Evening With Wolves

I went with friends to Lititz, Pennsylvania for the "Full Moon Tour" of the Wolf Sanctuary there. The moon turned out to be an afterthought. It was a night to learn about wolves and to lose the many myths associated with them.

The sanctuary's volunteer staff is extremely knowledgable and speaks of each wolf as one would a well-loved family pet. They told us things like how people donate dog food to the place, but the wolves often just pee on it. Road-killed deer are often brought in and the wolves eat all but the hide and antlers. The bones are eaten easily "like potato chips." Wolves have twice the bite-power of the toughest dog (1500 p.s.i.) and it's easy for them. Once a deer was fed to the wolves and it turned out to be pregnant, which fortunately didn't freak out the children watching it.

There is a 4-ft fence in front of the public area, then the staff-only strip, then an 8-ft fence, then the wolf enclosure. There is a completely seperate enclosure for each pack. The government requires a shelter in each enclosure but no wolf has ever entered one, even when old or ill, or in the deepest freeze of winter.

Wolves will kill another wolf, or a dog or cat, who trespasses on their turf, but they will not eat them. As for people and bears, those are above them on the food chain and avoided by wolves in the wild. Pigs give wolves the runs.

A large portion of the night was spent hearing about the social lives of wolves. They form packs, and it's very complicated for a pack to take on a new member.

Wolves think no more about the full moon than anyone else, perhaps less. They're more into smells than images. They can smell things up to three miles away, and they sniff the air rather than the ground.

I can't remember a more interesting evening than this one I spent visiting wolves!