By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The door at the entrance of the Wood County Library makes it clear: no animals allowed, except for service animals.
Luther, a gray wolf, is a service animal, not for humans but for the rest of his species.
Luther was brought to the library by Matt Emmelhainz and Rachel Lauren, operators of Ironwood Wolves in central Ohio, to help shed light on the often demonized species.
Luther is a working ambassador wolf. He comes from a line of wolves bred for this purpose. His grandfather was a working ambassador wolf, as were his parents. While their wild relatives may help keep the populations of elk, moose, and deer in check, an ambassador wolf’s job is to meet people to let them know there’s nothing they have to fear.
Only two attacks on humans by wolves have ever been documented in the United States, Lauren said. Every year, she noted, 30 people die from attacks by domesticated dogs.
Still that fear and competition for game led to the near elimination of the wolf in the lower 48 states. A bounty was put on their hides in Ohio. By 1850, they were gone from the state.
That war on wolves continued across the country until some people realized the cost of the devastation. Lauren showed an illustration of a scene from Yellowstone before wolves were reintroduced in the 1990s. The grass has been browsed to stubble by the elk. Afterward the grass was higher, providing the cover that other animals needed to thrive.
While wolves can hold a population of ungulates in check, they cannot decimate a population as some hunters fear. A pack of wolves may go several days without taking down prey, and when they do they gorge themselves, consuming 20 pounds of meat. An animal like Luther gets fed every day and will live to 12 years old or longer. In the wild, a wolf has a lifespan half that long.
The battle to keep wolves on the endangered species list is a constant, Lauren said. It doesn’t matter who is in power in Washington. The hatred of wolves is persistent.
A recent proposal would be to put a minimum on the number of wolves allowed in a state — she said that would be 200, for example, in Michigan.
Emmelhainz and Lauren founded Ironwood Wolves, a USDA licensed educational and photography business, in 2013. They are not a sanctuary nor a rescue. The four ambassador wolves they keep were bred for this purpose. Luther, now a year and a half old, came to them when he was 11 days old. When they showed a photo of wolf pups, it drew a chorus of “ah” from the multigenerational audience that packed the library atrium .
Getting that young is necessary, Emmelhainz said, so they bond with humans, not other wolves.
They could not be released into the wild.
Luther is much more at home in a library, or classroom, even among a group of toddlers. For the most part, he ignores the human gawkers and their phone cameras, occasionally looking up. He’s more interested in having his belly rubbed by Lauren, or standing on his hind legs to retrieve the green stuffed toy that Emmelhainz holds aloft.
When Ironwood Wolves was just starting, people were leery of having the ambassadors in such close proximity to people.
So Lauren and Emmelhainz offered fine art photography sessions with the wolves. Lauren is a professional wildlife photographer who has photographed the Lamar Valley pack in Yellowstone. The wolves worked as models with fashionably dressed women. The images were shared, and people’s image of them softened. Now when the wolf is at the door, it is welcomed in.
This was the first of three wolf-oriented programs at the district library. Rosanne Parry, author of the best selling book for young readers, “A Wolf Called Wander,” will Skype with middle schoolers in the Pizza and Pages program, on Tuesday Sept. 3 at 2:30 p.m. in the Bowling Green Middle School’s Media Center.
On Tuesday Sept. 10, Nate Blakeslee will speak at 7 p.m. in the library atrium about his book “American Wolf.” The work of journalism tells the story of one particular female wolf in Yellowstone set against the backdrop of the controversy surrounding the reintroduction of wolves in the western United States.
That event is free, but ticketed. Tickets are available from the library or through its website.
