New Year story featuring a gray wolf (PHOTO)

Oleksandr Bogdanov on his page on Facebook told the story that happened to him on New Year Day

"Today, life gave an awesome gift to me as an animal photographer and naturalist. During the annual traditional New Year hike in the winter woods in the "Dubky" tract, the village of Onokivtsi, my friend and I accidentally encountered… a wolf. When you see such an animal in a forest, the first thought is "A dog!". But instinct of self-preservation says that it is not. Two hunters walking ahead of us immediately recognized that it was a wolf on a hillside. They pointed to a black nose, the shape of the ear tips, breasts, position of the tail. First, I could not believe it. But when I saw the tracks, I was 85-90% sure that those were wolves… The animal was lying in the snow 20 meters from us, on the hillside. Apparently, it had been wounded by hunters. Later, we were told that an hour before our arrival, two wolves had been seen on the slope. One was lying motionless in the snow, and the other one was on guard. We watched them for a while, took some pictures and went back to the car. It was not possible to help the wild beast in that situation. This is my New Year story".