The California Wolf Center

I DIDN'T ride my bike today... because I was visiting the California Wolf Center (outside of Julian - perhaps one hour east of San Diego).

If you haven't been, I would recommend it. The Mexican Grey Wolf - brought from the brink of extinction with only 7 bloodlines left... and now there are several hundred in the wild and many more secure breeding lines established.

Did you know the Grey Wolf has naturally re-entered the state of California in 2011 (single individual) and now there is a single pack established in Northern Cal?

When I hear about elk re-introduced in North Carolina for the first time since the 1700's... and a slow recovery of the Eastern Red Wolf... there may be hope for us all.

BTW this is NOT a zoo. This is a species breeding and release program. I recommend you go on Mondays or Fridays. These are wild wolves. We were fortunate today because the weather was cold and we had a small group of 7. They were curious and came close to the fence... sniffed... and then they were gone. This particular enclosure is 2 acres. The wolves that are being prepared for release to the wild are not even seen by the public.

 

Very cool!
I know the story of how Yellowstone was turned around by the reintroduction of the Wolf back into its habitat. Nature has a plan, we just got to quit mucking with it!

 

We went wolf-watching in Yellowstone last summer. It was very cool. Alpha female had a den with pups and in the evening she would come down to feed with the pack. They would howl to call to each other as they would move to meet up. We got set up along the one road in the area, and when the wolves started to move, the rangers cut off all traffic at both ends of the road so the female would have several miles to cross the road without cars and wouldn't get spooked by the car traffic. We just stood there in the middle of Yellowstone with a small group and a ranger on an (temporarily) abandoned road, listening to the wolves in total solitude. It was really cool.

The bison kept messing with us though. They kept walking up to us to see what was going on, and we had to keep getting into the cars for safety. Bison are dumb as rocks, but they are still cool to look at.

 

Did I mention that there were a lot of friggin' bison in Yellowstone? Can't say that I saw any wolf impact, LOL.



They had to fence in some of the trees because the elk were eating them all. Since the reintroduction of wolves, the elk population is down... but it is a smaller, much healthier population. Still saw plenty of elk all over the north half of the park. Can't imagine what it must have been like before wolves.

 

Bison meet wolf, from a trip a couple years ago... Injured bison was getting nipped at, but was still too strong and dangerous for the wolves to take it down. Hence the standoff...



Of course there was a wee crowd gathered in anticipation of carnage

 

Worth watching if you haven't seen it before

 

I haven't seen the video before, but they covered this exact topic at the wolf center. Thank you for sharing it!