To help educate people about the misunderstood creatures, Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park hosts wolf howling expeditions each Thursday in August – provided weather and wolves cooperate, reports Canoe Travel.
Each Wolf Howls event – offered free-of-charge to park visitors – begins with an educational slide show to set the tone of the evening. Participants then load into vehicles and follow park staff to a location along Highway 60. The staff howl into the woods and everyone waits to see if the wolves will respond.
Algonquin Park is home to as many as 30 wolf packs with about five packs roaming around Hwy. 60 each day, and August marks the best opportunity to get a response.
"The key thing about August is that the wolf pups are big enough to be running around but they can’t stay with the pack and hunt, so the adults leave them at a site that we call a rendezvous site, which is kind of like a playpen area," explained Rick Stronks, chief park naturalist.
"The adults might leave them there for days or weeks at a time, so we know that there is a very good chance that the pups and the adults will be there night after night and that’s really the key to our success."
While not every wolf howl expedition is successful in contacting the creatures, the trip is still worthwhile, says Stronks: "While you are waiting you may be lucky enough to see the Northern lights, hear the call of an owl or listen to migrating birds."