Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Winter Wolves

 click on the images to enlarge them
Bitter cold wind and snow was howling around my makeshift home for the last three weeks, a small tent, here in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. I endured countless frostbites and suffered from coffee deprivation, all that to bring photos of these icons of the wild in winter to you!


Sounds good, ey? Fortunately, all of the above was not necessary to take these images. I did not have to spent three weeks out there in a tent, and I did have a good cup of coffee on the morning of the photo shoot...:-)


And yes, these are real wolves, and yes again, they are running free.



Thanks to the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre, all I had to do to take these photos was to book a photo walk with them. And have some luck with the weather, as we had a fabulous winter day for the shoot.


Shelley and Casey of the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre do an amazing job education people about the nature of the wolf. It is hard, even in our seemingly sophisticated society, to break the old myth of the wolf as a heartless killing machine. Thanks to the Brothers Grimm, wolves still are feared.


Wolves also compete for the same prey as modern day hunters, which is almost more detrimental to their future than the century old fear of people.


The Centre is educating young and old about wolves and their place in a healthy eco-system by bringing the wolf close to the people.
And by giving people the opportunity to even walk with theses amazing animals they manage to raise the desperately needed awareness about the future of the wolf.


Ever since my first walk, I feel like an ambassador for the wolves and I bet many who did the walk, too, feel the same.


Not to mention the fun of being out in nature, with wolves, and a camera, or two...;-)


The wolves that accompanied us on this winter walk were Flora (last six images) and Scrappy Dave (first six images).


But wolves are in peril! If you like wolves and the images here, I urge you to scroll down to the March Conservation Tips and give your vote to help save the wolves from getting scratched from the endangered species list.


March Conservation Tip


Wolves in Peril!

...again and again...

Once almost extinct by humans, wolves had a bit of a comeback here in the Rocky Mountains. But now the US Congress has taken away their endangered species status and hence opened the doors for states like Idaho and Montana to once again kill them by the hundreds.
Right now, until March 27th, there is a world-wide petition going on, trying to convince the Fish and Wildlife Service to reverse this.
Please consider making your voice heard, too!
Just click the link below

NRDC Biogems Defenders


To find out more about the status of wolves in North-America and why they are so important to a healthy eco-system please check out this site:

Defenders of Wildlife - Wolf 101