Today we’d like to introduce you to Raven Krise.
Hi Raven, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Having years of experience with animals: domesticated, wild, and exotic I decided to finally acquire my first wolfdog of significant content, Stark. I trained and socialized with Stark on a daily basis.
When I realized the potential Stark had to become an ambassador I started Wildefell with my good friend Janna Doyac. We held our first educational booth at a convention and Wildefell just took off from there.
We started doing photoshoots and educational programs with local girl/boy scouts and schools. We even picked up our first filming opportunity with a Mountain Dew commercial.
We have since rescued several others who are now in the program. I love what I do showing people of all ages how amazing these animals are and dispelling the myths that follow them.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There are a lot of areas where laws prevent us from traveling to certain places. Like working in Knoxville, we have to have permits from the city just to work there. Luckily we’ve gotten to know most of the officials in Knoxville and are on really good terms with them.
When Covid hit that shut down many of our opportunities. All of our education programs were canceled or moved to online platforms, which aren’t the same as seeing the animals in person.
Two films we were working on shut down production, and photoshoots were all canceled. It also affected socializing our animals in general. Luckily we pulled through it all.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Wildefell Wolves is a small educational facility that is just outside of the Knoxville, TN area. Working alongside our ambassador wolf partners, we educate the public about wolves and the importance they hold as one of North America’s apex predators while tackling the myths associated with these fascinating creatures.
We strive to bring truth and awareness of wolves to the public. We work very hard with our ambassador animals to train and socialize them for educational programs and photography and also for film projects.
One of the most important reasons to appreciate wolves is that they are a keystone species here in North America, and play a very important part in our ecosystem. Another reason is the mystical and majestic presence they have in nature.
With all the wolf hunts going on we’ve felt the need to be their advocates by showing others how much we need these beautiful canines and sharing our love for them. These animals are not blood-thirsty monsters as you see them portrayed in stories and movies.
Wildefell is also home to Pantalaimon aka Pan an African Pied Crow and Eivor a Eurasian Eagle-Owl, but our most known animal is Stark who played Ralph the wolf alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the movie Rampage. Stark’s understudies include Spock who has a calm loving demeanor and is great with children and is also our main educational guest. Khonshu is full of energy and very curious.
Octavia and Andy are our younger guys who are still working on being an ambassador. Not every animal will have the right demeanor for the job. Our animals have a variety of experiences under their belt including interpersonal meet and greet, posing for magazines, as well as acting in commercials and music videos.
Wildefell offers personal meet and greets, all kinds of photoshoots, and we even do weddings for the public.
For professional film work and convention appearances, we work with booking agents.
What’s next?
We have a couple of conventions coming up in July and September that is going to be really fun. Smoky Mountain Fan Fest was such a great show last year and we’re happy to be guests again this year for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: wildefellwolves.com
- Instagram: @wildefellwolves
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildefellWolves/
- TikTok: @wildefell.wolves
Image Credits
Shelby Waltz photography
Chapel in the Hollow
