Farewell Motomo

Written by our Director, Tsa Palmer.

It is with great sadness that we have to report that our wolf Motomo passed away on Monday 9th October. He was 15 and a half years old and had never suffered any ill health in all these years. He was found on that morning to be unable to move, probably having suffered a stroke. He remained a splendid looking wolf with striking markings even in old age. He came to us from Combe Martin in 2010 as a companion to Mai who had been separated from Torak and Mosi due to a dominance fight . Motomo and Mai got on admirably, producing Nuka, Tala and Tundra and living together in blissful harmony until her death 2 years ago.

We were uncertain how Motomo would fare after losing Mai but he coped well living alone but still enjoying fence running with his neighbours the Arctic wolves Massak Sikko and Pukak. Although Motomo had no early socialisation at Combe Martin he became quite bold here at the Wolf Trust coming near to the fence with people he was comfortable with feeding him and posing in the sunshine on the mound for photographers. He was an extremely photogenic wolf. I have no doubt that had he been socialised he would have been comfortable with human contact. He had such a genuinely lovely genuine personality.

We were never certain of his parentage as Combe Martin kept both European and North American wolves, so we think he was a mixture of both. Certainly his colouration and howl belonged to a European wolf.
He always had a great appetite, often catching large pieces of beef when they were thrown over then swallowing them whole. He always enjoyed rolling energetically on enrichment sacks and chasing pheasants or red kites who swooped down in his enclosure. He was a great character and will be much missed.