Recently, workers at a train station in South Africa were reviewing security footage when they spotted something shocking: a pair of wolves on the tracks. At first, they were a bit puzzled — wolves aren’t native to South Africa, so what was the pair doing
there?
It turns out that South Africa is home to a small population of non-native wolves. Most of these animals were brought into the country as illegal pets when they were puppies, then dumped into the wild once they got too big to care for. Because these wolves were raised in captivity and aren’t adapted to the South African ecosystem, they have nowhere to go.
A decade ago, Lexi and Ronnie Austen founded All Hearts Foundation (AHF) to solve this problem. They decided to build a large outdoor sanctuary for rescued wolves to live as natural a life as possible.
As soon as Lexi and Ronnie found out about the two wolves at the train station, they dropped everything to help. They went to the station to try to trap the canines, whom they named Hunter and Lara. Wolves are both strong and incredibly timid, so they knew capturing them was going to be tricky.
“Trying to capture these wolves was grueling for the simple reason that it’s a waiting game,” Lexi said in a video for The Dodo.
At one point, Lexi and Ronnie managed to trap Hunter in a crate and were relieved that they’d at least gotten one half of the pair secured. But then, he managed to escape.
“Believe it or not, Hunter had chewed out of the crate,” Lexi said.
The rescuers switched to stronger metal crates and were able to trap Lara, Hunter’s mate. He was hesitant to leave her side, even though she was in a cage. With Hunter observing from a distance, Lexi and Ronnie tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible so they could approach him. Eventually, they were able to secure both wolves and bring them back to the sanctuary.
“Wolves are very soulful and timid animals,” Lexi said. “It’s really important to build trust because if they don’t trust you, they’ll probably do their best to get away from you.”
Lexi and Ronnie introduced the two wolves to the sanctuary pack. Even though they were finally safe and surrounded by members of their own species, Hunter and Lara seemed restless, and their caretakers could tell something was off.
“Even with the endless space, they were pacing,” Lexi said. “We thought something can’t be right.”
A few days later, the train station workers were surprised to see yet another wolf on their security cameras. This wolf was a cub — and it seemed highly likely that the baby was Hunter and Lara’s.
The rescuers quickly trapped the baby and brought her to their facility. As soon as Hunter and Lara saw their baby, they finally relaxed. Now the three of them will get to spend their days together in the safety of the sanctuary.
“[W]hen we’re able to reunite a family, it really, really makes us feel proud,” Lexi said.
