Austria - A Walk with a Wolf

Once-in-a-lifetime experience 

Hey, after some time, it’s me Telchac again. Hard to say, whether it was Hojancha or me who by chance found out about the Wolf Science Center in a small Austrian village called Ernstbrunn a year ago, but honestly it doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that early this year we booked a private walk with a wolf (and a trainer, of course) and last weekend it has become reality.
Useful tip: Book well in advance as there are far too many people wanting to experience it for the number of walks available throughout the year. 

The Wolf Science Center is situated in the Wildpark Ernstbrunn a mere 40 minutes drive from Vienna. Except for the wolves, one can find other freely-roaming animals in large enclosures here, some of which you can enter. Among others there are does, deer, chamois, moufflons, capricorns, boars, sheep or goats. One can really spend a nice couple of hours here, watching/feeding the animals, hiking through the oak woods or just relaxing in the meadows.

We arrived at around 4pm because we thought it was going to be enough time but as you can guess it wasn't. We spent most of our time with goats (cause they're the first you can see when you have no idea how large the park is), then does (cause you can walk among them and feed them and have fun with them) and - maybe surprisingly - pigs (cause they're fun and they made really funny noises when scratched).





At 5:30 pm sharp, we met our guide and the wolf trainer in front of one of the enclosures. Right at the beginning of our experience, we got a bonus. We could watch the feeding of a pair of wolves from above the fence as we stood on wooden poles. These two marvellous creatures were siblings. One got a rabbit and the other one got a chicken. The wolf who got a rabbit took it in his jaws somewhere far. But we could very well observe how the she-wolf feasted on her chicken for about 15 mins. Biting off its head, tearing off all the feathers, playing with the intestines, chewing on the wings. I can tell you, it was a really crunchy and yummy sight. After she had finished it we went to see "our" wolf.




Our wolf was a 2 years old black she-wolf named Taima. Very curious, but also very shy and vigilant as we were told by our guide. We stood close to her enclosure and were watching as the trainer called her, they "kissed" (Taima licked half her face :) ) and then walked her out to put a leash on her. We all started to walk into the woods. We and the guide first, Taima and the trainer followed. Taima needed to gain the trust in us and she was the one to decide who walks where. One time she kept the distance from us, another time she walked right next to us. Almost as a German Shepard.




Taima thought of us as members of her pack. She needed to see where we all were so she could be sure that nobody scared her or injured her. She wanted to be one in charge. The guide explained that the hierarchy is much flatter in the wolf pack than in the dog pack (meaning there's one dominant alpha and "the others"). Moreover, if you try to dominate the wolf, the wolf will question it every day, trying to win its dominance back over. That is why they do not try to dominate the wolves. This, in reality, meant that when Taima moved we all moved. When she stopped we all stopped. When she stopped and saw that we weren't all together, we needed to form a group and walk together. Well, it didn't take long to guess who the boss is (a bit tough for me as usually I am the boss :D just kidding :D).





Basically, we didn't know what was coming. At one point she got bit by some insect when she stuck her nose in a bush and got very upset. The only way to keep her moving was bribing her. The trainer came prepared though, she had pockets full of dog crackers and even a special treat (for the worst moments) - a sausage. So we somehow managed to keep moving and even took some photos with her. Taima was really hard to predict, the moment she came close to us for the photo, she decided to hop on Hojancha's thigh. A bit worried, despite that I could immediately see a smile on her face - Hojancha's, not Taima's. After this small photoshoot, we went on.



We had a small complication when someone stepped on a twig, it broke and scared her. She refused to continue - it was sausage time :D. Again, as I said, 10 minuted later she was eating from our palms and even smelling Hojancha's armpits (when thinking back, I don't think she used deodorant that day, must keep an eye on her :) ). Again funny, surprising and a bit scary (it was still a she-wolf after all). Btw one could easily forget that we were not walking a dog because Taima behaved in a very similar way. The two main differences (and this was when you realised over and over again that she was not a dog) was a) the trainer did not force her to do anything and b) we couldn't touch her. As I said, she was the boss.




After walking Taima back to her enclosure, we were shown around the premises of the science centre including the testing labs, kitchen and the wolf food pantry full of dead chicken and rabbits. As Hojancha does not speak German, we though I will need to interpret for her, but we were wrong. All the people in the science centre spoke perfect English, hats off. We had a great time there, but also learned a lot and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves animals.