I usually don’t post much about the animals on exhibit, focusing more on the wildlife around the campus here at the Museum. But Red Wolf 1414 has been getting so much press lately that I feel compelled to give a little time to our female wolf, #1287, if only with just a few photographs. So, without further delay, here she is.

Female 1287 often howls at the passage of sirens in the distance. Fire engines, I believe, are what sets her off. The frequency has to be right for her to howl and I think it’s the fire engines that do it for her.

Here, in the photo above, she is howling at something that I can’t hear or see. But this is not the typical howl that she emits at the sirens, this is different. It’s a howl and bark, almost an attention-seeking howl. She is facing in the direction of the Lemur House. One of the Animal Keepers was (at the time the picture was taken) at the Lemur House. My theory is that our female was hungry and was howling/barking at the Animal Keeper (Jessi, I think), trying to get her attention. I could be wrong.

This photo shows our girl taking a big drink of water. Why is she so thirsty? Well, she just finished sprinting around the enclosure, about three laps, with a rather large bone in her mouth trying to out pace the male who was chasing her. The male had buried the bone (cow knuckle) and the female dug it up. When he saw what she was up to he took off after her. She outran him.

She buried the bone herself in one of her favorite spots at the top of the enclosure, near the fence, and went off to have a drink.

By the way, the male later dug up the bone and reburied it in yet another location.