Roger Palmer, UK Wolf Conservation Trust, Butlers Farm, Beenham, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5NT, England

The objective of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust (UKWCT) is to provide an interactive education program for children and adults in the United Kingdom to help them learn about and understand the misconceptions and realities surrounding the wolf. We achieve this by taking our ambassador wolves on school visits that provide a unique learning experience for the audience. We are trying to visit a school a week, where we talk to audiences of 10 - 1300 people. We also visit shows and fairs, walking the wolves around display arenas and giving talks, where audiences at these events can range from a few hundred to 80,000 at one county show!

The audience sees the UKWCT team interact with the wolves and are able to touch the wolves while taking in the information during the talks. The tangible nature of their experience, particularly for children, makes the message that much more powerful and "real" to the audience. The UKWCT is very conscious of not creating any misconceptions and the program stresses that these wolves are special and that they are not pets. We achieve this by comparing the captive pack to a wild pack and to domestic dogs.

The UKWCT further enhances its interactive education program through "wolf walks" with UKWCT members. We arrange for our members to come to the Trust and participate in walks through fields and woods with the wolves and volunteer handlers. To our knowledge we are the only organization in Europe to offer this opportunity.

The growing global environmental awareness bodes well for organizations such as endangered species trusts. However, we feel that we face a unique challenge in England where wolves have been extinct in the wild for around 700 years, open space is limited and the gradual spread of wolves through Europe from the east will not likely filter into the UK - although wolves are excellent swimmers. We feel that the interactive method of our education program is the best route to creating a new generation of wolf awareness in the UK.