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Vacation encounters with #TheWolverine, No1 and No2

Posted on 26 Jul 2013 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Vacation encounters with #TheWolverine, No1 and No2

Wolverine

Banff the wolverine (left). The animal (and this shot) are owned by Steve Kroschel, also pictured here. http://www.kroschelfilms.com
In honour of the new #Wolverine movie opening this weekend, it seems high time to tell the world of the real-life wolverine encounters of my wife and me.
We’ve seen a wolverine on vacation, twice (as far as I can remember. There may be more that I’ve forgotten, if you can belie’dat…).The first time, we touched a live one while on honeymoon.

That makes us sound so awesome, I’m tempted to just leave it like that.

But I really should qualify here.

While on our honeymoon Alaska Cruise, we took the time on the furthest stopover north to venture to Haines: we’d gotten wind of Steve Kroschel’s Wildlife Center there. Steve trains animals for films for a living, and his facility in Alaska is home to a wide range of animals native to the region (most if not all are recovered wildlife from injuries to the animals or their mothers), including wolves, hawks, reindeer (there’s a story about the exact species but I can’t remember it), a lynx, and a Kodiak bear. His tour is a bit pricy but well worth it: he gets in the cage with just about everything (might surprise you what he’s afraid to do that with) and he’s imprinted on all of them so they all think Steve is one of their species. I mean, where does one begin doing that?

We weren’t even sure his place was open when we jumped on a ferry, stumbled through town and rented a pickup to get there. We were so glad we did. Steve’s 2-hour+ tour (he says it feels like 15min & I tend to agree) is packed with info, but more importantly, he has an almost childlike energy through the whole thing. He’s excited to play with his buddies, and the feeling looks mutual as the animals play with him like a pet would.

Point being, meeting his wolverine Banff is the climax of his tour (hope that doesn’t give away too much, but I suspect lots of people are just dying to see a wolverine). He bearhugs Banff and passes him around tail-first so we can all touch a wolverine. Which of course we did.

growling stuffed wolverine on display at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association outside Parksville, BC
Oh yeah, pictured here is the second encounter (that I remember): a stuffed one on display at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association‘s site just outside Parksville on Vancouver Island, BC. A much safer way to have the kids see one of these, too. They were impressed. I think.Side note about the movie: we just watched the Wolverine / XMen Origins movie in preparation for seeing this new one. But we probably won’t see this new one for a while. Let us know how it is if you see it, though!

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So now what do we have to say for ourselves?…

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Lam Tang, Principal, ThatGuyWriting Brand Consultancy