12z today - A low lies to the WNW, with associated fronts moving slowly eastwards. Thickness, 547dam, temperature 12C(dewpoint 2C). Wind from the south, 14 MPH. Today's high 14C, Last night's low -1C. (source: MetO, the 12z GFS and NOAA).

I went to bed last night knowing that I had to be up early as I was helping out at a show - it meant leaving by 6 AM. Leysdown was grey and overcast with temperatures of 7C, but as I headed westwards the skies cleared and the temperature plummeted, reaching -1C along the M26 near Wrotham.

It was frosty at the Trust and I was greeted by the European wolves howling away. Thankfully breeding season is behind us and the Euros are once again a friendly pack, albeit with Latea as Alpha rather than Lunca. The other folks soon arrived and we discussed plans for the day, with no cleaning as the wolves stayed out last night.

European wolves howling - Lunca's at the bottom, Latea is on the left and Alba's on the right.

This photo shows the difference between Latea and Lunca - the former is a greyish wolf and the latter has a browner colouration (as does Alba).

Today was the second day of the Berkshire College of Agriculture open day and the UKWCT had a stall there, together with our mobile enclsoure with Duma and Dakota. There were 12,000 visitors over the two days.

The UKWCT's merchandise stall.

We were divided into teams and to start with I was on the merchandise side of things. As usual, there were times with no-one around and others with people flocking to the stall - we sold a fair bit.

Duma and Dakota
During one of the lulls I took a shot of the enclosure, showing Duma and Dakota dozing. D&D spent much of the day dozing in the sun, much as they would do at the Trust if they weren't taken out for walks.

We had a break which allowed Dominic and I to scout around the rest of the show, with everything from clay pigeon shooting to wall building on offer. There were plenty of other animals too, from pigs to alpacas and ferrets, topped off with a superb falconry display.

During this time it was mainly sunny, with the April sunshine beating down on the thousands of people present. There were signs of what was to come in the form of first cirrus and then cirrostratus, but it didn't seem to bother anyone.

Eventually it was time to resume work at the UKWCT stall, this time on enclosure duty. However, en route I stopped off at an ice-cream van, Luigi's. Coincidentally it was run by an Italian gentleman who served up two large double-cornets, and after being told what I planned to do he babbled something at me at a rate of knots, complete with arm gestures. I wish I knew what he'd said, but I was in a hurry to get back before they melted in the strong sunshine!

So, back at the UKWCT stand I waited while some members of the public went into the enclosure and stroked the wolves. I then went in and both wolves stood up and made a beeline for me. It was suggested I drop the ice-creams, which I did - those wolves were very keen to get them!

Duma (left) and Dakota
Needless to say the ice-cream lasted all of a few seconds as the wolves chomped them down (as opposed to the Euros who rolled in their ice-cream last year!) Duma finished hers then zipped over to "help" her sister with hers. It gave a nice oppertunity to see the wolves almost in a mirror image!

Duma's on the left.

I left the enclosure and chatted with the public as the day wound down. By now the clouds had thickened to stratus, with nimbostratus looming to the west. After the last of the "meet and greets" I went back in, then spent a glorious half hour with the wolves. They were let off their leads and happily let me stroke and rub them, so much so that my hands ended up black! (The wolves' fur contains oily deposits which serve as waterproofing - stroke them enough and some of it comes off on your hands, visually quite odd as the fur in question was cream coloured.)

One of Duma's paws
I was able to take some closeup pictures - here's Duma's paw. There are several interesting things of note:

* To the touch, both Duma and Dakota's paws were notably warmer than their legs.
* Wolves have fur between their toes, which helps enhance grip (especially on ice/snow).
* The fur's discoloured as wolves sweat through their paws.
* The paw is also webbed, but you can't see that on this photo!

Let sleeping wolves lie!

A couple of others joined in the fun, then it was time to let the wolves into their trailer (a converted horse box) while we dismantled the cage and packed the merchandise away. It went very smoothly indeed, as we've now labelled all the sections of the cage and have a plan showing the loading order on the cage trailer. The first spits of rain appeared while we were carrying bits of the cage around.

Then, as heading back to the Trust would be heading away from home, I left and came back along the A4 of all roads (yup, they spat you out on a different road to the one I came in on, bah!) It was chucking it down by the time I finally found my way to civilisation and I chased the blue skies to the east as I drove home. Surprisingly, I won the race and it was dry and much warmer back in Leysdown - it's still dry now!

All in all, another fantastic day!

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