One of the places Miss D. and I visited during our recent journey was the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center. It's in the mountains about an hour's drive from Colorado Springs, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet (and yes, we were puffing and panting even getting out of the car! When you live at only a few hundred feet above sea level, the rapid transition to a place fifteen times higher in altitude is enervating, to say the least!)
The Wolf Center came across as a little radical-environmentalist, somewhat pro-wolf without taking into consideration the needs of overall game management and other interests, but very dedicated and committed to what they're doing. (Miss D. being from Alaska, and yours truly being from Africa, we have a rather more pragmatic and realistic approach to such things.) Given that wolves really are an endangered species, we probably need more such people, and more such centers, to ensure that they survive.
One thing that tickled both our funnybones was their advertised Hallowe'en celebration. Here's their advertising poster. (Click it for a larger view.)
Yes, they fill pumpkins with raw meat and pass them out to the wolves! That's definitely one of the more original Hallowe'en celebrations I've come across . . . and a handy-dandy fund-raiser for them, too. Full marks for originality!
The Wolf Center is worth a visit, if you're in the area. Just watch that altitude!
Peter
5 comments:
The amusing part is that wolves are not endangered. They are classified as "Least Concern" and their population is robust and stable. They remain protected in several states but that's largely due to environmentalist lobbying.
Rusty, the wolf population isn't robust everywhere. I've seen what "management" can do.
Yeah, and in our state they are killing sheep and cattle, not to mention the wildlife. They just don't seem to understand that they have to stay in their boundry that the fish & game set up for them. Well, golly gee.
Deborah, this is one of those "tough to have it both ways" issues. Man has displaced the wolf as apex predator but the wolf has not conceded.
This is something I would Love to see. -grin-
"They are classified as "Least Concern" and their population is robust and stable."
Hmmm, One of the only places where I know of where they are "robust and stable" is waaay up north. Here in the lower 48, not so much. Even less so in Europe. ;-)
I would be less skeptical of those claims if I didn't know that most of them are coming from pacs that seem to want the wolves wiped off the face of the planet. [That said, I will give the ranches a bit more leeway than the hunters. At least they are trying to protect their property.]
They are G_d's creatures too and I believe they do have the right to live. (Yeah, I'm one of the fruitloops that thinks "dominion" over the animals doesn't mean the right to drive them to extinction.)
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