Wolves Nature School

One hour from my village, Tsurui (in Hokkaido Japan) there is a nature school.

At this place, a dozen of wolves from Mongolia and the Arctic live together with a Japanese couple, Mr and Mrs. Kuwahara.

The Kuwahara couple keep the wolves to study them closely on a daily basis, but the biggest goal for them is to regain the whole ecological balance of Hokkaido by reintroducing wolves into the wild.


Extinct for about 100 years, the eco system of Hokkaido nature has suffered an inbalance by having too many deers and no natural predators like the wolf. The overpopulation of deer is causing destruction to the forest.

Explaining the importance of wolves and their important role in the forest, Mr. Kuwahara talked about Yellow Stone National Park and how wild wolves have successfully been reintroduced into the park from Canada 13 years ago.

Of course, it is a controversial issue to do the same in northern Japan as many people have settled and started farming here. Mr.Kuwahara continues to hope to see wild wolves running again in Hokkaido.

For me, after several encounter with wild wolves in Alaska and Yukon, it was intereting to see wolves here being so friendly to the owner and licking him as though he was an Alpha wolf!

Here is a website to Wolves Nature School. (only in Japanese, but you could contact him if you like since he is fluent in English.(He studies with wolve specialist in the USA)