WOLF CENTER, Woodland Park, Co.

We traveled to Divide, Co. on Wednesday, Sept. 10 to visit the Wolf and Wildlife Center. This was very interesting and we learned a lot about the fox, coyote, and wolf habits and what we are doing to their homes. Darlene Kobobel is the founder of this center. It is the only certified wild life sanctuary in Colorado. They only keep a small number of animals as their mission is to educate the public what they can do to help preserve these beautiful animals. We saw the fox group first. They are red fox, but two were white. We were told that they were genetically altered so they could sell white furs. I won't expound here on the inhumane treatment they go through. The swift fox is a much smaller animal. They get their name because they can run 25 miles per hour in spurts to catch their prey. They had several coyotes. There were timber wolves, Arctic wolves and Mexican wolves. One wolf was very friendly and came up to the fence and gave the guide several licks. We were not allowed to touch the animals for obvious reasons. If you volunteer enough, you can eventually go into the pens and feed and interact with the animals. The most exciting part of the visit was to start howling and then all the animals chimed in. What a sound. There is nothing like it. I would recommend this tour if you are in the area.