A Howling in the Night

Hanah drew this picture for me.  And how appropriate it is!  Tonight we had more than forty people gather at my house to meet Rick Stronks, a Senior Naturalist at Algonquin Park.  He talked about the wolves of Algonquin, the research and studies on these animals, he explained about their family structure, and the rendezvous sites where the young wolves stay before they are old enough to go hunting too. During late July or August, when the pups have become too big for the den site, they are moved to large open areas such as a bog or Beaver meadow where the pups are left while the adult members of the pack head off hunting. During this time the pups are not yet big or strong enough to hunt with the rest of the pack. These rendezvous sites as they are known act as a playpen for the pups while the adults are away. The sites provide protection for pups, a source of water, shelter, and numerous small animals and insects hidden in the grasses that the pups pursue in efforts to hone their hunting skills.

We climbed into cars and drove to the Oxtongue Craft Cabin, where we took over the parking lot.  Hiking up the road, we went into the Hidden Lake Trail on our ski/nature trail network, well away from the road. Flashlights turned off, please. Everyone stand still, please (Rick explained that even the sound of shuffling feet and fabric rubbing can alert wolves)  When it was all quiet, Rick howled for the wolves.

Everyone held their breath. I began to count... and I wasn't even at fifteen seconds when the pack answered Rick. Puppies yipping and yowling, big long deep howls from the big long deep wolves...  Rick estimated there were six to eight in the pack, and that it was about half a kilometer away.  That's just as well -- our youngest participants, Carrie and Elizabeth were only three years old! We had a handful at the other end of the age range, too, and closer wolves might have been a bit scarier!

After the howl, Rick had a question and answer session with the guests. We learned more about how the packs form and break apart, their favourite food sources (deer, beaver and moose), pack sizes and territory.  Chris and Isabelle found some fireflies in the damp grass: a bit unusual for August, but it was a misty evening.

After about fifteen minutes Rick howled again for us, although he explained that in the Park they have found that the chances of the wolves howling a second time is not all that good.  The Algonquin Park August Wolf Howls are legend, with as many as 2700 people going out on the program hoping for the chance to hear wolves howling in the wild.  This year the Park has not been able to offer the Wolf Howls yet, because they can't locate a rendezvous site where they have a good chance of finding the pack in a few days time. You don't really want to go out in the dark with 2700 people and not have a wolf reply to your call!

Perhaps the Park would like to borrow our wolves this summer. The pack answered Rick within a matter of seconds. This time it was the big long low howl that lead off, with the puppies joining in. It was magic.  We have guests from around the world at Bondi Village. This week we have a family here from Trinidad. They were thrilled. After all, hearing wolves howling in the wild is just not possible in Trinidad, so this was quite an experience for them. For all of us really -- Elizabeth and Carrie are only three years old. They will remember this. At the other end of the scale, the grandparents who were there with their grandchildren, they too will remember this moment when the wilderness connected with their kids.  We have guests here from Norway, and from Hong Kong, too -- what a great adventure for all of them.

I had let our neighbour Sharon know that we were going to be across the road from her house tonight, in her backyard so to speak, and that we were going to call the wolf pack. She took full advantage of that knowledge. Inviting over some friends, they gathered on her open deck, in lawn chairs, with cheese, crackers and glasses of chilled wine to enjoy both Rick's offering and the chorus from the wolves. Now that is what we call an Organized Wolf Howl, Roughing it in the wild with a Chardonay. They were closer to the pack than we were, standing out in the bush.

So many thanks, to Jim Mitchell at the Oxtongue Craft Cabin for letting us clog up the parking lot and make some noise in your yard; super special thanks to Rick and Kelly Stronks, for bringing your enthusiasm and expertise and sharing the magic of the Algonquin Wolves with us; thanks to all our guests who came out, big and small, young and old, for a late night adventure, and of course, thanks to our wolf pack for showing up, for singing, for being out there and for reminding us that Nature is wonderful.