Join us as we celebrate International Lobo Week, March 25-31, 2018.
Cedar
Twenty years ago this week, 11 captive-born Mexican wolves (knownas lobos) were released into the wilds of New Mexico and Arizona for the first time since they were nearly eradicated in the early twentieth century and officially declared and listed as endangered in the 1970s.
In 1976, three years after the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the lobo was listed as an endangered species. With just seven Mexican wolves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined with several zoological institutions to begin a captive breeding program to save this wolf from extinction. On March 29, 1998, the first wolves were reintroduced in the Blue Range Recovery Area in New Mexico and Arizona: after more than 30 years, one of the rarest mammals on earth returned home to the mountains of the southwest.
To commemorate this reintroduction, the EWC and many other organizations around the world are celebrating Lobo Week and raising awareness of the plight of the Mexican wolf. But unfortunately, despite 20 years of recovery efforts, the Mexican wolf is still critically endangered.
Every lobo that exists in the wild today can trace its roots back to the Endangered Wolf Center, which is located right here in St. Louis!
Nashoba
In 1971, beloved zoologist Marlin Perkins and his wife, Carol, joined with a group of individuals to found the Endangered Wolf Center in an effort to address the serious plight of wolves at risk of extinction. Our visionary founders knew what scientists have recently confirmed: no ecosystem can thrive without its keystone species in place.
Through carefully managed breeding programs, inspiring educational programs and innovative methods for introducing releasable wolves into their native habitats, the EWC set out to change the fate of endangered canids.
And for more than 45 years, we’ve been doing just that. Today our nonprofit organization is considered a cornerstone of wolf conservation in America. We hope you’ll join us – this week and beyond – in our celebration of the lobo.
Mack & Vera
Meet Vera
Vera is a 4-year-old female Mexican wolf who came from Mexico to be paired with Mack, a male Mexican wolf. They got along very well and had their first litter of pups (3 girls and 1 boy) in Spring 2016. Two girls from that litter were part of the first efforts to foster pups from managed care into a wild litter. Last year Vera continued to make history when she gave birth to a little male pup named Nashoba, who is the first successful Mexican wolf pup born using frozen/thaw semen artificial insemination.
Mack has been a wonderful foster father. Nashoba’s biological father (Luis) is fifteen years old and lives at the Living Desert in California and Nashoba is his only offspring
Rogue
Celebration at the EWC
The EWC will be celebrating International Lobo Week with special events on our grounds. From March 24 – 31, we’ll offer public tours on Sunday, Monday, Friday and Saturday that will focus on our Mexican wolves, during which visitors will have an opportunity to write a “Wolf Wish” and receive a commemorative Lobo Week sticker.
On Sunday, March 25, the EWC is hosting a special Wolves, Wine & Yoga Howl, and our last Campfire Howl of the season will be on Saturday, March 31. We hope you’ll join us as we celebrate the lobo – and all of the canids in our care here at the Endangered Wolf Center.