Spring is in the air bringing with it the arrival of new born red wolf puppies. This year, the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Program has confirmed 9 red wolf litters and over 40 new red wolf pups. In addition to the wild litters born in northeastern North Carolina, we are excited to report the first attempt to foster captive born pups with a wild female mother.

On May 5th, the North Carolina Zoological Park in Ashboro, NC donated two pups, a male and a female from a litter of six red wolf puppies born at the zoo. The pups were implanted with microchips for future identification and were transported to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. This was such an exciting day for the zoo and humor has it that the zoo officials were forced to draw straws to decide who would have the honor of driving the pups to the refuge.

Upon arrival, the pups were checked for signs of stress due to their long morning ride and both pups appeared to be doing fine. The captive pups were then inserted into a wild wolf den containing two wild born pups of identical age. Last year, the six year old mom known as wolf 978F raised six pups and the USFWS felt she could easily handle a litter of four this year.

Red wolves are highly social animals and have very strong parental instincts. Frequent monitoring of the den site using radio telemetry has shown that the female has accepted the two new pups as her own and is attending the den regularly. So far all appear to be doing quite well.

Insertions of this kind, known as fostering have been successful among captive red wolf populations, but this marks the first time zoo born animals have been introduced into the wild at an extremely young age. To date, all the animals released into the wild have been adult wolves, often coming from the island propagation sites in South Carolina and Florida. Fostering pups at a very young age allows the pups to be raised by a wild mother, increasing their chance for survival.

If successful, the ability to foster captive born red wolves holds many positive implications for the recovery of the most endangered canid (member of the dog family) in North America. The fostering method allows the USFWS a unique and exciting way to release captive born wolves back into the wild as well as the ability to enhance the genetic diversity of the wild red wolf population and overall survival of the red wolf.

For now the red wolf field team will continue to monitor the den activity via radio telemetry. No future den visits are planned as further disturbance by humans could decrease their chance of survival. In the Fall of this year, efforts will be made to recapture the pups. At that time the pups will be large enough to be fitted with a radio collar. In the meantime, we wish them well as they begin a new life in the wild.