(dramatic music) - [Coyote] Once upon a time in a far away land known as Colorado, a beautiful animal roam the countryside. Where day in and day out,
it balanced the ecosystem. Traveling in packs, these
predators move with stealth, darting in and out of
the shadows as they stalk the seemingly endless herds
of deer, elk and bison. The unbroken wilderness stretched further than the raven could fly. And as alphas took claim over
territories of their own, it seemed this way of
life would last forever. It was good to be a wolf. Then through a series
of unfortunate events, the westward expansion of pioneers, the decimation of native
species like buffalo and the introduction of
domestic animals like cattle, life for wolf changed. All of a sudden, everyone was
afraid of the big, bad wolf. (gnarling wolf) Humans quickly decided that
wolfs were bloodthirsty, villainous killers that must be destroyed. And this inaccurate narrative
cast a long dark shadow that these animals could not control, could not rewrite and could not escape. According to Parks and Wildlife, the last gray wolves were
eradicated from Colorado in the late 1930s. And have not roamed this wilderness since. Today is a new day. And with our help, that
is going to change. (rolling projector) (dramatic music) (creaking rock) As a child, I would dream of wolves often with the vision that I would one day, witness a pack running
swiftly through a dense forest on the hunt and in hot
pursuit of their next meal. It's a dream that is yet to come true. And for many years, The
Brave Wilderness team and I have been trying to
capture a meaningful episode, that centers around the plight of these incredible canids. The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is located roughly two
hours outside of Denver. All their animals are
rescues and their mission is to educate the public about
the ecological importance of wolves, coyotes and foxes. I'm really excited. This is going to be the
first time in my life that I've entered an
enclosure with wolves. I'm gonna get to meet
the wolves at some point and then the ultimate payoff will be us actually feeding some of
the wolves, a deer carcass. Several days ago, Darlene
and her team acquired a deer that was hit by a car. And we're gonna get the chance to place that carcass in enclosure, enter it and watch and film
these wolves actually do what it is that they do. Wolves eating, this is going
to be an epic day today. Today I'll be working with
founder and CEO, Darlene Kobobel. Early in her life, Darlene
was terrified of wolves due to their misrepresentation
in popular culture. - (indistinct), good girl. My love for wolves
started a long time ago, actually by rescuing a
wolf dog from a shelter that was gonna be euthanized. And when I rescued her, she actually became my
inspiration of wanting to be a voice for wolves. This has been a long journey
to get to this point here. My heart and soul goes
into wanting to be a voice for wolves and I'm excited about one day, getting them back out into the wild. - [Coyote] Through this relationship Darlene overcame her fears
and recognize that her path in life was to not only rescue wolves but to help others see
them in a positive light. (Darlene howling) My goal is to do the same. I have no fear around wolves. I'm genuinely excited to
work with these animals and I definitely want to
make a good first impression. To prepare for this moment, Darlene suggested that I get to know some of the center's other ambassadors. So in the days leading
up to my wolf encounter, I was given the chance to
work with a pair of red foxes, where I witnessed their clever tactics for outwitting a human. Hi, how are you? Look at this. The same cleverness that would
be exemplified by a wolf. That's cool mate. Alright, there he go. He's got my glove, let's see what happens. No, no, no. Look, who got the glove back. Oh, I got it. After that, Darlene
introduced me to a coyote. Posturing and tone played a crucial role in deciding an animal's
acceptance of humans. And it just a matter of minutes, I was able to earn the coyote's trust. This is amazing, amazing. I thought it was gonna
take so much longer for him to get comfortable. He must know that I'm one
of his friendly cousins. This was a huge step
for me and demonstrates that even a timid animal, felt
comfortable in my presence. By successfully interacting
with these smaller canids, Darlene is now confident
that I am ready to advance to the next level. Entering an enclosure with wolves. (howling wolf) The gray wolf is considered
the largest of the canids. Males can reach 150 pounds. And while they do grow
larger than the females, a lady wolf only weighs
in at around 90 pounds. My first encounter will be
with a wolf known as Orenda. Like all wolves Orenda
is always on high alert with her sensors firing on all cylinders. Front facing eyes provide an
incredible field of vision with highly tuned depth perception. Ears pert, this wolf can
hear sound frequencies for many miles away and
could detect a multitude of sounds human ears cannot. But Orenda's most
powerful tool is her nose which contains roughly 300
million olfactory receptors, making her sense of smell 40 times greater than that of a human. I mention these senses because
they immediately allow Orenda to tune in with foreign
objects like cameras and bearded strangers that
are about to enter her home. Now Darlene said, I need to take off the
majority of my outer clothing. That's so that the wolves
don't grab onto my hood. As you can see, this
jacket has some fur on it which looks like a great
thing for a wolf to grab onto and play with and they're
extremely powerful. Last thing I want to happen
is for a wolf to grab me and start dragging me somewhere. So I'm gonna also take off this vest and then I'm gonna put on my
wolf warrior in training vest. Now Darlene did also
say to take off my hat because the wolves may take it but it's keeping my head warm right now. So I think we'll just see what happens. And I think at this
point I'm ready to enter into the enclosure and
become one of the wolf pack. Here we go, a coyote meeting wolves. All right, Darlene. I'm geared up, I kept the hat on. If they take the hat, I feel
like I'll be okay with it. - Okay, sounds good. - All right, so through here. - Yes, are you ready? - Yeah, I think I'm ready, I'm excited. - So I'm gonna let you in first and I'm gonna shut the door after you. - Okay. - It's a double gate system. Secure, all right so this
is our second gate here. It's a big step down, so be real careful. It's icy out here in January. Okay, so the white one up
there, the little Arctic wolf, his name, he's a male is Esha. - [Coyote] Hi Esha. - And then we have Orenda
and that's over here. And that's the female. There she is. So she probably likes you to
get down on her level there, as you can see, there's some
deer fur that you're sitting in right there and palm off with her. Oh, she's giving you some kisses. - Hi, how are you? How are you, this is amazing. My first face-to-face
encounter with a wolf. I see your paw, it's so big. Wow, it's amazing being right
next to a wolf like this. They're a lot bigger than you would think, especially those paws
and just let her check me out right now. Yeah, I see. Is it okay for me to be here? Now what's the best way
for me to seem submissive to this wolf Darlene? - [Darlene] Always be down on her level. And when you go to pet them, you want under the chin
instead of on top of the head because she can see your hand that way because it can make them
nervous if you're going over the top of the head. - So how old is she? - [Darlene] She is two years of age. So she's pretty much still a pup, those beautiful yellow eyes that she has. - [Coyote] But she's pretty much full size right now, correct? - Yeah, she is. She has a full winter coat on, weight on her would probably
be around 80 pounds, 70, 70, 80 pounds. And she is a gray wolf or
also known as timber wolf, gray wolf and timber wolf
same thing just depends on where you live and what you call them. - I would say she's the
most quintessential look when you think wolf, she is sort of that perfect color design. They come in multiple
different color phases. There's like this gray
mixture, black, white. Is there any other that
mix in there as well? - You know that your typical
is gonna be what we call a silver gray, like what you see there, they can be in shades of black,
black and sort of a cream. They can have some reddish tones in there but that is your most typical. When you think of a gray
wolf or timber wolf, that's sort of what you think. Orenda, Orenda. - [Coyote] So is there
a key word or phrase that you use to bring
her in closer to you? - She likes high pitched voices. And if you say treats really high, she definitely is treat motivated. So she likes that as well. And she knows I have
a couple of my pocket. - I see.
- And so she's checking you out and she saw there's
something else fuzzy there. She wants something fuzzy. So what you wanna do is make
sure that she's not getting behind your neck there because
she'll wanna steal that. Oh, she said, I'll give you a kiss. - Now, I did grow out this
beard just for you guys. (growling wolf) - [Darlene] No, none of that. - What is she saying with
that little growl there? - She's saying that she wants,
doesn't want you to lay down. She wants you to sit up like that and she's probably wanting your jacket. And so she's saying I want that jacket. She could be a little bit nervous because there's a lot of people in here. She don't know what's going
on and I have meat treats. And she's wanting that and not wanting you to take it away from her. And that can be. - That is the full wolf kiss right there. - Yes it is. And I'm glad that she has good breath and she hasn't ate or kill deer. So bring her over here. See how fast she is, here you go. - There you go. Yeah, it makes you nervous to
feed a wolf pieces of meat. You don't want your
finger to end up in there so as soon as she goes for it, I try to keep my hand- - It's calling eat like a wolf. - Yeah, eating like a wolf. It's amazing how fast she's-
- Very fast. And you're got to be very
careful with your fingers. So very fast, there we go. That's gone, that quick. - I see what you're doing. You're letting her kind of
dig in like that a little bit, a little nervous that she
might grab onto my thumb. - The way she is right now, I would probably just
do a flat hand there. And I'm what I'm trying
to do is get her away. So you can sort of just
see how quick she is and if it falls on the ground, let her, let her pick it up, yes. - That definitely gets your
heart racing a little bit, as soon as she lunges like that. And you can just see, I mean the power and the
strength and the speed, it's just incredible. I can imagine what it would be like to see wolves in the wild, a pack of them taking down
something like a moose. You think about how big
an angular like that is and how they work together as a team to bring something down, just being this close, seeing that power within this proximity, you can understand how they're
able to move so quickly to throw that animal off balance, to be able to work together as a team, to then take down larger prey. - [Darlene] Right, absolutely good girl. - And when it comes to
the pack structure here with the individual enclosures, I noticed that there's
two wolves per enclosure. Now are they both considered alphas within their own little domain? - [Darlene] What happens
is we try to pair them up, usually in a male female
combination there. I have had up to a six pack together but because you've
changed all the dynamics in a captive situation that does change, whereas out in the wild, they
can disperse from a pack, in captivity, that doesn't happen. And so eventually it keeps dwindling down to where you have two compatible pair. - Well, I think we've had the great chance to be up close and personal with a wolf. And now as I understand it, you guys actually have a road kill deer. You will be able to bring
into one of the enclosures and actually see how wolves eat. - [Darlene] Absolutely. - Okay, well I think I'm
ready if you're ready? - Yes.
- Let's feed some wolves. - Let's do that. - The wolf is considered to
be one of the most intelligent and resilient animals on the planet. So how is it that they're
struggling to avoid extinction? The answer is simple, humans. Wolf populations have
declined due to no weakness of their own but instead
these animals have been the victim of ruthless persecution. To date across the world, wolves had been eradicated from almost all of their original range. In the United States alone, they now only occupy 10%
of their former range. Over hunting for the fur
trade, eradication by ranchers who were protecting their
livestock and deforestation are just a few examples of what have driven wolves toward extinction. So here's what's happening. This is the first time a
film crew has ever gone in with a road kill deer to film wolves. The two wolves whose enclosure
we're entering are actually the wildest wolves on the property. So we're trying to make
sure we're taking all the proper safety precautions before going through with this exercise. As you can see, we have in mule deer
here in this wheelbarrow. The deer was struck by
car and this is great. This is part great
enrichment for the wolves. This is completely natural
food for them to be eating. But like I said, this is the first time anyone
will have entered into closure with these wolves to
do a filming like this. So we've got to make sure
we get everything right. This is gonna be wild. (indistinct) right. Entering into the first gate here. This is it, all right Darlene I have you. Open the gate, I'm gonna need to try to
move as quick as I can to get the carcass up on the hillside before the wolves converge on it. - So you have Rock Shaw here. He's probably gonna be your one that's gonna take it quicker than her 'cause she's up at the top. So he's one that we'll have
to watch out for, the male. - Okay, great. Here we go. Pulling a mule deer carcass
into an enclosure of wolves. Alright, let's go. All right, not going to follow me. I'm bringing it up. Dinner's served boys and girls. Okay, okay. Now what we wanna do is just
stay a safe distance back. And the wolves are coming
straight in for the carcass. Here we go. I don't wanna make them feel as if they're being challenged at all. Look at that, this wolf
is so incredibly powerful. This is a small deer, right? A single wolf can pull a
150-pound deer up hill like this. Okay, as the wolves begin to pull it we can slowly follow to get closer. And you can see the male, the alpha male is very much gonna be the first one to feed. In the pack mentality, it's always the alphas that's gonna be the first one to feast. You have the female, she's the black one, running
up in the background there. They're a little cautious at the moment because we have camera's in the enclosure. I see you big boy, you're good. That's for you, that's for you. Enjoy that's dinner, that's all you. That's pretty nerve wracking right there. Okay, beautiful. Let's see where the
wolf takes the carcass. And then we can set up and determine how we're gonna film this. Okay, I see you, move
down slowly like this. Our first order of business for wolf is to start removing that hair. They will eat some of the
hair and it works as fiber through their system to
remove any bone particles or parasites within the organs. Hench it's the alpha
male he's taken charge of the situation. The female she's very skittish right now. She knows this, that there's other people
within the enclosure, but as she gets more comfortable, she'll come down and also start feeding. When a pack of wolves, makes a kill, whether it's a deer, an elk or a moose, they need to try to consume the
meat as quickly as possible. There are many other
vandals that will come in and steal a kill. Wolves in the Northern most
range of their territory have to face things like
grizzly bears and wolverines, even something as small as
a wolverine will come in and chase an entire pack
of wolves off of its kill. So they wanna eat as
quickly as they possibly can and rip stuff apart and then
take it away and stash it. I see you, that's my gift from
me to you, enjoy that deer. He's just kind of testing
the limits right now, right? Walking away, making sure, okay, you're not going to get
any closer, are you? This is my deer. You think you're gonna get closer. I'll show you what a
wolf can do to a coyote. So we've backed off even
further from the carcass which has opened up that level
of comfort for the female. She's come down now and
she's just eating some of the scraps Now there some interesting behavior there. Female came in and just
for a second start eating. You see the alpha male is
definitely taking control of the situation. (growling wolf) By displaying his teeth and snapping, it may look as if Rock Shaw is being overly aggressive
towards Chakra but he's not. He's visually saying, let me have my fill,
you will get your turn. This is common everyday
behavior for wolves. And despite the fact that it looks scary, it really shouldn't be. I have been witness to some
pretty cool animal encounters but I don't think anything tops getting to feed wolves a mule deer carcass. I'm Coyote Peterson be brave, stay wild. We'll see on the next adventure. What if I told you that
everything you thought you knew, that everything you feared about wolves was nothing more than a poorly
written narrative constructed over 100 years ago. Think about that. What if the story has been
wrong the entire time. Consider this, of the
100 million cattle raised in the United States every year do you know how many fall prey to wolves? 0.01%, do you want to know how many humans have been killed by wolves
in the past century? Two, this planet needs
wolves more than any of us will ever understand. And most of us will
never do a single thing to edit the wrongful narrative
that has been written. Are you afraid of the big, bad wolf? If so, go and visit the Colorado
Wolf and Wildlife Center. I challenge you to face your fears and I promise you will walk
away with a new found respect and a feeling in your heart that can only be achieved
once you've looked into the eyes of a wolf. As a child, I dreamed of one day
encountering wolves in the wild. And it's a dream I hope
comes true in Colorado. If you live in this
beautifully wild state, please support Bill 114 as this initiative will
allow for the reintroduction of wolves into the wild and will put paws on the ground by 2023. We can't rewrite the past but for the love of wolves,
we can change their future. (howling wolves) To help us bring wolves back to Colorado, click on the link in the video
description below and visit the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. Hey, coyote pack. If you missed my earlier encounters with the canids of Colorado, make sure to go back and watch the episode where I finally came face-to-face with one of my long lost cousins and don't forget, subscribe and ring the dinner bell so that you can make friends with a coyote before the team and I head out
on our next wild adventure. What a good boy. This is amazing. - [Darlene] Very nice, good boy. - Hi Wiley, good boy. (dramatic music)
