Christmas Day may have been nondescript weather wise but out to the east trouble was brewing. Boxing Day was chilly but cool, then on the 27th the easterlies picked up and snow swept in from the North Sea, blanketing Kent with white for the second time in 2005. Despite the snow I decided to try and head off to WildWood, a wildlife park that's around an hour's drive away from here. WildWood has European Wolves, the original wolves that the UKWCT imported from eastern Europe and their offspring. I was excited at the thought of finally seeing wolves in the snow, as Berkshire seems to be a bit of a snow desert.

It snowed for much of the journey but everyone seemed to be sensible and I arrived at WildWood just after opening time - not very busy though...


WildWood's carpark

Sadly WildWood was closed, I'd forgotten that snow creates health and safety issues! A note pinned to the gate explained that the paths were treacherous and for safety's sake the centre was closed. So, after a quick visit to a snowy (and very slippery) Canterbury I came back home to find most of the snow had thawed (to add insult to injury).

I woke up early on the 28th (early by my standards is around 4AM ), pulled back the curtains and saw wet roads with just a tiny bit of snow left. Not long after that the wind picked up and it started to snow - it snowed for several hours in fact and by the time the rest of the world was awake there was another blanket of snow covering everything. WildWood wasn't open again so I walked down to the beach instead.


Looking west on Leysdown beach

The temperature was -1C with the snow equivalent of drizzle (little snow grains which stung like heck). At the seafront the snow had settled on the beach and the wind screamed in from the sea. A 25MPH wind at -1C gives a windchill of -8C (or -17C if you use the old formula ) and I began to wish I was wearing more than just a T-shirt under my coat - it was bitingly cold! The snow grains stopped just after I arrived back home and the rest of the day was very cold but dry.

The 29th was a dry and overcast day - I went off to Chatham to buy some bits in the sales as WildWood was still closed. Much of Kent saw its first ice day in a decade, but back home the temperature struggled up to 0.6C. It was still the coldest day since 1996 though!


The main road at sunrise on the 28th

By the 30th there was more trouble brewing as mild air to the west surged into the cold air over the UK. Further west at the wolf centre they had a thoroughly miserable day (2C and rain all day long), whereas here in sub-Arctic Kent we enjoyed a morning of heavy snow followed by brief spell of ice pellets and freezing rain around lunchtime. I've not seen freezing rain before, but it briefly turned things to an icerink before the rain warmed up and washed the snow and ice away. Needless to say WildWood was still closed...

So, by the time I set off for the wolf centre on New Year's Eve Kent was mostly back to normal, although the fields were still edged with white from the previous snowfalls.

I arrived at a soggy Butler's Farm to find I wasn't the first - a couple of other volunteers had arrived to let the wolves out. As I was catching up with events the wolves started howling, but by the time I grabbed my camera they'd stopped.


Kenai keeping an eye on me

I helped clean the Euros' quarters, which really didn't need much attention - the wolves hadn't made much mess at all. They also decided to howl and this time I had my camera ready:


Alba, Latea and Lunca

After a pleasant session spent catching up with more wolf news it was time to prepare for the main event, a "children's day". We don't allow youngsters on the walks any more for safety reasons, instead we hold special days where the children can meet a wolf under more controlled circumstances. There was a slideshow, then whilst everyone else went out with the wolves I stayed back and looked after the Obs Room. I'm pretty sneaky though and once everyone had left I turned on the public PC and settled in a for a nice long game of Timeshock (a pinball game). Just as I was in a fun multiball mode, concentrating feverishly on not losing the balls, the visitors arrived back - doh. Judging by the smiles everyone enjoyed themselves, but the wolves do tend to have that effect on people. Refreshments were served and merchandise sold, then it was time for something special.

A group of us headed down to Duma and Dakota's enclosure, then let ourselves in. The wolves were pleased to see us all and bounded over - they were very affectionate! I was prodded, poked, leant on and licked, something which I regard as a real privilege to experience.


Dakota howling at sunset

The best was yet to come though. With a snarl and a growl, Duma pounced on Dakota and both wolves shot off at a rate of knots. As luck would have it I had my camera to hand and recorded the chase - the quality is pretty naff (due to my zooming in, judder and the lighting conditions), but it shows textbook dominance/submission behaviour, as well as Duma having a great time. I think Dakota would have enjoyed it as well, as she likes to be reassured that her sister is in fact the boss.


Stills from the video
http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-12-31/dd2.avi
(DivX video, 10MB)

After that wonderful display of wolf interaction we all went back to the Obs Room to say our goodbyes and head for home.

New Year's Day was both wolfless and snowless, but today I decided to give WildWood another try. I arrived there dead on 10 o'clock and was greeted by a chorus of howls echoing through the woods - the wolves were rallying. Judging by the beaming smiles of the volunteers at the welcome desk I wasn't the only one to appreciate their efforts.

I had the entire park to myself and after a whistlestop tour of the other animals (including foxes, boar, deer etc) I arrived at the main attraction, the wolves. A few years back the UKWCT imported three wolves from Eastern Europe, Apollo, Athena and Luna. Apollo and Luna successfully mated and produced six cubs, one of which was stillborn and another died shortly after birth. A female cub, Luana, went to Paradise Wildlife Park but sadly died a while back. The other three are Alba, Lunca and Latea, the Euro pack.



The Euros' parents went to WildWood, as they weren't socialised enough to be used as ambassador wolves by the Trust. At WildWood they bred successfully several times, with cubs going to the Anglian Wolf Centre and (AFAIK) Shaun Ellis in the West Country.



WildWood has two packs of wolves, the main pack and a mini-pack of two sisters, Nadja and Michka. Those two are socialised and seem really friendly. I'd deliberately worn my "wolfing" clothes to WildWood to see if they'd pick up on the scent of the UKWCT's wolves...


A video clip of the wolves greeting me
http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-12-31/nadja.avi
(DivX video, 3MB)

Last year there were other people milling around and it was noticable that the wolves in the main pack would keep their distance. Happily for me that wasn't the case this time and some of the wolves at least came over to investigate. I suspect it was a subordinate wolf each time, as Apollo (who's still the alpha male) kept his distance still. It's noticable at the UKWCT that the alphas don't seem to go out and investigate things, it's a lower ranking wolf instead - and apparently the same is true with wild wolves.



One of the centre's volunteers passed by and I asked about the wolves, as I was curious as to how many they now had. Last year there were 17 wolves at Wildwood but that's down to 13 now. Athena is now at a wildlife centre in Norfolk, having become the omega and being subject to increasingly nasty attacks from the other wolves.



Luna has passed on, apparently due to injuries sustained from dominance fights. Those fights usually look far worse than they are, but in some cases if the other wolves are serious about their challenge fatalities can occur - indeed, such events have been recorded in Yellowstone, with a famous case of the "Cinderella Wolf" killing her sister (with the help of others in her pack) in a dominance dispute.



It was noticably wet at WildWood, at least one corner of Kent's had some decent rainfall! There are still hopes for improving the wolf enclosure, but it's a tricky process as the wolves keep things churned up as they travel around the enclosure. WildWood's also stopping breeding their wolves, castrating the males (whereas ours have had vasectomies instead). I'd heard that castrating a wolf changes its scent, which can lead to ructions in the pack, but apparently nothing like that's happened with the single male so far that's neutered at WildWood.

Here's some video taken from up on a high viewing platform, showing the general layout of the wolf area at WildWood:


http://www.medvale.net/wolves/05-12-31/wildwood.avi
(DivX video, 4MB)

After spending over an hour with the wolves I decided to head for home - and there were quite a few visitors arriving as I left. On the way back along the A299 there were a few spits of rain, but by and large it stayed dry, overcast and gloomy all day long.

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