Whoever is running West Virginia’s Wildlife Center at French Creek must know nothing about wolves.
Here’s why:
In the picture above are 13-week-old puppies. I would have instantly thought they were malamute puppies.
But that’s not what the West Virginia Wildlife Center in French Creek, West Virginia is claiming that they are.
This image comes from an article in the Charleston Gazette:
After spending several weeks getting acquainted with each other, three 13-week-old gray wolf pups given to the West Virginia Wildlife Center by an anonymous donor in January have bonded with the center’s resident 5-year-old gray wolf.
“They’re a pack now,” said West Virginia Wildlife Center Superintendent Gene Thorn. “The older wolf kind of adopted them.”
Thorn said the three male wolf siblings were initially placed in a quarantine cage, which was in turn placed inside the enclosure inhabited by the 5-year-old wolf, allowing the juvenile and adult wolves to see, smell and hear each other without risk of injury from possible aggressive behavior.
“Wolf researchers told us if the pups were all male, which they are, the male adult would adopt them,” he said.
But in case the adoption process did not go smoothly, “we had all hands on deck when we put them all together in the same enclosure,” Thorn said.
As it turned out, the mature wolf “was running from the pups at the beginning, because they mobbed him,” Thorn said. “But he’s the boss now. He doesn’t like the pups getting too close to humans. It’s been an interesting process to watch.”
Gray wolves once ranged across most of West Virginia, until the late 1800s when farmers concerned about livestock kills, mainly sheep, successfully pushed for a bounty system. The last gray wolf in West Virginia is believed to have been killed in 1900 in the Pickens area, in the mountains just east of French Creek.
Thorn hopes the wolf pups, which he described as “still in the cute stage,” will help attract off-season visitors to French Creek, where wildlife species now found, or once found, in West Virginia can be seen in a series of enclosures along a 1.25-mile walk. From now until April 1, there is no admission fee.
Um.
I’d like to know who gave them these wolves, because they are about the least wolfy wolfdogs I’ve seen in a while.
Wolves aren’t like dogs.
They don’t breed year round.
Mating season for wolves runs from January to April. Most North American wolves have their mating season in early February.
These pups were 13 weeks old on February 29.
Now, it is true that wolves will adjust their mating seasons a bit in captivity. Females might come into season during the first year, instead of their second.
But the general mating season runs from January to April.
If one goes back 13 weeks,these puppies were born in December of last year.
That means their parents mated in October.
I’ve never heard of wolf mating in October.
I suppose it could happen under some weird circumstances.
Then, let’s look at the pups themselves.
At thirteen weeks, they still have floppy ears.
Wolf pups, unlike dogs, usually have fully prick ears by the time they are four weeks old.
The pup in the middle looks so much like a reddish malamute that I bet one could easily mistake it for one.
I’d like to know what expert at the Wildlife Center thought these were wolves.
A simple Google search can lead you to sites that clearly show how you can tell a wolf from a wolfdog.
The best is this page from Wolf Park.
Dogs and wolves are the same species, but if you’re going to conserve wolves or educate people about them, you’d better get the animal right.
You don’t reintroduce wolves by turning golden retrievers loose in Wyoming.
And you’re not providing an accurate picture of wolves by having wolf hybrids at a zoo.
All the wolf ears I ever saw are up by 10 days or so. Those dogs are slow, even for huskies, though not malamutes or shepherds. My guess? A shepherd/ malamute mix with little to no actual wolf, regardless of the % the pedigree claims, which has nothing to do with the actual percent by the f2,f3 generation or so.
I wonder if they checked them for dewclaws? Are their tails curled? Are their eyes dark or light? Certainly, by the time they’re adults, their head proportions should be a dead give-away too.
I seen them a few months ago, they have gotten alot larger but in my opinion are not 100% wolf. Sad but very true!!!!!
Well those don’t look like wolves at all… =/
Found a crappy quality vid: http://www.wboy.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6795462
Hard to say from this vid as well…
They really don’t look like wolves in that video. One of them looks like a shepherd cross dog. The ears are semiprick.
The adult does look like a wolf.
From what I could see they have dark eyes too–not very wolfish.
Look like a shepard/mal type crosses to me & I can see VERY little to NO wolf about those younsters at all. Are they going to breed with them?
I’ve heard that pure wolves have vertical pupils like a cat’s eye – anyone know if this is true or just another fairytale?
Fairytale.
That’s vulpines have cat eyes, not canines.
Close up of wolf eyes;
What do you do if you want to display a zebra but you cant afford a zebra and a real zebra would be too difficult to tame anyway?
The web has several photos of burros who have been painted to look like zebras.
The little children are happy to have their photo taken while they are sitting on a “zebra”. What is the harm? So the children get to see real “wolf” cubs who are not skittery or scared of then, and the 5-year old wolf is happy to have someone to play with. Does it matter if they are wolves or not?
Most of what we know is mostly illusion, distortion, or lies. The person you think is your father might not be, even if he thinks he is. The person you call “mom” might really just the woman your “dad” married after he divorced your real mother and got custody of you, and the grandfather who you loved but who died last year might not have died at all – he got sent to jail so your parents told everyone he died because they were ashamed to tell the truth.
And your internet friends? The old guy with a Phd might be a high school kid, and the hot 19 year old woman might be a 45 year old man.
Really if these are not wolves, it is not so big a lie – and that is the problem. It is insulting when you think a lie is too obvious.
But compared to what is happening in dog breeding, I do not think this sounds so bad. However if these are not wolf cubs and they are turned loose in the wild then that could be bad.
I never thought of that before, what if Golden Retrievers were trained to live in the wild and to reproduce there? Maybe we need an Isle Royal for Golden Retrievers – one with rabbits on it instead of moose? But you would have feed them or it would be cruel.
Interesting idea – would hungry Golden Retrievers evolve into wild animals?
Here’s some wolf pups I took picture of Dharma, Gordan, and Tilly they’re at the wolf park in Battleground Indiana well only Dharma the other two went to other places.
Tilly grown up.
Dharma older she is with Dr. Klinghammer.
I guess there isn’t much harm in it, but bad enough people sell husky and husky mix as wolf dogs, but to pass them as wolves!?
Coarse gotta be dumb to believe that, but hey people think my shiba inu is a wolf dog or coydog. I have asked the adults who said this if they were serious and they said yes! could just be screwing with me, but still.
Nice the older wolf has companions, but they should call them mixes not wolves sorry misrepresenting isn’t nice thing to do.
At least they aren’t doing this: http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/where-you-can-buy-a-300-pound-super-wolf/
Since all dogs are wolves, is a wolf-dog really a hybrid? Shouldn’t it just be called a “wolf”? This is my thinking. A wolf is a wolf. A domestic dog is a wolf. Therefore, a domestic dog/wolf mix is still a wolf. So this wildlife center isn’t wrong. We complain when people refuse to accept that dogs are wolves; then we complain about a zoo displaying “wolfdogs?” Dogs ARE wolves. Educate the public on the behavioral differences, definitely, but when a wildlife center like this one is doing something good – educating people about wildlife that used to be present In the state – I say cut ‘em some slack. I mean, look at the PA Wolf Sanctuary! Very, very few “purebred wolves” there, some almost definitely purebred malamute, but they are educating people about wolves and providing safe haven for “wolves” that have nowhere else to go. Hunters donate deer meat and carcasses every year to help keep the place solvent. It educates the public and inspires tolerance and respect for the species, so that if wolves ever do find a way back into PA (doubtful), they may have some hope. Most visitors have no idea that the animals are “hybrids” even tho the guides try to tell you which animals are and which are fullblooded wolf. I mean, a lot of people don’t realise wolves don’t live in PA, many of those who do don’t know that they did in the past. So wildlife centers like these are important. Far more important than whether their wolves are “purebred.” That’s just may opinion. I could be wrong.
I use the line that a dog is a specialized subspecies of wolf, like an arctic wolf or an Arabian wolf.
But you don’t make hybrids between the two, and you don’t take arctic wolf and release it into the deserts of Saudi Arabia. And you don’t take an Arabian wolf and turn it loose on Ellesmere Island.
Some of my sled dogs (hound/husky crosses mostly) look more ‘wolf’ than these pups. I believe a zoo’s purpose is to conserve (the real thing) and educate the public. Just because most of society believes the lies we are fed (in other areas) doesn’t make it ok. Is there a way to contact this zoo. Perhaps they just need a little education themselves? I would think perhaps they could label the animals appropriately as wolfdogs or ‘hybrids’
I’ll second that!
I admit to not knowing the answer, but i gotta question about dog breeding and ethics.
Suppose a person has like a puppy rescue in their backyard and they live in a place where peple still give up litters of puppies.
Then one day some idiot drunk with a bunch of little kids and their friends in the back of his pick up truck, and a pregnant wife and baby sitting beside him, pulls up in the front yard and yells “I heard you got a litter of wolf St. Bernard mix puppies”.
Well suppose their is such a litter in the shelter. Would it be wrong for the shelter to try to talk him into a nice sheltie shepherd mix? And most importantly, which would be the best pet for his family?
And would the shelter be at all wrong to say “Hey whatever you think you want is fine with me, here they are, pick which you want, pay your money, go home. Hope you researched your choices, because we have quit trying to tell people what we think they should do.”
Can you sell dogs and wolves like motorcyles and hang gliders? Hey I have seen a family that got all their little kids, small kid sized motorcycles and the one kid who wasn’t old enough for school was out riding his motorcycle with nobody watching over him, out where if he fell he might not be found for hours. Some place manufactures motorcycle for 4 year olds and enough people buy them for their kids or nobody would make them.
So the question here is is it sometimes more ethical to lie or not? I can’t decide. Tell me which you think would be more ethical: to sell to people whatever they want to take home to their family, to regulate it, or to lie?
I see where you are coming from, but still believe lying is not the answer. Here in the state I live in owning a wolf or wolffog is illegal. Even if you had a husky and called it a wolf there is a good chance it will be taken and destroyed. I truly believe education is the answer. It is difficult at times I know. Your blog is one of the tools we can use to educate people. Thank you for your research. If I have trouble explaining to someone why breeding father to daughter for three generations is a terrible idea, I reference them to your blog.
Thank you.
I can’t see how it is Ok for a Zoo(meant to be a place of research & teaching) to lie.
I don’t know if they are lying or they just don’t know any better.
I think someone had some wolfdog puppies and lied to the Wildlife Center about what they had.
No matter what they name their building, “There is no admittance fee” means that it is free, so visitors weren’t cheated if the wolf pups weren’t pure. So i guess i’m soft on the issue. And if they got the pups a month or so before the photos were taken then the pups might very well have looked wolfy at that time.
I know a couple who bought such a ‘wolf’dog – it actually looked much like the pup on the left in the photo. I doubted that it was a wolf, but they were happy and proud to have a wolf.
I saw the ‘wolfdog’ years later and it still didn’t look wolfy.
I spoke with a breeder who sells wolfdogs in the same area that they bought theirs from. She said she had huskies, bought a wolfdog pup believing thought it would be like a husky but healthier – it wasn’t.
She had a long list of complaints about its behavoir in the house and with people. She got rid of it.
But it had sired a litter by one of her huskies, and she kept a male pup. Jr. turned out to be more trouble than his dad and jumped over, chewed through, or broke out of all the little pens and chains she tried hold him with. Jr was only 1/4 wolf.
According to her, Jr jumped the fence and never came back.
But she had kept one of his daughters {1/8 wolf}, which she bred to one of her husky males, and then she sold those 1/16 wolf puppies as “wolf cubs”, by showing a photo of her original half wolf and claiming him as the father.
She seemed to be a total weirdo so i don’t know how much she told me about wolfdog behavior was true and how much was from their reaction to their housing or treatment.
But should i tell the couple who bought one of her ‘wolfdogs’ that the wolfdog they are proud of, might not be pure? I don’t think so.
What good would it do? Instead of being proud they might feel cheated. Maybe they do not want to hear the truth. And how would they react? Next time they would make sure they bought a real wolf. That might be a crummy idea.
Lieing about who the parents or grandparents of a litter are is always wong.
But sometimes telling the truth might do more harm.
Irene… the fact that these are all males and there’s no mention of any plans to use them in a breeding program renders these specimens moot as far as genetic contribution. And if they aren’t really wolves thats a good thing.
Dogs and wolves don’t behave the same. Feral dogs are not the same kind of killers as a wolf and feral dogs can pose a problem to the local domestic herds of cattle and/or sheep if they are reintroduced thinking they are really wolves. They don’t fear man, they approach manmade objects without fear or caution and they will approach domestic animals without fear or caution.
A wolf is fearful and cautious about everything, they are conditioned that way over centuries of persecution by man.
But, if you’re going to tell me and my children that a Malamute or Shepard cross are the real McCoy and in the future my kids identify a domestic dog as a wolf… or the other way around…. just tell me who do I sue when something bad happens?
Scottie has a lot of data on this blog about the differences.
This brings to mind another question. Suppose a breeder of pedigreed Dalmatians dogs got tired of breeding her unhealthy dogs so went out and bought two LUA 99% pure healthy Dalmations and used the papers from the pure but sickly Dalmation dogs?
No doubt about it, that would be lieing about the pedigree of the puppies she was sellng.
Neverless, I would say she was doing right – both for the dogs themselves and for the people who bought them. What do you think?
First, I think that we have to check into whether these pups are going to be used to breed. I know that at places like the PA Wolf Sanctuary, they are not. They are all spayed and/or neutered to prevent breeding. I don’t see any benefit to this wildlife center to breeding these animals, primarily because a healthy wolf has a nice long life, and I didn’t see anything mentioning this center having any females. Just males. So the whole conservation issue related to whether they are wolfdogs or actual wolves may be totally moot.
I do have a question. I think that you are right when you say that in the past wolves were not the shy, retiring animals that we see today. In the past, I believe that they were far more curious and “survivalist,” if you will. And I think these wolves were culled, leaving us with the wolves of today. But do you think that wolfdogs maybe display behaviors closer to the wolves of old – in that they do not exhibit the fear of humans. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, I’m just wondering.
the point of a zoo is education. You can’t provide education if you are saying “spanish is the same as Latin” Spanish derives from Latin, but they aren’t identical. Dogs derive from wolves, but they aren’t identical. A hybrid isn’t necessarily F1. These could be 1/4 wolf and look little like one but have many of the characteristics, or even a case where both parents were F1 half wolf and look little like a wolf. But a DNA test should resolve the question. If they are dogs, then they don’t belong in a zoo. If nothing else, they would give a false image as to behavior, appearance, etc. — and for many people, zoos are the closest they will ever get to the live animal. It would be wrong to paint a donkey and call it a zebra — again, zebras don’t act like donkeys. If we are going to the point of having zoos or wild animal preserves, etc, then we ought to present the truth. Most people from cities couldn’t tell a mule from a horse or a goat from a Barbadoe sheep. We don’t need zoos adding to the confusion.
So did anyone notify these guys that there “wolves” are not wolves???
LOL ! Makes those WV – wildlife authorities look very ridiculous, ha-ha !