Circle of Life (Part I)

I already spent one day helping out the WWS. I spoke with Lois about what she's gone through with the place, how it got started and what the future plans are. I also helped prepare the wolves' food. For those that know me, probably know that I'm a vegetarian and I'm also a bit of an empathetic person that won't intentionally harm another living being. So this is one of the most difficult things for me to do...prepare dinner for wolves. It consists of ground meat, chopped up chicken, other animal things (zoo food), rice and dog food (dry and wet); all of which is laid out on the counter.

When I first saw it I almost threw-up in my mouth but I held back...I used to be an omnivore after all, I could handle this. There was enough meat to feed a small village in Africa for a week. However transporting it to Africa would be costly and it would be rotten by the time it got there so its better off to feed to the wolves. So I plopped my hands into the ground meat and shoveled out a handful for each bowl (10 wolves, 10 bowls). I repeated this till all the dishes of meat were approximately separated out and then its hand mooshed together like mom's meatloaf and served on an aluminum platter.

Here's the interesting environmental lesson of the day. Around the habitat there's these ever annoying ravens, hundreds of them....and they all know when feeding time is. In the wild, wolves, ravens and other critters have a symbiotic relationship with each other. What the wolves can't finish off from a kill, everything else gets. These ravens are greedy little b#$@%$#s though. If the wolf turns away from its food, the ravens swoop down and grab what they can and take off...they don't wait till the wolves are done to get the leftovers. In the wild, it works out great. In a controlled environment where the food is being donated/paid for, its really irritating since the ravens will eat a good chunk of the wolf's meal. Apparently this is a common problem at most zoos, sanctuaries, farms, or anywhere the food is not completely enclosed. Whoever comes up with a long lasting solution will probably be a multi-millionaire and savior to sanctuaries throughout the world.