Endangered Wolf Center in St. Louis

We saw maned wolves, red wolves, an arctic fox and more at the Endangered Wolf Center, near St. Louis.

This is an African painted dog

The adventure starts by booking a tour.  You can only visit the facility with a tour or pre-booked group, like a birthday party.  After about a half-hour drive from St. Louis, we came to the gate.  You enter a code for gate access and someone lets you in.  We drove about a mile through beautiful woods and then turned for a short drive down a gravel path.  After parking, we walked to the visitor center, which is large, air conditioned and stocked with stuffed toy animals, snacks, etc.  

Our tour started with a short talk about the species in the sanctuary.  The facility has been very successful in breeding African painted dogs and they had just sent a litter of ten juveniles to a zoo in Ohio.  Then, we walked to the enclosures.  We had a clear view of a personable arctic fox, but the other foxes were hard to see.

Then, we walked through to enclosures with the wolves and other canids.  We had the best view of the painted dogs.  One had just had some dental work and was separated from the others while coming out of anesthesia.  She was clearly very unhappy to be away from her pack!  Some of the other wolves could just be seen peeping out from the tall grass.  We also saw a snapping turtle.

The most interesting species is the maned wolf.  This long-legged animal is more closely related to foxes and is from the grasslands of South America.

It was an interesting and fun experience.  I would highly recommend the tour.


The arctic fox.  His best friend, a fennec, was asleep in a log

The adult male painted dog taking a nap in the sun

This is a maned wolf

There were thirteen juvenile painted dogs running around and playing with sticks


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