Anholter Schweiz

The second day out in our holiday went to an animal park just across the border in Germany. The park is a Biotope Wildlife Park, called Anholter Schweiz.
Because we always have to take into account our own dogs that have to stay at home, it was less relaxed than we would have liked. It's a nice drive to the park, and the park is big too! So it does take some time to see everything.

Photography is becoming less important

On the way, I mainly looked around, but my camera still remained in my bag. Mainly because I didn't feel like taking pictures from the drive to the location. I also notice in myself that while shooting is still something I want to do once I'm at the destination, it's becoming less and less important.

Times change

Yes of course I love to shoot when I get to places I don't see every day. But if I haven't photographed, it's not that I'm disappointed. I would have had that a few years ago. In day-to-day life, I'm much more likely to reach for my phone to take pictures these days than even bother to grab my camera. Times change, and so do I... that's for sure.

For the wolves I needed my camera

Of course I did grab the camera in Anholter Schweiz. Without a telephoto lens, it would not even have been possible to get a picture of the wolves. And wolves ... well, that is and remains one of my favorite animal species. The ancestors of the dog!

We took our time for the wolves

With 3 dogs at home, it's not surprising that we took our time to observe the wolves. A pack of European Wolves lives in the animal park Anholter Schweiz. You will rarely encounter a European wolf in the wild. This wolf has a natural fear of people, and will therefore ensure that the distance between him and humans remains as large as possible. In addition, wolves usually move from place to place at night, and in one night such a wolf easily covers about 70 kilometers. Highways, busy areas, rivers... a wolf doesn't care. At night they traverse everything in search of their own territory and prey!

Wolves are really lazy hunters. They want as much prey as possible for as little effort as possible. That typically means that the older and weaker animals fall prey to the wolf, and yes, that also makes the sheep in the meadow easy prey for wolves. It is also understandable that farmers are not happy about this.

When we were watching it was feeding time for the wolves and as you can see they were presented with a prey animal which showed the natural behavior of the wolf, and we could also see the ranking.

As a true animal lover and vegetarian who can't stand the fact that animals have to be killed for food, my partner found it a little less pleasant to see. But of course he also understands the natural needs of a wolf.

More in the next blog

After the wolves we went through the rest of the park at a slightly faster pace, which was very worthwhile. And of which I will share more photos in a next blog. The restaurant was certainly special.

See you next time!

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