![]() ![]() And if man believes in nature, we can survive. ![]() ![]() He laughs as Luna takes a vole he offers her. He says the education work the center does with animals like Luna is crucial as increasing numbers of humans lose direct contact to the natural world. Kroschel set up a faux den, so Luna would feel at home, and Olerud offers her a vole dangling from the end of a stick. If you look it up wolves in the wild with five or six years in captivity, 15 years or more,” said Kroschel.ĭave Olerud is feeding Luna today. Like this is going to probably double our lifespan. “Giving her this bonding with human beings like with Dave. They’re among a number of locals who visit her. Haines residents Dave and Charlotte Olerud visit the center weekly to interact with the pup. So I grew up with wolves and bears and all that sort of thing.”īut Kroschel isn’t the only human who spends time with Luna. “So I grew up on a farm with my folks and grandparents bringing in orphaned animals from Alaska, northern Canada. “I’ve been working with wolves since I was in diapers,” he said. Kroschel has a lifetime working with wolves. Kroschel speaks to Luna in a high pitched voice and makes enthusiastic vocalizations that don’t make much sense to most humans, but do engage the young wolf. And and that to the wolf’s mind is a tail wagging,” he explains. “Now when I’m working with wolves, I always exaggerate all my emotions, you know, my hand is going like this in these circular motions like this. She was born to those research wolves in captivity in the lower-48. Luna is wearing a black nylon collar today because she’s outside of the large verdant enclosures that house the animals at the wildlife center. He says her parents were taken out of the wild for research near Utqiagvik. That pure wild wolf bloodline is something that Kroschel wants to preserve. It’s probably got a little bit of dog in it,” he said. So when you go to a zoo, and they say, here’s a wolf, you can’t be sure that that is a true wolf. “Very few real wolves in the wild anymore. She’s sandy colored with an awkward puppy sway in her step. She eats about two pounds of meat like this a day. Ten week old Luna, a wolf pup descended from a wild Alaska pack, is chewing on a small vole. But he has a new resident to keep him busy. COVID-19 meant operator Steve Kroschel had to cancel the tours that bring up to ten thousand visitors a year to his center. Usually there would be a couple bus loads of tourists at the center to learn about the wolves, foxes, wolverines and bears that live here. It’s a quiet year without tourists at the Kroschel Wildlife Center at Mosquito Lake-except for the vocalizations from some arctic foxes. Luna, a wolf pup, explores at the Kroschel Wildlife Center. The young wolf will have a job at a local wildlife center, teaching people about the wilderness. An arctic wolf pup that was born in captivity in the lower-48 moved to an Alaska facility this summer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |