Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s newest litter of wolves is helping endangered populations in the wild.
The zoo announced May 31 that nine Mexican wolf pups were born April 27. While two of the pups will remain at the zoo with their parents, seven of the pups have been living in two wild Mexican wolf dens in New Mexico since the first week of May.
At just 10 days old, the seven pups, six male and one female, were flown out as part of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, which the zoo describes as a “robust multi-agency conservation effort.” The program aims to bolster the wild population of Mexican wolves in Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico through fostering, as the subspecies has been considered endangered since 1976. Zoo-born pups that are successfully fostered increase the genetic diversity of the wild Mexican wolf population.
Once the wolf pups arrived in New Mexico, members of the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team masked their scents and covered them in the scent of wild pups in the dens, ensuring all of the pups smelled the same so the wolf mothers wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. Then, after a final health check, they monitored the dens to make sure each wolf mother returned and accepted the captive-born pups as her own.
The two pups that are staying at the zoo, both female, are still in a den with their mother, 5-year-old Vivilette, but guests will start to see them in their habitat over the coming weeks. The pups will live in the habitat with their mother and father, 11-year-old Amigo, as well as their older brother Ahote, who was born last year.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago participates in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program as a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Saving Animals From Extinction Mexican Wolf program. The zoo has participated in SAFE since 2003 and has supported the successful fostering and cross-fostering of Mexican wolves, including pups from a wild pack being raised at the zoo and an adult wolf from the zoo raising its own litter after being released to the wild.
“With the help of our amazing SAFE partners, including Brookfield Zoo Chicago, we fostered a record number of Mexican wolf pups into the wild this year,” said Maggie Dwire, the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program deputy coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in the news release. “Fostering is a truly remarkable conservation achievement, demonstrating what can be accomplished when partners come together under a unified goal to recover endangered wildlife.”
