Tucked away in the country, in Stacy Minnesota, sits the Wildlife Science Center.
It is home to 120 wolves, 3 black bears, 4 mountain lions, several birds and other reptiles. The center has its roots in as research facility started in 1976.
It was located on the grounds of the Carlos Avery Wildlife Center. The funding dried up in 1985.
“My last job there was to euthanize the 40 wolves that were left,” said Peggy Callahan, Executive Director. “So I didn’t want to do that.”
She and her co-worker who would later become her husband, decided to start a non-profit, and convinced the state to let them stay on site where they stayed for 25 years.
In 2017, they moved to a 210-acre site in Stacy.
“It’s just been fantastic to have our own property, “she said.
She showed WCCO Radio’s Susie Jones around the center.
“Okay, we are walking by the mountain lions,” she said. “Some wolves are on the left.”
They are separated in 20 different packs, with family members only, “So there’s one breeding female in here and a breeding male and his brother and two generations of their pups”.
We asked what would happen if they let the wolves be together?
“One of the leading causes of death for wolves is other wolves,” she said.
“They mark their territories with scent and sound and they patrol their areas and when a pack gets the opportunity in the wild it would take out another pack completely.”
The center is designed for education and research, with school field trips and others interested in wildlife coming to learn about each animal.
Callahan talks about wolf behavior as you can see here;
One pup in particular caught my eye, “That’s the wolf that tried to bite Anderson Cooper,” she said.
Cooper visited the center in May while researching for a story he was doing on wolves and dogs.
She says their study found that dog puppies are very different from wolf pups.
“The hand raised puppies can have relationship that are similar to a dog but you always have to caution that at any point that wolf could decide you are not dominant and attack.”
To find out more you can visit their website at https://www.wildlifesciencecenter.org/about-us