Back From Extinction: New Pups Breed New Life For Iconic Southwestern Wolf

Five Mexican Gray Wolf Pups Born at The Endangered Wolf Center Are Something to Howl About

With the tragic scenes of wildlife in the Gulf oil spill on most people’s minds, a ray of hope is shining at The Endangered Wolf Center outside St. Louis.

Five Mexican gray wolf pups, born May 2 at the center to wolf parents Perkins and Abby, were first publically viewed and inoculated by veterinarians Thursday on the beginning of their long journey back to the wild. The births add a significant promise to the recovery of a species once considered extinct in the wild. Only 42 Mexican gray wolves—often referred to as “El Lobos”--are living outside captivity in New Mexico and Arizona.

“It may surprise some that five newly-born wolf pups can make such a dramatic impact on the recovery of a threatened ecosystem in the western United States,” said executive director Mac Sebald. “But, when you start with essentially zero in the wild, these five lives make an immeasurable difference.” The sex of the pups will not be known until the veterinary exams.

Hunted, trapped and poisoned for more than a century by ranchers and the expanding population in the western states, the Mexican gray had been nearly eliminated from the planet. Only the critical and painstaking work of The Endangered Wolf Center and a handful of similar captive breeding centers have begun the arduous process of bringing the species back from the brink over the past 29 years.

The Mexican gray was designated an endangered species in 1976, and was considered extinct in the wild until their reintroduction in 1998 into Arizona and New Mexico.

The Endangered Wolf Center has been the birth site for 162 Mexican Grays. About 40% of the wolves born in captivity have come from the center which has been called “the cornerstone of the Mexican Gray wolf program” by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. At least one alpha member of each existing wild pack can trace its ancestry directly to The Endangered Wolf Center.

The center has also played a key role in replenishing the threatened red wolf in North Carolina where only 78 radio-collared wolves are known to exist. The Center contributed the first female to give birth in the wild and is the birthplace of over 70% of the red wolves now roaming free in the southeast.

The Endangered Wolf Center was founded in 1971 by Dr. Marlin Perkins and his wife Carol. Perkins headed the St. Louis Zoo from 1962 to 1970 when he became director emeritus. He is best known as the co-creator and host of the famed “Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom” which aired for 27 years from 1963 to 1990. A world-acclaimed zoologist and naturalist, Perkins passed away in 1986.

The Perkins’ daughter, Marguerite Perkins Garrick, serves on the board and has helped champion the cause of wolf recovery.

“My parents have been deeply dedicated to reversing the decimated populations of wolves and other canids,” Garrick said. “Their legacy is inextricably intertwined to the legacy of wolves as a wild species and an iconic symbol of the United States.”