Heavenly Stare

Taken at Wolf Park - Battle Ground, IN

I can never resist getting a photo of an animal looking up at the sky, eyes lit up by the daylight. It's an attractive look on human portraits and equally stunning with animals. The animals are usually enticed into posing by a staff member holding something tasty like a hot dog slice, pepperoni or cheese cubes. I do the same thing with my cats less effectively.

Adult wolves generally don't have blue or silver colored eyes--they are born with blue eyes and they start to darken and turn gold within 6-10 weeks. In most cases a wolf with blue eyes is the result of not being a full blooded wolf. However, in Ruedi's case he is all wolf and just has this extremely rare coloring.