Hanging with a part of the pack

The call of the wild made an appearance at Woodmere Middle School as Atka, one of the younger gray wolves from the Westchester-based Wolf Conservation Center, visited students on Dec. 8.

Student interests spurred Atka’s visit as part of the sixth grade curriculum’s Service Learning Unit, and Maggie Howell, the conservation center’s managing director, brought him to the school. Founded in 1999, the nonprofit conservation center in South Salem is currently home to 27 wolves, Howell said.

Before Howell’s visit, the sixth grade students read, “Runt” by Marion Dane Bauer, about a wolf learning the ways of the wild and conducted research about wolves.

“The students had a profound interest in the culture of wolves,” said sixth grade teacher Diane Bentivegna. “After they read the book, the kids conducted research on the different issues wolves face.”

“It’s important to teach people about the important jobs that wolves have,” Howell said. “Stories like “The Three Little Pigs” and “Little Red Riding Hood” only create fear in people and make them scared of wolves but they’re not going to eat your grandma.”

Before the students got to meet Atka the wolf, Howell explained about how wolves live and were originally listed as an endangered species in the 1970s. Currently, the wolf population is relatively, stable but must be watched in certain areas of the U.S.

“Before we learned about wolves, I thought they were scary,” said Jessica Rebenstock, a sixth grader. “But I learned that wolves are apart of the food chain.”

Atka was brought into the library and as the students watched him, he walked around the room and examined his surroundings, Howell placed an empty coffee cup on the floor and when Atka saw it, he started chewing on it and then proceeded to roll around on top of it.

“Wolves don’t want their prey to recognize their smell so if they’re disguised with something else, it will make it harder for their prey,” Howell said explaining why Atka rolled around on the coffee cup.

Edward O’Toole, a sixth grader, liked when Atka came into the room and thought it was funny when he started chewing the cup. “The biggest thing I learned was that the fairy tales about wolves aren’t true,” O’Toole said. “Wolves are very important and need to be kept alive.”

The students are making a video to educate the whole school about wolves. “This is the second time the conservation center has come here and each time I’m in awe of the kids' reactions,” Bentivegna said. “They’re learning about endangered species and they’re walking away knowing they made a contribution to their environment.”