DIVIDE, Colo. – “The one thing I think love and will never ever get tired of is hearing the howl of a wolf,” says Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center Founder and CEO, Darlene Kobobel.
How would you like to spend the day hanging out with wolves? The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center has dedicated the past 28 years to wolf rescue and education. It is extremely rare to see a wolf in the wild, but the center gives visitors an up-close and personal experience with wolves.
“We do educational tours and we teach people about wolves, why they belong in our ecosystem, dispel some of the myths,” says Kobobel. “To be able to see wolves up-close and personal, that is special because most people will never see a wolf in their lifetime.”
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It’s been nearly 80 years since the last wild gray wolf was killed in Colorado, but that soon could change. In 2020, voters in Colorado passed Proposition 114, a ballot initiative directing the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to develop a plan to reintroduce gray wolves onto the Western Slope in Colorado. However, there are still many deeply rooted misconceptions about wolves that the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center hope to dismantle through education and awareness.
“Even to this day there’s that misconception of, if I go ride my bike out in the forest or I take my kids out to go camping, should we fear the wolves?” says Kobobel. “And we’ve had people that ask, what do we have to watch out for with wolves out there? Well, hopefully you get a chance to see one because they’re very elusive animals.”