The eyes of the conservation world were on New Mexico recently as biologists placed two endangered Mexican wolf pups – so young that their eyes were still closed – into a litter of wild wolves, deep in the Gila National Forest.It was the end of a remarkable journey that began hundreds of miles away at the Endangered Wolf Center in St. Louis, Missouri, where the pups had been born nine days earlier. The animals were chosen for their unique genetic makeup, and the hope was that they would be accepted and raised by their new family, eventually producing offspring of their own.Getting wild wolves to raise captive-born pups is a tricky business. It’s known as cross-fostering, and it has never been tried with Mexican wolves before. As the Wolf Center’s Regina Mossotti says, “Not only do the stars have to align, but the moon and the planets, too.” But with only 100 or so lobos still living in the wild, it is a risk that needs to be taken. Biologists say that infusing new genes into the wild population through cross-fostering and direct releases of paired adult wolves is urgently needed prevent the animals’ extinction.
Regina Mossotti examines Vida, a wolf pup, who was part of the first foster from professional care to the wild for Mexican wolves at the Endangered Wolf Center, before she is released in New Mexico.
