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‘They’ve been lied about for so long, you know. Fiction writers have written such nonsense about them for years.’

‘That’s true. Kids grow up listening to Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs and stories about werewolves and they become scared of wolves. But the old cliché – that they’re more scared of you than you are of them – is true.’

Then she asked if I’d like to help feed a deer to one of the wolf packs. I could see several wolves lurking among the trees in the distance, looking very nervous. The dead deer had been donated by the Missouri Department of Transportation after it was hit by a car. Instead of going to waste, it would give the wolves a welcome taste of their natural prey.

The warden handed me a long stick. ‘It’s your protection stick,’ she said. ‘The wolves won’t come up to you, but if you feel threatened, you can wave it. But like I said, they’re gonna be at the back of the enclosure.’

A protection stick. I liked that. ‘I’m sure wolves are terrified of white sticks,’ I said.

‘You’d be surprised.’

There were six animals in the pack – an alpha male, a female and their cubs. As well as an occasional deer, the wolves were fed a dry mix made specifically for them and they could hunt raccoons, possums and even any turkeys that wandered into their enclosure.

‘Do those animals just stray in not knowing?’ I asked.

‘Yep, they don’t know there are wolves in there, so it’s quite a shock. And these guys get to practise their hunting skills.’

The deer was frozen stiff. ‘Will they be able to eat this?’ I said.

‘Oh, yes. Think of the wolves in Yellowstone. They come across deer that have been killed by the winter cold. They’re still able to get in there and break apart the carcass and get the healthy, nutritious stuff.’

After dropping the deer in the enclosure, I watched from a distance as the wolves approached it very warily. The alpha male took the first bites, eating the best meat; then the female tucked in. Finally, they let the cubs come in and eat, too.

‘In the wild,’ said the warden, ‘the entire pack helps take down a deer or an elk, and they all have their roles. One of the cubs distracts the deer or the elk and then the alphas come in and take down the deer from the rear, by the neck. Then the rest of the pack helps bring ’em down. You’ll actually see ’em kind of take roles when they’re chasing. One will chase for a little bit and then take a break, then the next one’ll chase until they get ’em down. And they all help. So when they say it’s a family pack, they really mean that every animal works to get the dinner.’

When wolves hunt, they’re successful only about 10 per cent of the time. A well-placed kick from an elk can break a wolf’s leg or jaw. And there are no vets in the wild. It would be like us going to the supermarket and being chased out with a baseball bat nine times before we were able to buy any food. And the one time that we managed to buy anything, the food would be kicking and fighting us the whole time.

I looked up to where one of the wolves was watching me, the warden and the camera crew. ‘Look at that one – on top of the shed.’

‘He’s checking you out. We think we’re being quiet, but these guys have amazing hearing. They can hear from several miles away. One of the ways they communicate is by howling, which they can hear up to ten miles away, depending on the wind speed. So even though we’re quiet, they can hear us. They can smell us, too. When you’re out there hiking, they can hear you coming before you even know and they’ll take off running.’

‘They’re really wishing we weren’t here, aren’t they?’

‘They are. They’re ready to go for dinner and we’re making ’em nervous.’

‘You can see them coming round and saying, “Oh God, they’re still there.”’

‘They’re very shy. And that makes them tough to study out in the wild. You want to observe their behaviour and learn about them, but they know you’re there before you even know you’re there, so they run away. But being shy helps them survive.’

We watched the female wolf circle the deer cautiously.