Timber Wolves Sighted in Harvard Hall

Four timber wolves joined more than 100 students in a Harvard Hall classroom last night for a lecture by representatives of Wolf Visions, an environmental education group which tries to expose students to the endangered animals.

Kent Weber, co-founder of the non-profit organization, said that his organization's primary message is respect. "If we can get people to respect an animal that we've been taught eats grandmothers, then hopefully this respect can be transferred to other humans."

Wolf Vision, which is based in Silver Cliff, Colorado, gave two successive presentations, which included an educational video and closed with the introduction of the four captive wolves.

The organization is conducting an East Coast tour of schools, according to Weber. He said his group had already spoken to more than 5,000 people in 17 states.

Eve F. Kaplan '95 said her future plans in ecology drew her to the event last night.

"There aren't very many places you can go see them and learn about them, so coming here is a step in the right direction," she said.

The wolves were led into the room on leashes onto the classroom stage. One of the four, Passion, was just five-and-a-half months.

Weber asked the group to howl in order to evoke a response from the wolves. One wolf, however, was scared and walked out of the room.

The presentations are only part of Wolf Visions' effort to achieve its goal of a large-scale return of wolves to the wild, Weber said.

"We run a sanctuary to take care of unwanted wolves and wolf dogs and provide education to discourage private ownership of wolves as pets," he said.

Although there are an estimated 250,000 captive wolves in the contiguous United States, only 2,000 remain in the wild, he said.

Weber attributed the declining wolf population in the U.S. to the practices of ranchers, not loss of habitat or lack of food.

"There are two main reasons why wolves right now can't live in the wild, and that's people and lack of education," Weber said.

"We started [Wolf Vision] because most people don't know much about them... They just know about them from fairy tales," Weber said.

Sam B. Truslow '94, one of Wolf Visions' Harvard contacts, said he first became interested in saving wolves when he attended a similar presentation at Sever Hall two years ago.