DESTINATION: Seacrest Wolf Preserve gives hands-on experience and a ‘Howling-Good’ time

“Don’t mind the little snarls and growls between the wolves,” Lindsey Banks advises the Seacrest Wolf Preserve VIPs as they enter the preserve’s fenced enclosure.

The enclosure is outfitted, like all the other pens, with wooded forest, elevations, clearing, and a pond.

“[The growls] is just wolfy business,” Banks adds. “A way of communicating within the pack. I call it ‘wolfie-speak’.”

Banks is the director of operations and the facilities manager at Seacrest Wolf Preserve, which is located near Chipley, Florida.

Back in the enclosure, suddenly and without warning, the host tilts her head back and lets out a howl, which is followed by a series of yelps from the wolves.

From within this first corral, real howling begins…low, then deep; it comes from Pawnee, the pack’s alpha male.

Banks calmly waits for Dreamer and Iasha, other wolves, to join the symphony.

As each canine commits to the auditory vocalization, capable of traveling 10 miles, the sound reverberates throughout their habitat. A distinctive musical signature, used for claiming territory, locating pack-members, danger warning, and creating a deceptive harmony - giving the sensation of more wolves than there actually are.

The sanctuary at Seacrest was founded in 1999 by Cynthia and Wayne Watkins, who owned Oaks Farm out of Chipley.

A 430-acre enclave, 100 of those acres are now reserved as a 501(C)3 non-profit for the preserve’s 30 wolves – a combination of grays, arctics, and a single British Columbian – plus native species like foxes, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes.

Visitors to the preserve get a hands-on experience with the resident wolves. Pictured, visitors Vickie and Gustavo Lillo get ‘scent rubbed’ by Kaya, an Arctic Wolf at the preserve.

Already a wolf conservationist, Cynthia had accepted a solitary wolf that was in pitiful shape, after it was rescued by the Michigan Zoo.

Later, her makeshift pack grew as another pair of reclaimed canids brought the total to three and a rescue organization was born.

“Cynthia didn’t want it to be a zoo,” Banks confides, “But there was some town gossip going on, from people hearing wolf howls.”

Eventually, the preserve was able to save some pups and begin the process of ‘human imprinting’.

“A wolf’s natural instinct is to be afraid of humans. We are their only real predator,” Banks says, while nuzzling against Dreamer, who timidly creeps closer.

“At Seacrest, whenever [a litter] is born, within 10 days, every two hours, the babies will have contact with the staff.”

This human contact is to alleviate the wolves’ inherent inclination to fear mankind.

As such, having ‘bonded’ so thoroughly with humans, these wolves will become ‘ambassadors’ for their species.

However, this also means they cannot be released into the wild.

“These wolves have all the skills necessary for [self-preservation] - hunting, protection, etc. - but they would be vulnerable,” Banks adds.

Without their fear of man, the wolves would be at the mercy of sportsmen, like hunters in some of the Northern states where wolves, since Trump’s 2020 reversal of federal safeguarding, have lost their ‘protected’ status.

Their populations can now be eradicated up to 90 percent.

“They kill them with snares…bear traps,” Lindsey declares, disgustedly. “And shoot them from helicopters.”

That’s a terrible way to treat a ‘keystone-species’ like the gray wolf, which is an apex predator that helps balance the ecosystem.

With a diet of mainly large-hoofed mammals, this meat-eater feeds on feeble and debilitated prey. Weeding out the weak…keeping herds of caribou, moose, elk, and bison healthier, by culling the diseased and decrepit from their ranks.

Lindsey Banks, Seacrest Wolf Preserve’s director of operations and the facilities manager, shares a howl with Iasha, one of the preserve’s American Gray Wolves.

Seacrest’s motto – ‘Preservation Through Education’ – entails commitment to conservation of ‘America’s wild heritage and our planet through…educational programs’.

From hands-on experiences with their ambassador wolves, clients forge ‘relationships’ with these gorgeous creatures and appreciate their value, while preserve staff dispel any myths about ‘the big bad wolf’.

In Florida, wolf destruction is a non-issue; there are no ‘wild’ populations left.

Grays are not native to the Peninsula, and the critically-endangered red wolves, once local residents, were extirpated four decades ago.

In the habitats at the Seacrest Wolf Preserve, makeshift burrows can be found.

“The United States Department of Agriculture requires dens in the enclosures,” Banks notes; the burrows are used by the wolves or birthing purposes and hiding during inclement weather.

Seacrest’s wolves were digging their own burrows feverishly prior to 2018’s Hurricane Michael, even though the devastating hurricane was not expected to hit close to Chipley.

Despite the fact that the preserve’s humans were not expecting the storm to hit Chipley, the wolves knew. Overnight, the killer storm turned, slamming into nearby Mexico Beach, just 57 miles away from the preserve.

The morning after the storm, staff awoke to broken fences, felled trees and wolves running through town; one wolf was killed by an automobile.

Now, the staff pay attention to the wolves’ digging habits.

“Wolves are incredibly social. They have their own personalities and completely rely on their pack,” Banks explains.

6-10 members of a pack is the most common in the wild, but numbers can be limited to 2-7 in captivity.

Banks calls after wolf Apache, who had started loping away from visitors at a steady 5-miles-per-hour gait.

Banks explains that this is not Apache’s hunting speed, which can be a short burst of 35-miles-per-hour; it’s not even the slower ‘pursuit of prey’ speed, which can last for mind-numbing distances.

Just an easy canter, carried out in sleek, effortless movements.

As she calls for him, the gray wolf returns, thrilled to be petted anew and Banks strokes his pelt, already thinned out for the summer.

“Wolves have a ‘scent gland’ on their tail.” Banks exposes the location of this oily pheromone that signals infertility and can identify relatives four generations back. “It’s better than DNA. With wolves, there is no inbreeding…no overpopulating.”

This enclosure contains three males – Inuk, Spirit Prince, and Kenai – along with Kaya, the preserve’s sweet female wolf.

“We hand-feed the animals four times a week. Up to 25-lbs. at a sitting, per wolf,” Banks explains. “If they want to eat.”

All canines of the same pack are fed together - just like they would in the wild.

It seems sad that these animals clearly at the top of the food chain barely live to three-years-old in nature. In Yellowstone’s protected park boundaries, they might make it to seven. In captivity, 12- 13 years.

“We’re proud of our average here at Seacrest - 17 years,” Banks proclaims.

With sanctuaries like Seacrest and tourists who hail from as far away as Australia, hopefully these creatures will continue to thrive...and avoid extinction.

Vickie Lillo - Gadsden County News Service

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DESTINATION: Seacrest Wolf Preserve gives hands-on experience and a ‘Howling-Good’ time

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Gadsden County to host 9/11 memorial service

Havana American Legion honors the fallen 13 soldiers of the Kabul airport bombing

Havana American Legion honors the fallen 13 soldiers of the Kabul airport bombing

Recommended

Mount Pleasant firefighters launch holiday house fire awareness project

Chattahoochee DUI case ends with guilt verdict

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Welcome Back!

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