Wolf Mountain Nature Center

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We went to a place called Wolf Mountain Nature Center today. It's about 1 and a half hours drive from where we live. We heard about it through Facebook quite awhile ago, but hadn't made the drive yet to go check it out. Today I saw on Facebook they were holding an event today and we had nothing better to do so we drove down to check it out. The center is run by volunteers and powered through donations alone. They don't charge admission but there is a "suggested donation". It was extremely educational. They have 4 coyotes. These were the first animals we saw. We learned their names, how they came to be at the center, and a bit about that species of animal in general. 2 of the coyotes they have were born just about 10 months ago right there at the center. Then we saw the wolves. They have 8 wolves there.. all of the grey wolf family. Most of them are arctic wolves, but they have a couple timber wolves also. The wolves were housed in 3 different exhibits. They couldn't put more than 1 female in each exhibit because the females fight too much. In one exhibit was the oldest male and female together. The oldest male was 10 years old.. that is about the average life span of a wild wolf. They don't know how long this one will live in captivity.. they got him when he was 6. Another exhibit held just a female wolf. They're working on building a 9 acre exhibit, then the lone female will move into the 3 acre exhibit with some boys. In the 3 acre exhibit were the other 5 wolves.. 1 female and 4 boys. They also had 2 arctic foxes.. which were adorable little white balls of fluff. But of course the wolves were the most interesting. The wolves hung out by the fence the entire time so we were really only a few feet away from them. They were very active.. if we walked along the fence they would walk along also and watch what we were doing.. (they were eyeballing my youngest son.. I think he was the bait, LOL). They did what they call a howling.. and got all of the wolves to howl and it was the coolest thing ever! We also witnessed a little bit of a fight. 2 of the wolves are in their "teenage" stage and keep challenging the alpha male.. but are quickly put in their place. It was scary for a moment.. but they stopped fighting after just a minute and went back to business as usual. It was such a nice way to spend the day. The kids had a ton of fun. They've memorized most of the wolves names already! We were told during the summer they have a lot more going on and do the wolf howls every Saturday night.. so we'll definitely be planning a trip back there when the weather is nicer. Although it was cold.. I'm glad we went today. We enjoyed it so much, and watching and hearing the wolves howling was pure exhilaration! Have you ever heard a wolf howl? Do you have nature centers like this where you are? Ever visit one?