A couple months ago, I visited my family in Missouri, and we took a trip to a wolf sanctuary.

Wolves used to roam across all 48 of the contiguous United States.

Now, they're endangered.

Thanks to things like poaching, trapping, habitat loss, and eradication campaigns.

Some breeds have only 10 members living in the wild.

When we arrived at the center, we wanted to hear the wolves howl.

But she can't get within sight of the wolves.

They're actually really shy.

Instead, our two guides let us down a long gravel road

through the woods. After about 10 minutes of walking, we stopped in the middle of the road.

We had to be very quiet. The guides tried to get the wolves to howl at us from afar. One of them walked ahead

further down the road, and the other stayed back. They began to howl back and forth to one

another. Honestly, they sounded super wolf-like.

They were trying to get the actual wolves to join in.

I'm Johanna Mayer, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places. Today, a trip to the endangered wolf center in Eureka, Missouri, and the story of one extraordinary wolf who made

the center his home, and who gives us hope about the future of wolf's survival.

After this. The Endangered Wolf Center, we're actually founded just over 50 years ago by Marlin and Carol Perkins.

This is Jimmy Parsons. He's an education coordinator at the Endangered Wolf Center.

Marlon and Carol might sound familiar because they hosted a show called Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

And that was a show that ran for almost 30 years, and it was kind of the first ever wildlife TV show.

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