Wolf Weekly Wrap Up

This Crew Found a Nearly Dead, Undernourished, Paralyzed Wolf. What Happens Next Touched Our Hearts!
This is one remarkable video. Watch as a nearly dead yet incredibly beautiful wolf is found in a creek. The wolf appears shaken and is paralyzed and frail and seemingly pretty scared. What happens next in the rescue is pretty incredible. It will touch your heart just how much this crew works to save this creature.

After the rescue, you can see the wolf slowly gaining back strength and coherence. Wolves are truly beautiful and majestic creatures — watch the beauty of a pack here. They also can make some pretty cute noises! Though wolves aren’t good as companion animals in most cases, we are so happy that people take the time to save them as they would any other sort of furry animal. It’s risky to take on a wild animal rescue, but it’s so worth it (please don’t do it if you’re not a professional, though) to help a creature like the one shown in this video.


NOTE: As an important note, do not try to help wildlife of any sort unless you are trained. Find a local wildlife rehabber/rescuer or veterinarian ASAP, or call a rescue hotline. Here are some that might help! 



Defenders of Wildlife Goes to Court for Lobos. Defenders of Wildlife and our conservation partners in the Southwest filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court yesterday to defend against the state of New Mexico’s attempt to block the release of Mexican gray wolf adults and pups into the wild.
In May, New Mexico sued the Service for releasing wolf pups, which are critical to Mexican gray wolf recovery. The state even went so far as to file for a temporary restraining order against the release of more pups, and to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove pups already released. But the Endangered Species Act makes it unequivocally clear: The Service is the agency responsible for the recovery of our endangered species. If the states try to bar the Service from doing its job, the agency can take matters into its own hands in the name of endangered species protection and recovery.
New Mexico’s lawsuit aims to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recapture the released pups and return them to captivity, as well to ban future releases of pups and adult wolves. New Mexico doesn’t have a legal or scientific leg to stand on. It is politics – puppy politics – pure and simple. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to do its job by releasing Mexican gray wolves into the wild. In fact, without more wolves in the wild, we could see these unique southwestern wolves go extinct in our lifetime. Wolf releases into the wild are a key part of Mexican gray wolf recovery, and critical to improve the wolves’ genetic diversity and chances at survival.
For the wolves to survive and for our Southwestern ecosystems to thrive, we need more wolves and less politics in New Mexico. Extinction is forever, and we owe it to our kids and grandkids to save the Mexican gray wolf.

Ensuring a Future for Lobos. Last month, the state of New Mexico sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for releasing captive-bred Mexican gray wolf pups into the wild to bolster the endangered wolf’s numbers and add much-needed new genes to the population. Though the Service is doing the right thing by putting more wolves in the wild (there are only 97 left in the U.S.), New Mexico seems to be more interested in playing politics than allowing the Service to do its job. So this week, we joined the case, filing a motion along with several other groups to intervene on behalf of the Service and support their authority to do what these endangered wolves so desperately need. Learn more about the case >

Wandering Wolf. Maybe he just wanted to get away for a while. And the wolf known as 1505 certainly did that. Researchers in Canada followed the progress of this collared wolf as he left his pack and traveled far north. It looked like he was striking out on his own – until he turned right around and came back, rejoining his pack in Banff National Park. But the remarkable thing is how far this wolf went, covering nearly 300 miles in just 13 days! Treks like this one may not be common, but they are a good reminder of how much wide-ranging animals like wolves, grizzly bears and others need large, connected habitats to survive. It’s exactly why so many of us in wildlife conservation are working to protect our remaining wild places and restore others to build a network of connected habitats that wildlife can use to find food, water, mates, and safe places to raise their young. Read more about wandering wolf 1505 >
Innocent Wolf Killed After Visitors Break Zoo Rules. A wolf has been killed due to repeated human error at one state's zoo and people are outraged.

The incident began late last month at Menominee Park Zoo, a small public zoo in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, when a worker left a gate to an off-limits area of the zoo open. Several visitors took advantage of the open gate to slip into the staff-only area and get up close to the zoo's wolf pack.

While one mother was busy snapping pictures of the captive animals, her four-year-old son approached the enclosure and stuck his fingers through the chain-link fence. A curious 12-year-old wolf named Rebel wandered up and nipped the child's hand.

The child suffered four small puncture wounds, which were easily patched up after the incident. But when the Wisconsin Division of Public Health became involved, things got much worse for Rebel, who was the alpha of his four-wolf sibling pack.
An unidentified member of Menominee Park Zoo's four-wolf pack. Facebook/Menominee Park Zoo

According to the Oshkosh Police Department, the Division of Public Health (DPH) considered Rebel a rabies threat because the rabies vaccine hasn't been proven effective in wolves.

Spencer Wilhelm, operations manager for the Wolf Conservation Center, told The Dodo that the vaccine hasn't been studied because no one wants to kill the requisite number of wolves to research it, but that all evidence points to the vaccine working. Rebel was up-to-date on his rabies shots through 2018.

Despite the zoo's protestations, the DPH let the parents decide whether to give their child preventative rabies shots. If they didn't want to, Rebel would be killed so he could be tested.

The parents chose to kill him. Rebel tested negative.
Now, former fans of the zoo are up in arms about the treatment of Rebel, with many pointing out that the wolf was just acting naturally and should never have been in captivity in the first place.

"I don't understand why this wild animal had to suffer for what idiotic humans did," one person wrote on the zoo's Facebook page. "Parents should have been punished for allowing their child into a NON-PUBLIC area."

"Why would a zoo educate children that it's OK to murder a wild animal who doesn't even belong behind bars?" another person asked.

Wilhelm said that while rabies vaccines are unpleasant, they only last a few seconds. To avoid that temporary discomfort, he explained, "a life was ended that didn't need to be ended."

People have questioned whether Wisconsin's public officials handled the situation appropriately, considering they immediately placed killing Rebel on the table. But unfortunately, Rebel's death is just the latest in a string of tragic decisions backed by questionable wildlife policies.
In April, Alaska sentenced a family of black bears to death for exhibiting defensive behavior — because a group of tourists surrounded them and chased them up a tree. The decision was fortunately reversed due to public outcry.

In May, a sleeping mountain lion was brutally killed in a minute-long shower of close-range gunshots in Nebraska simply for taking a nap next to a building.

And while rabies concerns are certainly valid, Wilhelm said, Rebel's death was an unnecessary one.

"If the parents were concerned, they should have put their child through those shots," he noted. "I don't, in my opinion, think that the wolf should have been put down at all."

To read about a similar case where a gorilla was killed after a child entered his cage, click here.


Fight Launched Over Plans to Capture Wolf Pups in New Mexico
Mexican gray wolf pupsThe Center and allies went to court this week to intervene in a legal case arguing that the state of New Mexico has no authority to block the release of Mexican gray wolves into the wild.

New Mexico sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month for releasing two wolf pups critical to Mexican gray wolf recovery. The state's lawsuit aims to force the agency to recapture the released pups and return them to captivity, as well as to ban future releases. We have filed to intervene in the case on the side of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

Releasing new wolves is an especially vital step in recovering and broadening the gene pool of this fledgling wolf population, which numbers fewer than 100 in the United States.

"Removing these pups would be cruel and would contribute to an ongoing decline in wolf numbers and genetic diversity," said the Center's Michael Robinson. Read more in the Silver City Sun-News.