Lakota Wolf Preserve 04.30.09

Today we took a trip to the Lakota Wolf Preserve (www.lakotawolf.com) to learn about these magnificent animals. The wolf has gotten a bad rep over the years. What with Little Red Riding Hood, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and assorted other fairy tales people are afraid of wolves. However, wolves would prefer to have nothing to do with us. There is not one documented case of a wolf attacking a person in the history of the United States. Most people have never seen a wolf and yet they are afraid. The wolf has been hunted and almost eliminated. That is why the wolf is an endangered animal.

We arrived outside the preserve. You can see a wolf in the background.

Showing off for the Humans.

This is the Omega of the pack. Her name is Raven. The shyest wolf is last in the pecking order of the pack. The people who run the preserve make sure she gets enough to eat.

They also have Bobcats and Foxes. It seems people get the bright idea to have Bobcats as pets. It does not work out so well.

2 Red Foxes. Even though the one is not red (they can be a few different colors) he is still a member of the red fox family. You can tell by the tail. Only the red fox has a white tipped tail.

We also got to listen to the wolves howl. We howled and they answered. Turns out each wolf has many different howls to make the pack sound larger then it is. That is one way to scare off a predator. They also do not howl at the moon. They tend to hunt at night and howl to communicate-hence the myth.