COCOLALLA, Idaho (AP) - Tourists scrambled over a fence to escape a wolf enclosure in northern Idaho after two wolves they had come to see with no barriers separating them chased down and killed a deer that had wandered in through an open gate.

The four visitors from Charlotte, N.C., were in the 5-acre "picture pen" at Wolf People along with a 5-year-old female wolf, a 1-year-old male wolf, and two 12-week-old pups.

Visitors pay to enter the enclosure with a wolf handler so they can have unobstructed views of the wolves and take photos at close range.

But a deer ran by the group on Wednesday and the two older wolves, Mimi and Mohawk, chased it and brought it down, said Nancy Taylor, owner and founder of Wolf People. She said the wolves did not kill it immediately because they didn't know how.

"These wolves are so domesticated, to the point that they get an opportunity to do what a wild wolf does and they didn't know how to do it," Taylor told The Spokesman-Review.

She said the 15 pure adult arctic timberwolves at the facility have been raised by people and never learned the hunting methods that are used by wolves in the wild. She said she was going to shoot the deer so it wouldn't suffer but when she reached the pen it had already died.

While this was going on, the tourists climbed a fence to get away, though Taylor said they were never in any danger and could have walked out through the gate.

"Not at any time did the wolves so much as come up to them and growl," she said. "Never once were these people threatened or their lives endangered."

She said that in its 14-year history, Wolf People hasn't had a single case of a human being harmed by a wolf.

According to its Web site, Wolf People supports the reintroductions of wild wolves to Idaho and works to remove myths that surround wolves. It also offers a "close-up encounter with a purebred wolf. If you're lucky you might just get a wolf kiss! There's nothing quite like it."

The deer carcass was given to another pair of wolves at the facility.

"We did not just let the deer go to waste," Taylor said.

One of the wolves that killed the deer, Mohawk, last month returned from the veterinary hospital at Washington State University where he was examined for hip problems that have reduced the range of motion in his right rear leg. According to Wolf People's Web site, hip replacement surgery has been put off until it becomes clear Mohawk begins to experience too much pain.