16th May 2026

It's late spring and everything is growing well, including the grass in the wolves' enclosure - it was due to be cut, but that's easier said than done. Tundra and Tala are in the middle enclosure (where they've been for a number of years). It has the handy feature of having a fence and gate dividing it in two, left over from when we had to split the 2 acre enclosure to accommodate Motomo. The plan was to move the wolves into the northern half of the enclosure, close the gate, then bring the tractor (and meadow topper) in to cut the grass.

It sounded easy, but the wolves are now 15 years old and are as wily as ever... they know full well when we're up to something! We entered the enclosure, with Tala coming up to inspect us. She sniffed each of us in turn, accepted a fuss, with Tundra coming relatively close too. We then headed into the northern bit of the enclosure with the wolves following us, a somewhat different type of "walking with wolves" compared to the traditional walk around the fields. Tala was delighted with this and followed us eagerly as we walked across to the fence on the far side. Tundra, not being daft, loitered by the gate dividing the two sections of the enclosure and, sure enough, decided to flit back into the part we wanted to mow. Tala veered off and followed her, leaving us amongst the long grass and shrubbery. It was a pleasent enough experience, but not helpful in terms of getting the job done!

So a second plan was hatched - we would lay a food trail inside the holding pen, the long, narrow part of the enclosure by the kennels. This is reminscent of what we did on the photo days, albeit with the public in the holding pen and the wolves in the main enclosure. Intrigued, the wolves followed the trail and the gate was closed, keeping them safely away from the action. The tractor duly appeared (driven by Tsa's son Johnny - both Tsa and Johnny are directors of the Trust), and Tala watched proceedings with interest. Tundra, less impressed, decided to head to the very back of the holding area. Once the cutting was complete, and some low-hanging branches had been pruned, Tsa's two Jack Russels had a good sniff around. The big gate was then closed, the smaller one opened and the wolves were able to explore their newly-cut surroundings.

The rest of the day was much as usual, with the tortoises and wolves being fed. The only real change in the feed is they no longer have paunch (tripe), as the abbatoir that we sourced it from has closed. The wolves do, however, have fish as a substitute and they really seem to enjoy it!