2008 Woodie Awards
Students howl the night away with Mission:Wolf
Robert Preliasco
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
10/26/07 - University of Rhode Island students are used to spending their crazy college nights howling at the moon. However, last night, members of the URI community had the chance to learn from a master - an actual wolf.
Wildlife workers from Mission: Wolf brought Magpie, a gray wolf, and Abraham, a puppy who is probably a dog-wolf mix, to a sold-out demonstration in Independence Auditorium.
Handler Kent Weber began the presentation by telling the audience about the rapid decline of the wolf population in North America. He said that gray wolves once roamed the entire continent, from the East coast, to the Great Plains, to the Rocky Mountains.
Weber said that because of conflicts with humans, their numbers fell so sharply that when he was growing up, he was told that wolves would become extinct during his lifetime.
"We're terrified of these animals," he said, explaining the reasons why wolves are so aggressively hunted by humans. "And what do we do with things we're afraid of? We destroy them."
Soon it was time for the wolves to appear, and when they did, the audience's reaction was immediate. Apparent on the faces of people young and old was the emotion that Weber said he sees in the thousands of people the wolves visit each year.
"We watch it change people. They get over the fear and gain the respect," he said.
And there is plenty to respect about Magpie and Abraham. Like all healthy wolves, they can run 40 miles a day, jump over an 8-foot-tall fence and eat a watermelon to the rind in 60 seconds. Weber said that at the height of the wolf population at the Mission:Wolf reserve in Colorado, 52 wolves consumed 2,000 pounds of raw meat every week.
Mission: Wolf is a non-profit program that was co-founded by Weber and fellow handler Tracy Brooks 19 years ago. Their goal is to help reintroduce wolves into the wild and also provide a home for wolves that otherwise would have been in captivity.
The Ambassador Wolf Program takes Magpie - recently joined by Abraham - on a tour of the country, visiting classrooms, museums, nature preservation groups, businesses and even the U.S. Congress.
Wildlife workers from Mission: Wolf brought Magpie, a gray wolf, and Abraham, a puppy who is probably a dog-wolf mix, to a sold-out demonstration in Independence Auditorium.
Handler Kent Weber began the presentation by telling the audience about the rapid decline of the wolf population in North America. He said that gray wolves once roamed the entire continent, from the East coast, to the Great Plains, to the Rocky Mountains.
Weber said that because of conflicts with humans, their numbers fell so sharply that when he was growing up, he was told that wolves would become extinct during his lifetime.
"We're terrified of these animals," he said, explaining the reasons why wolves are so aggressively hunted by humans. "And what do we do with things we're afraid of? We destroy them."
Soon it was time for the wolves to appear, and when they did, the audience's reaction was immediate. Apparent on the faces of people young and old was the emotion that Weber said he sees in the thousands of people the wolves visit each year.
"We watch it change people. They get over the fear and gain the respect," he said.
And there is plenty to respect about Magpie and Abraham. Like all healthy wolves, they can run 40 miles a day, jump over an 8-foot-tall fence and eat a watermelon to the rind in 60 seconds. Weber said that at the height of the wolf population at the Mission:Wolf reserve in Colorado, 52 wolves consumed 2,000 pounds of raw meat every week.
Mission: Wolf is a non-profit program that was co-founded by Weber and fellow handler Tracy Brooks 19 years ago. Their goal is to help reintroduce wolves into the wild and also provide a home for wolves that otherwise would have been in captivity.
The Ambassador Wolf Program takes Magpie - recently joined by Abraham - on a tour of the country, visiting classrooms, museums, nature preservation groups, businesses and even the U.S. Congress.