Close Encounter with “El Lobo” … The Mexican Gray Wolf
From 1997-2000 I was invited to participate in the annual Festival of the Cranes celebration held every November at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the nearby community of Socorro in New Mexico. The festival was a community-based activity to celebrate the arrival of thousands of wintering sandhill cranes to the refuge and local area.
I conducted nature photography workshops and tours for the refuge and presented programs at both the refuge and in Socorro. Each year I was given more responsibilities and that was fine with me! This experience became a highlight of my career as a professional nature photographer.
In 2000 I was also honored to be the keynote speaker at the opening reception of the festival, which was held at the community center. This came as a complete surprise to me and what a pleasure it was to speak to more than 300 fellow nature enthusiasts and share my passion for photography and nature. But another surprise would happen as well.
In 1997, the project leader at nearby Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge asked me to photograph the endangered Mexican gray wolves the refuge kept in a massive pre-release facility in the remote region of the 230,000-acre refuge. Built in 1996, the pre-release facility covered 16 acres of varied pinon-juniper woodland habitat. Since I was in the neighborhood anyway, I eagerly accepted the invitation.
Getting to the pre-release facility involved a long drive through stunningly beautiful woodlands of piñon–juniper and Colorado Plateau shrub–steppe landscapes. Magical to say the least. I kept pinching myself to make sure it was real.
With a limited amount of time to photograph and under the watchful eye of a wolf biologist, I photographed the wolves as they circled around me, waiting for the biologist to feed them elk carcasses that she dragged into the enclosure.
While it was a little unnerving at times, what an amazing experience to have these magnificent creatures approach within feet of me. The wolves trotted and ran in large circles around me – sometimes coming within feet of where I was standing and just stopping for a second or two to inspect me.
I used a Nikon F4 with the massive and heavy Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens on a sturdy Gitzo tripod. I used both Kodachrome and Fujichrome film. These images are from slides scanned via a Nikon Coolscan 5000 with the VueScan X64 software with basic editing in Nikon NX Studio. My most published image came from this experience, and I’ve included it here.
Mexican Gray Wolf in pre-release facility - Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, NM. This has been my most published image of all time.
Pre-release Facility for the Mexican Gray Wolf - Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, NM (c) Jim Clark
Mexican Gray Wolf - El Lobo - checking me out - Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge NM (c) Jim Clark
Mexican Gray Wolf - Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, NM (c) Jim Clark
Mexican Gray Wolf - Sevellita National Wildlife Refuge, NM (c) Jim Clark
Mexican Gray Wolf - Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, NM (c) Jim Clark