Walking with wild wolves

[Compaq]

This weekend me and some friends have visited Langedrag. Here, they have different sorts of animals, some wild and some "socialised" (not tamed).

We weren't allowed in to the socialised wolves - and with good reason. Our guide, Andre, has been with them since they were cubs (4 wolves). He's the "leader" of the pack. As in the actual leader. They follow him. He's wrestling with them. A wolf is the size of a very big dog, and can rip out your throat in 3 seconds if then so wish. It was incredible to witness Andre interacting with them. Once, a wolf called Embla went crazy and decided to kill him. She went after his throat and all. The other wolves protected him and forced her away.

We were allowed into to where the wild ones lived. A wolf is careful by nature, and this was reflected in their behavior. They held they distance at first, but came close in time. Suddenly I realised that if these four wolves should for some reason look on us as a danger to them, they could eat us all. We sat there for an hour, watching them as they were fed some waffles (lol). I don't know how it is in other countries, but predator animal control is something that we seem to have a "love/hate" relationship towards. Either we're for a wild wolf population, or we're completely against it.

We also visited wild lynxes. These are in the cat family, as opposed to wolfs (dogs are basically childish wolves), and that was reflected in their behavior. These animals can pounce for times in one second, and walked as close as 30 cm (1ft). Beautiful animals. We witness them in the middle of changing fur. Gracious jumps and fine climbers.

It was snowing as hell, and blowing even worse, so I did not risk taking out my camera. Also, I only carried my 11-16mm, and getting that close to these wild animals might not have ended well. I regret not bringing my film camera, at least, which is small enough to fit in my pocket.

This was awesome! Many people don't realise we have such animals in nature - as they've never seen them before. I think it's true as our guide said: 90% of the close encounters between man and wolf/lynx only the animal register.

If you're ever in Norway, you definitely should check this out.