Wolf pays visit to Bigfork Elementary class
By SUE ELLISON
Bigfork Eagle
Centuries-old fairy tales and modern cinema have portrayed the wolf as big, bad and a character to be feared, but wolf wrangler and storyteller Bruce Weide says that kind of fame wolves can live without.
“They do not eat little girls in red hoods and they don’t eat their grandmothers, either,” Weide told third and fourth graders at Bigfork Elementary School last week. “We tell stories not just to entertain ourselves but also to teach lessons.”
The lesson in “Little Red Riding Hood,” Weide said, is that moms tell their girls to stay on the path and don’t talk to strangers.
“The story is not warning us to stay away from wolves dressing up as grandmothers. It’s about obedience and discipline,” he said.
Weide and his wife, wildlife biologist Pat Tucker, founded Wild Sentry, the Northern Rockies Ambassador Wolf program, in 1991 to dispel the myth of the big bad wolf and to support reintroduction of the gray wolf in habitat where wolves roamed before they were wiped out by civilization.
“In 1930, we managed to kill the last wolves in Montana,” Tucker told the students. “We tend to kill what we fear.”
Tucker and Weide are the human half of the Wild Sentry troupe that travels to schools in areas where wolf reintroduction and protection may be possible. The other half is made up of Koani, an 11-year-old gray wolf, and her mixed-breed canine companion Indy. After Weide and Tucker entertain and instruct students on legend versus reality, Koani and Indy are brought into the classrooms, where the children can visually compare and contrast the features of the animals, including their social skills.
At Thursday’s presentation, Indy-wagging his tail and sporting a red neck bandanna-wandered into the classroom independently and immediately headed for the children and their attentions. Once black, the graying Koani entered hesitantly at Tucker’s side. On a leash Tucker held with a firm grip, Koani stood and looked around the room, her tail tucked down against her leg. Tucker pointed out the difference in the way dogs and wolves carry their tails.
“Koani is socialized but she’s still a wild animal,” Tucker said, explaining that socialized wolves are bad dogs but great wolves. “We’ve spent hundreds of hours getting her used to being with people. Taking her for a walk is like trying to walk a 100-pound cat on a leash. She has a mind of her own. Wolves can’t be taught to obey commands.”
While the Wild Sentry program challenges wolf stereotypes, it stresses the wolf as a symbol of all things wild and acknowledges that wolves are dangerous.
“Coyotes and bears also kill livestock, but we’re not as afraid of them,” Tucker said. “Wolves sometimes kill cows and sheep, but a lot of wolves live close to them and don’t kill them. Native Americans saw wolves as animals to respect. They saw how they worked together as a pack to bring down animals much larger than themselves.”
Tucker said losing livestock to wolves is a financial and emotional loss, but like the varied colors of “gray’ wolves, the issue is “not all black and white. There are shades of gray.”
Koani-named for the Blackfeet word “play”-was born in captivity with four other wolf pups. A filmmaker asked Weide and Tucker to raise and “socialize” her for her part in an ABC documentary about wolves. With filming complete, the couple faced a choice of euthanizing Koani or creating an organization where her social skills could be put to work as an ambassador for wolves.
Now 11, Koani has traveled the country and visited more than 20,000 school children each year for the last several years. With Indy, she has appeared in several network and public television documentaries. Koani lives in a naturally landscaped one-acre double fenced enclosure with a water spring. She can visit Weide and Tucker in their home anytime by means of a 40-foot tunnel connecting her enclosure with a small one in the house living room.
In the classroom, Koani ably demonstrated some behavior shared by wolves and dogs that shows a genetic link. Tucker placed a dab of hand soap on a piece of paper towel and put it on the floor for Koani to explore. First, she tore at the paper with her paws and teeth, then rolled on it to get the scent on her fur.
“She tries to get the scent on her neck,” Tucker said. “If she was in a pack, when she went back the other wolves would smell her neck and that tells the others what’s in the neighborhood.”
Teacher Johanna Bangeman volunteered to allow Koani to show her “greeting behavior.” When Bangeman knelt down and put her face close to Koani’s, the wolf signaled friendship by sniffing and then licking Bangeman’s face.
“Dogs use that same wolfish behavior when they lick your face. They’re looking for attention. It’s a leftover trait from their ancestors,” Tucker said. She explained that when a wolf mother returns to the den after feeding, the pups lick all around her mouth to make her regurgitate food for them.
Weide and Tucker cautioned the children about the dangers of taking a hybrid wolf for a pet.
“Fifty percent of them are dead before the age of two,” Tucker said, adding that when inherent wild wolf behavior begins to surface, many owners have the hybrids put to sleep. “Koani was submissive until she was one and a half, then she started pushing.’
Third grader Cody Phelps accompanied Weide to the special van Koani and Indy travel in and was rewarded with the chance to pet Koani.
“Her fur is soft on the bottom and poky like a deer but not as poky,” Cody said. “It was pretty cool.”
Weide and Tucker recently received one of the nation’s highest conservation education honors, National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award as Educators of the Year.
Wild Sentry is a non-profit organization that relies on memberships and grants for funding. Upon entering the Wild Sentry Web site at www.wildsentry.org, Internet users are greeted with a lone wolf howl. Tucker and Weide have co-authored several books, a video and a television documentary about wolves and have presented wolf education programs to schools, sportsmen’s groups, scientific symposiums, business associations and conservation groups. To learn more wolves and Wild Sentry, log onto the organization’s Website or e-mail wildsent@bitterroot.net.