World of the Wolf - Wolf Park

Wolf Park - Spring 1999

I obtained several hours of video footage during my March-April 1999 stay at Wolf Park. I made some still images from my videotapes of the park's main pack. These images are © 1998-99 C. Campbell's NATURAL WORLDS. All of the pack's wolves except for Apollo, Seneca and Miska are shown here.

All of the photos are shown reduced , click them to view the full-sized versions.

Tristan - Born in '98, Tristan is the largest individual in Wolf Park's main pack. He probably weighs around 100 pounds. Tristan is very friendly and likes to rub against people, but he's so big that he sometimes pushes them right over. However, he is still quite agile despite his size, and often climbs into trees which overhang the enclosure's lake.

Marion - A 1998 daughter of Karin and Seneca, Marion is very similar to her mother behaviorally. Marion is quick to learn from training and picks up commands in seconds. Due to disposition toward other wolves however, she has bitten every single wolf in the pack, including her own parents. She harassed Apollo so much that he eventually had to be moved out of the main pack for his own safety. In July of 1999, Marion, with support from Erin, deposed Karin as alpha and drove her from the pack. This resulted in Marion becoming the new alpha female. It took her some time to start playing the part, but by the winter of 1999/2000 she began behaving in a way more appropriate to her new position, and became less of a bully. She then mated with the alpha male (her father, Seneca) in January and early February 2000 many times and the two have since bonded as the pack's new alpha couple. Marion was taken to a veterinarian to be sterilized so that no inbred pups will result from pairing with her father. Such inbreeding is common in packs of captive wolves, but genetic studies indicate that it is a very rare occurrence in the wild.

Erin - Born in 1998 at Wolf Hollow in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Erin is one of the newest arrivals to Wolf Park. She tends to be rather shy with new people at first, but becomes quite friendly. Erin became very socially aware in the spring of 1999 and took every advantage to depose Karin, the alpha female. Karin nearly cast Erin out of the pack for this, but by July, Erin managed to actually become dominant over Karin, and soon after drove her from the pack with the assistance of Marion. At the time of this writing, Erin is the only female at Wolf Park in a position to have pups. In January of 2000, she went into estrus for the first time, but chose the wrong male. She chose Seneca's brother Miska, who had no interest in her whatsoever. The only male that showed much interest in her was her own brother Tristan, but she wanted nothing to do with him, so she never mated.

Maya - Maya was born in 1998 and is a sister to Erin and Tristan. She is a rather dark coloured wolf, but in these photos her coat is somewhat bleached from exposure to the spring sun. She loves interacting with people.

Chetan - Chetan was born in 1995 to Karin and (probably) Socrates. He was the only male pup in a litter of five. His name means "hawk" in Lakota. In his first winter, he helped Orca to move up in rank within the pack. Although once much higher in position, he is now the lowest ranking male in the pack. He was harassed frequently by Marion before she became the alpha female, and she would pull tufts of hair from his tail.

Karin - Born in 1994, Karin was imported from the Wildlife Science Center, in Minnesota. She is sister to Orca. She was very outgoing and friendly as a pup, and like her daughter Marion, had a habit of chewing off people's shoe laces. She is a skilled problem solver, and has even been known to climb ladders. Altair was very lenient over Karin in her first year, which led to some very outgoing and precocious behavior. She was not only allowed to freely court two high ranking brothers (Kiri and Socrates) but mating with them was also allowed. Approximately 63 days later, Karin presented the park with a litter of five pups - two weeks before her own birthday. With the passing of Altair in November 1997, due to complications with cancer and diabetes, Karin inherited the alpha position with Seneca as her new mate. These new alphas produced one litter in 1998 and another in 1999, but in July of1999, the one female pup (Marion) that the park kept from Karin's 1998 litter, along with the female (Erin) imported from Wolf Hollow, deposed Karin and drove her from the pack. Although seriously injured in the attack, Karin is the first alpha female to have survived this and thanks to the efforts of park staff to get her to the hospital, Karin fully recovered after a six week convalescence.

Maya, Chetan, Tristan, Erin, and Karin - image © C. Campbell

Maya, Erin, and Chetan - image © C. Campbell

Erin, Maya, Marion, and Chetan - image © C. Campbell

Chetan, Maya, and Tristan - image © C. Campbell

Marion(?) and Chetan - image © C. Campbell

Tristan(?) and Maya - image © C. Campbell

Erin, Karin, Maya, and myself - image © C. Campbell

Maya and Chetan(?) - image © C. Campbell

Group photos - A few photos which show various members of the main pack's wolves. Most of these images were taken during a photo seminar. You can read more about the park's photo seminars here.