigo. The empty circle is the location of the new education center which must have been added so recently that google earth isn't aware of it. They also have a few resident bison that live around the perimeter of the park.

Wolf Park was started in the 1970s by a Dr. Klinghammer with the goal of studying wolf ethology and educating the public about wolves. Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior. Wolf Farm started out with just two wolves. Nowadays, it is called Wolf Park and is home to 20 wolves. Besides hosting various researchers and their wolf-centered projects, Wolf Park also hosts seminars, howl nights, and many public wolf demonstrations.

The seminar I attended had a total of twenty attendees, ranging from people who simply loved wolves to dog trainers who were trying to gain a better understanding of wolf (and by extension, dog) behavior. There were several lectures a day, with breaks that included interacting with the adult wolves and even the wolf pups! The lectures covered things such as wolf physiology, ethology, mythology, safety, and recovery. I don't want to recap everything I learned, because it would be rather long and probably more than a little dry. So, I think I will just limit myself to three facts:
1) The presence of wolves can effect the trees in the ecosystem. This is not because wolves eat trees. In fact, the presence of wolves actually helps the trees due to a phenomenon known as a trophic cascade. Think about it for a moment. When you remove wolves from an ecosystem, the population of ungulates grows rapidly and noms all plant life in sight. Trees do not benefit from this over-nomming. Put wolves back into the system, and the population of elk is controlled. The young trees get a break from being pruned to death by elk teeth. This doesn't only pertain to trees. The whole ecosystem is thrown out of balance when any animal (but especially a predator like the wolf) is removed from an ecosystem. Here is a lovely little illustration demonstrating how reintroducing the wolf to Yellowstone changed (healed) the ecosystem:

2)Wolf heads are 30% larger than dog heads. This is basically because dogs don't need the large brains like wolves do. A brain is really expensive in terms of energy requirements, so if an organism doesn't need a big brain it doesn't have one. Dogs are fed by humans, with no need to hunt or take down prey. Wolves, on the other hand, need a big brain for hunting behavior and a big skull for taking down large prey.
3) Wolves will stop howling if they lose their hearing, but will continue to howl if blind or mute.

As interesting as these lectures were, my favorite part was going out and actually observing and interacting with the animals. I have a few photos, but the on-site photographer Monty Sloan took a whole bunch of photos and is sending a CD packed full of them to the participants. Also, wolves liked to nom cameras, and I didn't want to put Nick Canon (my camera) in danger. I will post a few of my photos now and then Monty's once I get the CD.

Dharma and Reudi

Wotan showing off "upsy pupsy"

PUPPIES!

Kiri, who is 19 years old

Woton posing

I came to an important realization while at Wolf Park. I was very conflicted about our interaction time with the wolves. Of course, I loved being able to go into an enclosure and touch a real wolf. It was absolutely amazing. But I also felt a little bit sad that they weren't wild wolves. After all, that's why we have dogs to pet and not wolves. If I did decide to go into wildlife biology, I'd like to study wild animals and then come home and pet my dog. I don't think I could work at a research facility, even one as nice as Wolf Park, because fences make me sad. In their defense, studying wolf behavior in wild wolves is incredibly difficult. These socialized wolves at Wolf Park provide researchers with the valuable opportunity to study wolf behavior up-close and personal. Hopefully this research will help uncover a better understanding of wolves that will in turn help the wild wolves.