as the young woman makes her way through the Colorado snow she stumbles across a
gigantic wolf but rather than fleeing in fear she does a completely unexpected
thing and in turn the wild animal responds in the most beautiful way cacoa
the gray wolf has lived at Colorado Wolf & wildlife center some 90 miles south of
Denver for most of his life he was born in Florida before moving to the
dedicated wolf sanctuary when he was still a pump center staff thought that
both he and his sister Saqqara would be perfect to teach people about their
species Darlene Coble Bell founded the wolf
sanctuary in 1993 after rescuing her pet Chinook from an animal shelter that
shelter had planned to euthanize Chinook because he was a wolf hybrid so since
rescuing her first wolf kobo Bala's worked to provide a safe haven for
wolves and wolf mixes the center sits on a 35 acres site near the tiny town of
Divide the facility includes a visitor center and education amphitheater and
numerous walking trails and of course there are also a number of animal
enclosures where the wolves live gray wolves are native to North America and
Eurasia however wild grey wolf populations in North America have been
on the decline for decades due to hunting and loss of habitat today their
most common in Canada and Alaska if wolf populations are ever to thrive once more
humans need to have a greater understanding and appreciation of the
animals with this in mind the Colorado wolf and Wildlife centers mission is to
educate the community about these beautiful creatures and that's where
Cocola and sakara came in for their first years of the facility cacahuate
his sister were ambassadors this meant staff would take them off site to use as
a teaching tool however the center would only be able to use them in this
capacity for a short time they were both adopted from a facility in Florida
called Seacrest Wolf Preserve Michelle Smith from the Wildlife Center explained
to the dodo in 2016 we'd hope they'd be ambassadors
but sadly like most wolves and high-content wolf dogs once they reach
maturity they became very shy and retired at the ripe old age of two
although wolves tend to be cautious around humans there are in fact very
social animals they live in hunting packs and act like families for instance
when a female gives birth to a litter of pups the whole pack will chip in to help
sanctuary worker danielle was fascinated by these mysterious animals she'd worked
at the center for some years and loved her job she would even get stuck into
the sanctuaries not so glamorous tasks such as carving up raw meat and cleaning
out toilet tanks over the course of her time at the sanctuary
Danielle built up a strong bond with the walls I've always had a passion for
nature and animals she revealed on the Center's website these wolves have my
heart and I'm honored to have been accepted into their pack danielle was
close to many of the wolves but none more so than kokoa as of 2016 the wolf
was nine years old and known for his distinctive Silvermane and imposing
appearance and although his name meant brave one
he was actually rather reclusive however cacoa had a special place in his heart
for Danielle in fact the sanctuary worker could often be seen hanging out
with the grey wolf and his sister and in late 2014 a video of the pack together
showed just how close the trio really wants in the footage Danielle walks
through the snow with kokoa and sakara she then kneels down beside the two
wolves on the floor showing her complete trust in the wild creatures
Danielle allows Saqqara to sniff her face before long kokoa follows his
sister's lead then without warning he proceeds to lick Danielle's face
these supposedly fearsome wolf kisses are all over her face in a heartwarming
display of affection in return Danielle caresses the animals thick fur after a
while kokoa rolls over on his back and surrenders to Danielle's touch she
proceeds to tickle his furry belly just like he's a domestic dog in turn the
wolf paws at Danielle gently seemingly aware of his strength compared to hers
according to the shelter's website cacoa loves to greet visitors with wolf kisses
however shelter staffer Smith was keen to point out that this is not normal
wolf behavior since he was raised by people and bottle-fed from the time he
was born he's very well socialized meaning he enjoys the company of people
she told the dodo this is not the same as domesticated or tamed Smith added
he's still a wild animal and he does tend to show it when he's around his
sister a wolf in the wild would not act this way regardless people around the
world found Coco's demeanor adorable and the video of the encounter went viral
since being posted online in late 2014 the touching video of cacoa and danielle
has attracted more than 2 million views on YouTube and more than 6 million views
on Facebook furthermore some people credited the sanctuary with showing a
different side of wolves how sweet is this one such user wrote clearly wolves
and humans can coexist this wolf could easily rip her to shreds but instead he
enjoys a belly rub so despite the fact that many of our fairy tales have taught
us to fear the big bad wolf it's clear to see that there's more to these
majestic animals than their menacing reputation in fact there seems to be no
reason why humans and wolves can't live side-by-side and if that does happen in
the future perhaps we can say that it all started with a kiss I hope you liked
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