My Day with the Wolves

Darth Canis · Post by **Darth Canis** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:06 pm

Hey guys just wanted to tell you guys about my experience this past weekend. I am in a teaching zoo program in florida and one of my friends in the program used to work at a zoo in panama city. There are a variety of animals there including sumatran tigers lions and wolves. They have two boys who were accidental births at another zoo and this zoo decided to acquire them. Let me just say these boys are beautiful and you could defiantely see the alpha omega bond between the two brothers. We volunteered in another parts of the zoo throughout the day and then in the afternoon we had the opportunity to work with the boys. My friend had raised these two since they were two months old let me just say they were amazing animals and acted very much like they were greeting long time pack members when they greeted us. We had a chance to walk them around the park even past the tigers which found them quite interesting as we passed the boys were not to keen on the tigers though and began to whine as we walked passed when the tigers were in pouncing position inside their enclosure. When we returned back to their enclosure we had the opportunity to go in and romp around with them a bit they were biting our pony tails and flopping on their backs for their bellys to be scratched. We then brought them out again so some of the public could pet them and see that wolves really aren't the scary animals they are made out to be. I have to tell you this was the part of the day that was the most enlightening. People were still terrified of these beautiful playful creatures and many children did not want to pet them at first afraid that they would bite them. (the wolves heads were facing away from the guests at all times to ensure that if they got nervous they wouldn't accidently hurt someone). As people toured the zoo i heard a few parents say to their children, "those are wolves like in the three little pigs". I can't beleieve these animals are still sterotyped hundreds of years after those horrible stories were written. Not only do people need to rethink the sterotypes of werewolves but real wolves still are bound by the sterotypes of hundreds of years ago..... Any way now the pictures

Me and Montana

Figarou · Post by **Figarou** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:58 pm

That was cool.

I love it when a wolf wants a belly rub.

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:06 pm

Yeah, wolves are extrodenary animals. i remember when i was in the 7th grade and we went to the zoo for a field trip. man i couldn't keep my eyes off of them. one looked at me with it's amber eyes, i just wanted to jump in there and be one of them.

forsaken_wolf · Post by **forsaken_wolf** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:12 am

The creepy part if there is a bunch of wolves they just stair at you which is cool cause i have a friend who has an uncle who owns a farm somewhere in swift current and he has bunch of animals not farm but wild animals which was cool cause me and him was pissing of a lynx while it was in it's cage and damn that thing was pissed. never wanna do that again maybe and plus it was cool watching a wolf killing a chicken which i was like "RIP
IT APART" and yea so thats about it.

Shadow Wulf · Post by **Shadow Wulf** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:51 am

That is awsome Canis, I wish I could do something like that. And the wolf is sooo cute for wanting a belly rub, I have got to save that pic.

By the way, what part of Florida were you in? I hope its near tampa.

Kirk Hammett · Post by **Kirk Hammett** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:53 am

We don't have any wolves over here at our zoo. I dont like zoos but if they have breeding programs, which ours does, then it's for a good cause.

We do, of course, have dingoes

wolfbound · Post by **wolfbound** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:49 pm

that is cool man.

Darth Canis · Post by **Darth Canis** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:19 pm

I am up here in Gainesville Florida Shadow, the zoo that i visited was in panama city up in the panhandle. Yeah kirk many people have mixed feeling about zoos, I myself did for awhile until I found the program i am in now. Really if you look at the expressions on the faces of little children as they gaze at animals they probably wouldn't have an opportunity to see elsewhere makes it all worthwhile. Basically zoos job is to win hearts for animals that is what we are all about. Sure there are some zoos out there that aren't top notch but those usually are AZA accredited (a very prudent accredidation system that ensures animals are getting daily enrichments among other things). Like one of my instructors always says I would rip down all the zoos in the world if i could if every young child had the oportunity to travel to anartica and africa to have the opportunity to check out these wonderful animals. Cuz take my word for it seeing animals on tv is no comparison to interacting with them yourself.