MUZZLE TO MUZZLE IV

Sunday 20th June 1999, and I set off for Brockhurst School near Reading to attend the UKWCT 1999 Conservation Seminar, an event similar to the one I attended two years earlier where I met the two wolves Kodiak and Kenai for the very first time. However this seminar would be slightly different as it wasn't all wolves...

After a brief stint as car parking attendants, we gathered with the rest of the seminar attendees in the school hall for the first speaker of the day. This was to be Dr Graham Welstead on the subject of "The Fall and Fall of the Barn Owl", and detailed the recent decline of the Owls and other birds of prey in the UK. While the common conception is that the Barn Owl has declined due to the reduction in suitable habitat, recent research has found that most of the birds are being killed off by traffic. The birds like to find somewhere to perch and then swoop down onto their prey, unfortunately this same technique means that they're vulnerable to traffic as they swoop down low over the ground. As a result birds can no longer be released into the wild near major roads, and also their potential food sources need to be closely examined. Despite this new knowledge, the future still looks bleak for the Barn Owl.

The second speaker turned out to be Ian Redman from Wolf Help, who gave the presentation "Savage Freedom... Wolves on the Hunt" two years ago at my first seminar. This time it was "The Wolves of Denali", a presentation inspired by a book of the same name. Using slides and video footage, it showed in detail the predator/prey dynamics of the wildlife around Mount McKinley, and also touched upon the research work going on there. As always it was very informative.

After lunch it was time to split in the groups to visit the Wolves and some of Graham's birds of prey. I was looking forward to this part the most because I knew that Luna, one of the European Wolves at the UKWCT, had given birth to six cubs at the beginning of May. Sadly two had died, one of a cleft palate and one appeared to have been rolled on. But that left four very healthy and active cubs. One of the surviving cubs called Luana was given to Paradise Wildlife Park while the remaining three, one male and two females, are being raised by the UKWCT. They were named Alba, Lunca, and Letea. Based on my previous experience with the Timberwolf cubs, I suspected we might get the chance to meet them, and I wasn't to be disappointed. As before we gathered in a circle on the lawn around the three European wolf cubs, and were given the chance to interact with them.

The wolf cubs were the first European Wolf cubs to be born in the UK for 700 years. They were about six weeks old when I got to see them, so they were older than the Timberwolf cubs I saw last year. As a result they were slightly bigger, more co-ordinated, and a lot more energetic! I was seriously wolfed by them, and even got a slight scratch on the chin from one of Alba's claws. It's was a full moon the following night, but sadly nothing happened.;) Alba, the one wearing the red collar, was much more aggressive and dominant than the other two cubs. He was a serious handful and was constantly seeing if he could slip past people, and I worry that he could prove a problem once he's big enough to push people out of the way. But despite the two females being tolerant of his behaviour, once he pushed to far they'd let him know about it!

When the two groups swapped over it was our turn with the birds of prey that Graham had brought with him to display, along with a litter of mischievous white ferrets. The birds which were mainly hawks were very impressive especially the Red-Tailed Hawk, which was rather distracted by something moving around in the bushes. Sadly because of a recent illness of Graham's he was unable to fly them so the birds were well fed and not hungry. This causes a problem as birds that aren't hungry tend not to return, or sit in a tree with their back to you. Obviously this is not a desirable outcome, especially with birds that are not native to this country.

Eventually it was time to walk with the timberwolves Kenai and the two cubs from last year, Duma and Dakota. Sadly Kodiak still feels rather "grumpy" around people and no longer attends any of the shows. Hopefully this won't be permanent, but I fear it will take more than hope.

Duma was most enchanting. We were walking them through some overgrown grassland near a lake in the school grounds, and all of a sudden she stuck her nose into a clump of grass and started rooting around. She seemed to give up and just started rolling around in the patch of grass, but then she started snuffling around again, to be greeted by a rather loud *squeak* from the undergrowth which caught her completely by surprise. After gathering up her composure she started rooting through the grass again to be rewarded by yet another squeak, but alas her handler felt sympathy for the squeaky thing and dragged her away. But you really get a sense of their personalities when you see how they react to something like that.

The final event for the day was a presentation by Steve Sampson from Paradise Wildlife Park about "Project Lifelion". The aim of the project is the preservation of lions in the Serengeti, by implementing a mass vaccination program of the 30,000 domestic dogs who are spreading the Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) across to wild carnivores. It has killed over 1,000 lions, yet since the vaccination program started in 1994 the number of cases of CDV has declined dramatically and the lion populations has already increased back to pre-epidemic levels.

And with that, ended the Seminar. I was disappointed that Sue Hull wasn't there with her Husky, or that the London Police Dog Handlers weren't there either, but other than that I was yet another wonderful moment with the wolves, and something I will never tire of.