Wolves' early morning song leaves woman in 'awe'

An Ipswich woman was left in "awe" after a pack of howling wolves woke her in the dead of night.

Jill Calver, 54, lives in the Chantry area of the town and initially thought the sound was coming from a rogue dog.

The sleepy 54-year-old noticed the howls were coming in unison and guessed it was the 12 Arctic wolves at Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park - about two miles (3.2km) from her home.

Calver had never heard the animals before in the middle of the night, but said it was "beautiful" - thoughts echoed by the park's founder and TV presenter Jimmy Doherty.

Calver, who woke up at about 02:00 GMT, described what she heard from her garden.

"It was one howl and then others followed it," she explained.

"I thought that's definitely not dogs.

"There were no birds, no cars on the roads and it was clear as anything.

"The first thought that came into my head was Jimmy's Farm and the wolves so I was getting excited."

Her husband, Mark, also came out to enjoy the sound.

"The hairs on my arm stood up once I realised what I was hearing," Calver added.

The next day she posted to a local Facebook group to see if others in the Chantry area had heard the pack and many other confirmed they had.

"We can hear Jimmy's Farm when there are festivals - we can hear the music as clear as day," she continued.

"You can see the Orwell Bridge from my top bedroom, but you just don't think about wolves.

"You're living in Suffolk, in England, and you hear these wolves howling through the night... it was as if it was an amazing dream."

Doherty agreed and said there was "something incredibly special about hearing the voices of the wild, whether it's our Arctic wolves howling or a lion roaring".

"Hearing that someone in Chantry enjoys the wolves howling at night is just fantastic - that bond with the natural world is truly unbeatable," he said.

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