Wolf Heaven Field Trip Report, NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!

For my Biology class I was required to take a field trip on my own time to any one location on a specified list. I had to write a one page report on what I learned. This is what I turned in. Since it’s relevant I thought you guys might enjoy it.

Tenino Wolf Haven Field Trip:

The Tenino Wolf Haven is a sanctuary that houses 46 wolves over 88 acres. Founded in 1982 and funded through donations, the Wolf Haven’s purpose is to educate people, and to preserve and reintroduce the wolves. The Wolf Haven is now privately owned, and funded through adoptions (sponsorships), admissions, and their own gift shop. Most of the workers are volunteers.

Wolves are hardly a threat to people. To date not a single person has died from a result of a wolf attack. Cougars and Bears account for the majority of livestock deaths, yet with only 50,000 wolves in U.S. more then 1500 permits to shoot wolves are given out each year. Wolves have always been disliked by ranchers but the true stigmata attached to wolves as well as all the grim stories surrounding wolves can be traced back to the Black Plague times when dead villagers were dug out of their graves and eaten by wolves.

The primary food source for wolves is ungulates, a hoofed animal. Wolves have great lung capacity that allows for long drawn out hunts, and also have longer legs then most domestic dogs which allows for great stride. A wolf will often bite the hind leg of it’s prey and then allow it to escape. The next day, the wolf tracks his pray again, by now the wolfs bite has festered and the pray will be unable to put up much of a fight. The wolf then clamps down on the muzzle or bites the throat to suffocate the pray.

All breeds of canine are descended from wolves. The earliest evidence of the domestication of dogs comes from 60,000 years ago. The easiest way to tell a wolf apart from a dog is that all wolves have gold eyes. Wolves also have larger brains then most dogs; a wolf’s brain is 50% larger then a German Shepherds.

A wolf’s senses are highly developed. A wolf can hear things from six miles away, and has a sense of smell hundreds of times stronger then that of a humans.

Wolves are very intelligent, they often reserve special howls for special occasions, for example, there is a type of howl wolves only give when there mate dies, which is the only howl which other wolves will not join in. Wolves have also developed a symbiotic relationship with ravens. When a raven spots potential wolf prey the raven will caw and alert the nearby wolf pack to it’s presence. Once the wolves have killed and eaten the prey the raven’s will feast on the remains. It has also been observed at the Wolf Haven that wolves will feign injury to get attention from their care takers. Wolves also communicate with each other through facial expressions and body language.

The wolves were kept in large pens with lots of room, grass, trees, shady spots, and spots where they could go if they did not want to be seen. The edge of the pens were lined with gravel, which we were told went three feet underground to prevent the wolves from digging out. There was usually two wolves per pen; the caretakers were careful only to put wolves together that behave well together.

Ninety percent of the animals at Wolf Haven were gray wolves, but there was also a pair of red wolves, which were about 2/3 the size of the gray wolves and were thought to have originated from gray wolves cross breeding with coyotes. There was also two coyotes on display and they were much smaller then either the gray or red wolves.

No pups are born at Wolf Haven, it is strictly a sanctuary for wolves that have been taken from zoos and owners that could no longer afford to keep them.

During my visit I was privileged to hear the wolves all howl at once. The coyotes actually started the howl and the others followed. A wolf can howl for any reason, sometimes just seeing something exciting like a butterfly float by will start a howl.

Wolves generally live about twelve years in the wild, but at Wolf Haven the average life span is doubled.

Thank you so much fot sharing that with us Enumclaw. I really enjoyed reading it and learned some things that I did not know. Your report is very well written and the content is fabulous. Thanks again for sharing it.

great report kutos thanks for sharing

Wonderfull to read Enum, very well writen and founded. I even learnd a bit, i didnt knew there were crossbreeds between Wolfs and Coyotes possible. But i knew some of the other stuff allready - still very nice!

Thank you very much for sharing!

Did you know that last weekend they had a Howl-In at Wolf Heaven.. I was going to go but had other things come up.

Why thankies gentlmen.

I don't know what a howl in is, but I probably wouldn't have made it. It's a bit of a drive down to the Wolf Haven.

Wow, that was very intresting. Did they tell you about all of this on the tour?

I am going to have to go dig up there website.

That was really cool and interesting man, thanks for sharing!

:lol: That part made me laugh!

That actually came straight from the tour guides mouth. :lol: Thanks for reading. :)

Got a area simular to that in Algonquin National Park here in Ontario, got under 500 wolves that can only be found over a huge forrest area. Since it is a national park it isn't uncommon to hear them as they have grown accustomed to the sounds and smells of humans near their portion of the park, and in some cases they will anwser you if you howl out to them. The sad thing is that even though protected, their numbers are dwendling, and with some packs as big as 23 wolves, disease can wipe out a big chunk of the population very easily. Also you have hunters who purposly kill these animals for their furs and even for sport. Sometimes I feel sick about the idea of losing these animals cause I spent a week alone in their woods, and they never once disapproved of it.

This post has been edited by Silvermane on Sep 7 2004, 09:26 AM