A Wolf Licked My Face! (Jen's too!)

edited March 2009 in General
Jen and I headed west from Colorado Springs to an area called Divide, CO. This is an area we are scoping out to move to in a few years - it's closer to the The Springs and we seem to go there a lot for the dogs.

Divide is a nice place... and....

They have a Wolf Sanctuary! It's called the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Rescue Center.

They are really nice there - just wonderful people. We paid for a basic tour but after talking to them a bit I paid to upgrade us to the "VIP tour". So we got to interact with the wolves!

We met with a male Timber Wolf and a male Arctic x Timber Wolf. There were 2 females in there too, they were a bit shy tho. One of the Timber Wolf females took treats from me tho - she was cute (tho she kinda bit my hand).

Anyway - these males liked every inch on Jen and my face... it was AMAZING!

Spam...

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Comments

  • edited November -1
    Saw these photos on flickr and was waiting to find out more from you. Looks like an awesome experience.
  • edited November -1
    Wow, that's an awesome experience!
    Those guys are really beautiful animals! And huge too!
  • edited November -1
    AWESOME!
  • edited November -1
    You have visited a place that I long to go to - great pics!
  • edited November -1
    wow! They look pretty big too.
  • edited November -1
    Amazing! Simply amazing... Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
  • edited November -1
    Just Awesome! Thanks for sharing the pictures : )

    Snf
  • edited November -1
    Holy Monkeys that looks crazy awesome! I'd be terrified though :P must've been quite an experience
  • edited November -1
    Yea, it was really awesome. They are huge - like a lot bigger than Luytiy. North American wolves are very large animals. The head of the Arctic x Timber Wolf was massive.

    A few things I noticed...

    Something that I found very interesting was that they interacted with us and moved more like our Caucasians Mountain Dogs than our Nihonken. But their behavior was more like Nihonken than our COs.

    If you shot a video of one of them walking and then compared it to L you would see very little difference - it would NOT really look like our Shikoku or Kai's movement - could just be the size of the animals tho.

    If you watched the way they interacted tho, with each other, and how they took treats and stuff like that, it was like seeing a huge version of Ahi or Loa. At one point they rubbed on a treat like the Shikas do and they howled/mooed like our Akita do. The noises they made were much more like our Nihonken than our COs.

    They would also growl at each other if they got to close, just like our Shikoku. They seemed to have a rigid rule structure for how close they could approach each other - just like Nihonken (and totally not like COs).

    It was interesting to see the difference.

    Another interesting thing: I am allergic to dog's saliva. So if a dog licked my face I would have a allergy attack - when the wolves did it (there was no stopping them) it didn't bother my allergies at all! Kinda intersing, huh?

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  • edited November -1
    I have a few more pics from the tour - they wouldn't let me use anything over 70mm to shoot with, so I used my 50mm... so the shots are not great due to the wire.

    Mexican Grey Wolves (2 brothers):
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    Female Arctic Wolf (howling in some pics):
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    Timber Wolves, Carpathian Wolf(dark one), & Rocky Mountain Wolves:
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    The cutest little foxes I have ever seen:
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  • edited November -1
    I wonder how much of their natural behaviour is molded by the interaction with humans.

    Here, close to Lisbon there's a sanctuary for Iberian Wolves than, for any reason, can't make it in the wild. Their interaction with humans is very limited, sometimes people go there and don't even see the wolves. I've seen a few photos of the guy that started the sanctuary a few years ago and the wolves just followed the guy around. Both it seems they only acted like that with him.

    About your allergies, it seems that the slight difference between wolves and dogs is enough not to make you react to their saliva. More impressive if you think that that difference should be almost nothing.
    What do they feed the wolves?
  • edited November -1
    Wow. They are amazing! Huge and so beautiful! There's a wolf sanctuary close to my house, I'll have to check out.
  • edited November -1
    So big!
  • edited November -1
    that looks like an amazing place. Do they have a website? How many wolves do they have?
  • edited November -1
    That is such an amazing experiance for you guys...

    It's very interesting the difference in 'language' wolves have than dogs. There's a wolfdog that comes to my dog park, and it's like he speaking french in a room full of germans(or something like that). Are the air about them is just amazing.

    I'm glad you guys had a great time
  • edited November -1
    Why the lens rule?
  • edited November -1
    Wow. That sounds like such an amazing and interesting experience. I am so very jealous.

    Those wolves definitely dwarfed Jen! But she looks so comfortable with them.

    And it is really interesting to hear that their personalities are rather similiar to the Nihon Ken.

    (I am ridiculously jealous...)
  • edited November -1
    That's so cool, Brad! Thanks for sharing. :)
  • edited November -1
    Wow Brad!!! that must have been an awesome experience! They are really beautiful animals! That is really interesting what you observed - and the no allergic reaction to wolf saliva is pretty cool!
  • edited November -1
    Amazing! That is something I would love to do someday...
  • edited November -1
    That's amazing Brad! I bet that's something you'll remember for the rest of your life. They are such incredible creatures.

    They are all stunning, but I especially like the Mexican Grey's.

    I'm also curious about the lens restrictions.
  • edited November -1
    omigosh! foxes, too!

    I can't believe how close you are allowed to get - do they only have certain wolves OK with human (stranger!) interaction? At the wolf sanctuary in PA (about 2.5hrs from me) they do not let you interact with any, and have a double fence just in case.
  • edited November -1
    The one over here has a double fence, which is electrical in one of the sides.
    According to the story I read, the wolves would literally have fun pushing a rolling boulder down a hill to watch the effect it would produce.
  • edited November -1
    Incredible photos!! Thank you for sharing your experience here, I'm just stunned that they allowed you to have a one on one experience, that's just amazing and beautiful!! These animals are so mis-understood that I'm glad they have this type of educational program. Wow...I'm just mezmerized by the pics!!!
  • edited November -1
    I guess the lens restriction is so they can make money off their own photography. With the VIP pass I probably could have used my larger lens but the VIP upgrade was like a last minute deal.

    At first I was very disappointed, I could have got some amazing shots - but then I kinda understood.... they are a nonprofit so they have to protect their income.

    It made me wish I had a 24-70mm for the trip. hmmm.

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  • edited November -1
    That makes sense.
  • edited November -1
    Oh yea, they only allow you to interact w/ 4 of the wolves there - they have like 20 total. These wolves were very used to it, they walk right up to you and lick your face... they clearly have had only good interactions with humans.

    The white Arctic Wolf x Timber Wolf one was a big male - the "alpha"... he is apparently not very predictable and usually is left out. He was in there but being handled by the owner and kept away from us... then he started to show interest in Jen so she let him investigate - from there on he wouldn't leave Jen a lone. He loved her. She got a bit close to his face while petting him and he gave a very subtle growl, so Jen [being so used to this type of thing] just moved to his side and pet him there... I think he understood that Jen respected him. He came up to me too, but we were the only ones he would interact with. Then he stole my treat bag, ate all the treats, then peed on it. LOL.

    They had double fences in places and electric all around. The fences where 8 - 10 feet high... they had a lot of nice things there, they really put a lot of thought into the facility. The wolves looked so happy and comfortable. I spent more time taking pics of their setup than I did the wolves as it gave us great ideas for our setup...

    Like these dens:
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    Made from cinder blocks and stacking stones. They said the wolves only use them in the summer to keep cool - what a freaking perfect idea! I plan to make a few here for the pups in the summer.

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  • edited November -1
    Wow. That is really cool. (Still super jealous!)

    Everyone in my lab just stopped and looked at me because I laughed at your "Then he stole my treat bag, ate all the treats, then peed on it." Not so sure they would all find it funny. :)

    Jen is the REAL dog whisperer. It seems that every canine creature she meets falls in love with her... including gigantic wolves!
  • edited November -1
    "Then he stole my treat bag, ate all the treats, then peed on it. LOL."

    Sounds very Shiba like if you ask me.
  • RyuRyu
    edited November -1
    That is the coolest thing I've heard/seen in a very long time! That's awesome Brad!

    And I agree - Jen is a vampire and a dog whisperer :D
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