Visit to Wolf Park

My 8 year old nephew, Michael, is a wolf nut. This kid is a future Steve Irwin, he's addicted to animal channel and all national geographic stories on animals. But his favorite is the gray wolf. So I did some research and found this incredible park in central Indiana that studies them and has several gray wolves housed there. They are reared to not be afraid of people, which makes their handling more humane. Of course, that's with their handlers and NOT the general public. They are in enclosures but you can see them quite up close as is safe. Even though they seem really tame and love to show off near the fence line, these are wild animals. When you go with a guide on a tour, you must leave all food off your person, so as to not excite the wolves. Their sense of smell is that strong! If you get a chance, take kids or go yourself. Its an amazing place and the folks are very dedicated to their jobs and obviously love the animals they care for. They also house several foxes, an elderly coyote named Wild Bill and some singing dogs on loan to them. They also have a herd of bison for studying the wolves hunting in packs. But don't worry, these bison are healthy and no harm is done to them. Its called Wolf Park and is near the Tippecanoe battlefield. If you want to check out the progress of the wolves, visit their picture of the day - by the park's photographer - Monty Sloan. You can also purchase his photos, which are wonderful. The park also has seminars throughout the year as well as learning camps for kids. They have a great gift shop where I purchased several wolf t-shirts and stuffed animals for my charges. On most Friday and Saturday nights, they also have howl night which is great fun. They teach you how to howl properly and then that gets the wolves going. I attempted to film it, but my little camera didn't flash good enough and those photos were too dark.

I took Michael along with his siblings, 11 year old Rachel and 6 year old Mathias. It was nearly 800 miles each way and it gave us an opportunity to break in my brand new Honda pilot. We spent 2 days there and on the way back stopped off at Hershey Park, PA for some fun at the amusement park. Rachel is quite the daredevil and insisted on going on each and every rollercoaster! Thankfully for her, I LOVE them. My younger sister their mother gets motion sickness on them. A good time was had by all and I've promised Michael a trip to Yellowstone in a few years when he's old enough to hike it, to see wild wolves and other animals. All these photos were taken with my Kodak 3600digital camera. I also took a few small movies with it.

Here's some movies from my little web camera - they are in Windows Media player format.