Karin Bloch

In 1990 Karin and her husband came from Germany to attend one of Wolf Park's Wolf Behavior Seminars. The following year, Dr. Klinghammer called Karin and asked if she would be willing to come back to Wolf Park and be a puppy mother for our 1992 litter. Karin agreed and since that time she has returned to Wolf Park every April, sometimes accompanied by her dachshund Kashtin, to lend her experience, expertise and love to raising new wolf puppies.

In 1994, Dr. Klinghammer named a pup after Karin Bloch, and Karin the wolf is now beta female in the main pack.

As the head puppy mother, Karin has an awesome responsibility caring for the new wolf pups. She is responsible for feeding, monitoring their health, and maintaining their proper diet. But even more, she is responsible for ensuring they receive the proper amount of human contact. While to the uninitiated this may seem a simple task, it is not. Karin is with the pups round the clock for that first month, trying to meet their every need. During the same period, she is training others in the duties, responsibilities and proper techniques involved in raising pups so they can take over when she leaves to return to her home. Through Karin we ensure continuity in our method of hand-raising pups from one year to the next as well as through each puppy season.

Karin and her husband Gⁿnther live in Germany where they care for over 20 dogs and two wolves. Gⁿnther is the vice president of the Society for the Protection of Wolves. He is heavily involved with the Livestock Guarding Dog Project in Slovakia in consultation with Dr. Raymond Coppinger, colleague of Dr. Klinghammer. Dr. Coppinger introduced livestock guarding dogs in the U.S. at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Both Karin and Gⁿnther have spent time observing wolves in the Canadian Rockies with Dr. Paul Pacquet over the past several summers.

Anyone who has observed our wolves can readily see the rewards of a successful socialization program. There is no doubt that Karin Bloch, through her tireless efforts and unselfish attitude, has been the major contributor to this success. We are proud of her and her contributions, and hope she will continue to return here each spring for years to come.

Runar Ness

Runar, now 40, has been interested in wolves since he was 15. He has been pursuing his interest in wolves with studies over the past 12 years which have included volunteer work at a local wolf facility in Norway. He has also attended both the Wolf Behavior Seminar and the advanced behavior seminar at Wolf Park held during the breeding season. He returned again this spring to acquire experience raising puppies for he will be helping to socialize wolf pups for the facility in Norway. The facility is the Langedrag Vildmarks Park, Tunhovd, Nesbyen, Norway. This facility, located in a beautiful setting, 1000m above sea level, has been in operation for 15 years. It is currently home to 7 wolves, 4 lynx and other animals typical of the Norwegian forest. If you would like to find out more about wolves in Norway, please contact Runar at nrunar@online.no.

Claudia is a German biology student in her second year of college who is especially interested in animal behavior and psychology. She also enjoys recording and analyzing various wolf vocalizations to make comparisons between different canid species on sonograms. She plans to work on a one-year project at the Wilhelm und Alexander Humboldt University in Germany. The leader of the Project is Prof. Tembrock, an Ethologist especially interested in voice analysis.

Wolf Park provided her with a great opportunity to pursue these interests. In September and October 1996, she watched the behavior of the main pack and attempted to recognize the wolves by their voices. She found that at least some members of our pack really have very distinct voices! Currently she is recording the voice-development of the pups, as well as helping to raise and socialize the two litters.

Claudia has also recently participated in other behavior Practica and Seminars at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. (For instance: the Eibl-Eibesfeldt Institution, watching human behavior and at the Konrad-Lorenz-institution observing and collecting data on the vocalizations of wild Canaries.)

She wants to work at either a German or an American university in the future.

Greg Greene

Greg has returned this spring to help with the results of all the breeding season activities. He is helping raise and socialize the pups as well as being a tour guide and doing assorted jobs around the Park.

Greg is an animal science major who recently graduated from the University of Delaware. He will be attending veterinary school this fall at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Karen Davis

Karen started out as a volunteer at Wolf Park during the Breeding Season Watch of 1994. Since then Karen has been a regular volunteer during the school year. She regularly helps do things like help clean wolf pens, give tours and other of the many jobs needed to be done at the Park. Karen has been wanting to work with the puppies for several years and now she is finally getting her chance.

Karen is a Purdue University student having a double major in biology and theater. She typically spends her summers at home in Buffalo, NY, and returns to us fresh in the fall, but this year she will spend her summer as a Wolf Park Intern. One last note, Karen recently got engaged to one of Miska and Seneca's puppy parents, Karl Tatgenhorst.

Lisa Wallis

Lisa adopted an Iberian wolf at Grupo Lobo through the Born Free Foundation. She later became a volunteer at Grupo Lobo in Portugal. When she arrived there in September 1996 the Iberian Wolf Center had five four month old puppies. She was fortunate enough to be there to observe the introduction of the puppies to the yearling pack.

At the Center, some of her duties included the morning enclosure walk (checking all fences), reporting any wolf sightings into the wolf log book, butchering and feeding, and also maintenance work. She met the wolf she adopted, although he only came within about 15 feet (he is not a socialized wolf). She also met Morena, an adult female who is socialized, but living alone as she was rejected by her fellow pack members. After this experience, she wanted more wolf time, so she saved up money to come to Wolf Park and arrived here on March 19th to help with the pups, give tours, help with the adult wolves ù the usual Intern duties.

In September Lisa will be working on a degree in animal behavior and conservation ecology at Cambridge University.

Ludger Bongartz

Ludger first came to Wolf Park as an Intern and Wolf Behavior Seminar participant in 1993 to help build the main enclosure for the pack. He also returned in 1995. This is Ludger's third stay at the park, but his first time as a puppy parent.

Barbara Schloesser

Barbara is from Weil der Stadt in the Black Forest in Germany. She has worked for 6 years as a helper to a veterinarian and five years as a nurse in an animal shelter. She has studied dog training in Switzerland and attended two of Dr. KlinghammerÆs seminars there. Barbara is currently in the Wolf Park Internship program to help raise this year's pups and learn more about wolf behavior.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs ⌐ Monty Sloan/Wolf Park For permission to use or for more information about wolf photographs please write Monty Sloan

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Last revised: July 3, 1997