Chocolate Covered Bacon...and Wolves

Chocolate covered bacon probably deserves its own post, but I'm rolling these two together, yes I am.

I have only been recently introduced to the concept (thank you Cheryl Barker), but apparently chocolate covered bacon is taking the world by storm. It was reported on MSNBC last summer, and this year it was added as a dining option at the Wisconsin State Fair. Oh, and if you've just gotta have it, you can order Mo's Bacon Chocolate Bar from Zingerman's. And while I'm plugging stuff, you can order pretty much every bacon item in the picture (bacon lunchbox, bacon band aids, bacon mints, etc.) from Archie McPhee. (You're welcome, Archie.)

So that's it for chocolate covered bacon. But wolves? Yes, well, first I have to tell you a little story. Many moons ago we were babysitting my sister-in-law's boys. We brought over a plate of nice, fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies and put them on the kitchen counter. We left the room to get the babysitting instructions from my SIL, then came back and looked around - the plate was still there, but the cookies were gone...and their doberman was licking its chops. Bad enough to lose an entire plate of homemade cookies, but do you have any idea what chocolate does to a dobie's digestion? I have never, ever been in such an oderiferous environment. And the dog just never stopped. I think it released enough gas that night to cause global warming on its own.

Now, back to the wolves. (Can you see where I'm going with this, now?)

A pair of arctic researchers were forced to abandon their wilderness project several days early because wolves started hanging out in their camp looking to score some more food. A few days earlier an airplane had dropped off a shipment of food including - you guessed it - bacon and chocolate that was to supply an eco-tourist group hiking through the area some days later. The food, wrapped only in cardboard boxes and black plastic garbage bags was supposed to be stored in an underground cache, but the pilot who dropped off the food never got that message and just left it sitting in the sun on the tundra about 100 yards from the researcher's camp.

When the food got warm, the wolves showed up and easily ripped through the packaging. Bacon and chocolate was enjoyed by all. And, as researcher Catherine La Farge of the University of Alberta put it, "They were basically having diarrhea all over the place. I was just really shocked."

See? It all ties together.

Prior to the chocolate & bacon incident the wolves would pass through camp ignoring the researchers, but afterwards, well, they'd kind of hang out. Waiting. Dreaming of chocolate covered bacon. So La Farge and David Wilkie, her assistant, abandoned their Arctic moss studies and headed home.

La Farge is concerned that now that the wolves are desensitized to humans she may never be able to safely go back to that spot for research.

All because of chocolate covered bacon.

Sources:
Canada.com (via Fark)
Canada.com (again)
Examiner.com Spokane
MSNBC
Zingerman's