During my fabulous time enjoying my fangsmithing adventures in the amazingly magickal city of Prague in the Czech Republic (thank you to my hosts Andrea and others) I was invited by French photographer Jean Rost who is working on a wolf calendar to visit Wolf Center in Austria, just outside Vienna, Austria. Little did I know he was going right into the enclosure where the wolves lived, played and slept to take pics.

Me and my new friend Nanuk at Wolf Center in Austria, photo by Jean Rost.

Wolf Center is a special project dedicated to studying the relationship between dogs, wolves and man.  This ignited my curiosity and became an adventure I could not say no too and so on Monday, December 19th we set out early in the morning for the 3 hour drive from Prague to Austria and the rest is history. We arrived just before Noon and had to sign papers so if the wolves ate us we would be OK.  We then learned a little about how to respect the wolves, as these are NOT dogs, but highly proficient hunters even though they grew up knowing humans.  We entered the enclosure where we were given a proper introduction to Alpha Nanuk’s pack (the name is the same as the husky from Lost Boys hahah) and we met his alpha female Yukon, both American Timber wolves from Montana, so I was not the only American in the enclosure.  I learned about wolf evolution, social structure and behavior, first off these wolves are NOT dogs and should never be pets. Of course I was a little scared but these wolves are super models and are very socialized, the other packs were not so friendly and we could not enter the Black Wolf Pack enclosure with the black wolf Aragorn with stunning yellow eyes.  After the day my life changed and I fully support their work as they treat these animals with great love and respect.  If you would like to support Wolf Center with a donation or visit please check out their website at http://www.wolfscience.at.

This is only my first report on Jean’s project, more to come on his calendar, lots of photos, info on wolves and where to find it when it is released.  Stay tuned….