Eight wolf pups go dooking for apples to celebrate Wolf Awareness Week

AS an early Halloween treat, eight wolf pups at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park have had a go at dooking for apples. 

The activity was part of Wolf Awareness Week, which kicked off on Thursday 12th October.

The young wolves were born on 21 May to mother Ruby and are all coming on in leaps and bounds.

Keepers have recently named the new arrivals to the pack –  the five girls are Pollidh, Brora, Suie, Meagaidh and Sneachd and the three males, Cuillin, Cairn and Torridon – all the names refer to geographical locations in the Highlands.

Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, said: “Although still smaller than their older siblings, the current pups are growing at an impressive rate.

“Coupling novel enrichment techniques with talks by the wolves’ keepers, we hope to highlight the intelligence of a species that once roamed the hills around the Wildlife Park this Wolf Awareness Week.”

The wolves at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park are the European form which is found throughout Scandinavia, pockets of Southern and Eastern Europe and Western Russia.

The European wolf is one of the subspecies of grey wolf, a species that was once found across all of Europe, most of Asia and all of North America.

Previously the world’s most widely distributed mammal – found throughout the northern hemisphere – wolf populations are now much more restricted as a result of hunting and persecution, as well as habitat loss and fragmentation.

Wolves once roamed freely in Scotland but were hunted to extinction by the 1740s.

European wolf populations began to recover after the 1950s when they became less heavily persecuted, and by the 1980s small wolf populations began to grow and reoccupy parts of their historic range.

Throughout Wolf Awareness Week there will be many wolf themed activities, including drop-in sessions, touch tables and keeper talks to let visitors learn more about the species.

www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk

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