Page 16 - Gateways_Winter_2021-2022-flip_Neat

In 1976, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) put
Wolves continued
the wolves on the endangered species list.
The next year, USFWS partnered with other federal
agencies, state agencies, conservation organizations, and
Native-American tribal communities to create the Mexican
Wolf Recovery Program. It’s a cooperative breeding program
with the goal of reestablishing populations of Mexican wolves
in their former range. Seven wolves, thought to be the last
of their species in the wild, were captured and moved into
breeding facilities where they could be protected and studied.
Every Mexican wolf today is a descendant of these seven wolves.
The USFWS Recovery Program has been very successful.
In the last decade, the population of Mexican wolves in the
wild has been growing at a healthy average of 15 percent per
year and has doubled in size in the last five years.

CZS and Mexican wolves

“The Recovery Program has worked with zoos and other
holding facilities to breed wolves until they could begin to
reintroduce them back into the wild,” said Joan Daniels, curator
of Mammals at the Chicago Zoological Society. Brookfield Zoo
is one of 64 such facilities in the U.S. and Mexico. “We have
a very active program here at Brookfield Zoo,” said Daniels.
Daniels and the Chicago Zoological Society have worked
with the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program since 2003; all
of the zoo’s wolves are participants. The zoo’s REGENSTEIN
WOLF WOODS, which opened in 2003, was designed with
the program in mind. The exhibit promotes the smooth
transition of Mexican wolves from the facility into the wild.
The 2.1-acre site includes rock overlooks and live plants native
to the release areas. Tunnels and private dens provide cover
for the animals. An important part of the wolves’ diet is whole
carcasses, usually from white-tailed deer. Whole-carcass feeding
Above: Daniels takes body measurements of a Mexican wolf pup. This is routinely done
during neonatal exams to track a pup's growth. reinforces the social structure of the pack.

{1 The latest annual survey of Mexican wolves by 124 Pups born in
the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team (an arm the wild in 2020
Mexican of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program) found:

Wolves 186 Mexican wolves 72 Pups fostered to

by the and 46 wolf packs the wild since 2016
Numbers in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona (22 pups were fostered to the wild in 2021;

285 Mexican wolves the highest number yet in one year.)
in zoos and other holding facilities in the
U.S. and Mexico

16 GATEWAYS | WOLVES