Wolf Conservation Center Blog
The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the New Mexico Game and Fish Department announced today that the number of Mexican gray wolves living across Arizona and New Mexico has increased from 286 in 2024 to 319 in 2025 (an increase of 33 wolves). There is an interesting “Catch 22” that comes along with this seemingly positive news that is associated with a problem with the current management protocols of the species. Genetic Diversity Waning As the Mexican gray wolf population grows in the wild, and efforts to introduce genetic diversity stagnate, it will become more challenging to improve the declining genetic diversity of the endangered species. In 2025, the mean kinship of the wild population, or measure of relatedness, was 0.2404; full siblings have a mean kinship of 0.25. The resumption of captive-to-wild releases of family groups, in addition to the pup fostering technique currently employed by the Mexican…
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A newly revealed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document allows Catron County ranchers to kill any one endangered Mexican gray wolf who happens to be in the area of two grazing allotments near Quemado, New Mexico. The permit doesn’t identify which wolf the ranchers can shoot, nor does it specify livestock lost to wolves preceding this kill authorization. Several wolf families are in the area, including a likely pregnant, genetically valuable female wolf of the Elk Horn pack who was named Nora by the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri before she was released into the Arizona wild as a pup in 2020. Nora is one of the 21% of genetically valuable captive-born pups known to have survived such releases without their birthparents. “The permit allows the permittees to kill any wolf they see on private or federal land, in retribution for alleged and undisclosed livestock losses. This…
Distinct body form and high survival of coastal coyotes along the Texas-Louisiana border region allow coyotes harboring red wolf ancestry to persist decades after the red wolf’s extirpation from the region. South Salem, NY — A new study led by the Wolf Conservation Center Integrative Ecology and Coexistence Lab and published in Ecosphere reveals how red wolf ancestry has persisted for more than four decades after the red wolf was declared extirpated from the wild. The research shows that a combination of distinctive physical traits adapted to coastal wetlands and high survival has allowed coyotes to harbor, maintain, and pass on red wolf genetics. The study focused on hybrid-like coyotes referred to as “Gulf Coast canids,” living in coastal wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico that retained significant red wolf ancestry. Researchers found that these coastal coyotes form a stable, locally adapted wetland ecotype shaped by historical red wolf introgression…
Otter Nonsense
As I’ve mentioned before, we love to give our wolves opportunities for enrichment – experiences that will provide them with interesting sensations or challenges. A few weeks ago when Atka…
Route 22, Where the Buffalo Roam…
Since joining the Wolf Conservation Center as a volunteer, I’ve been lucky to see and do a lot of things I never thought I’d experience. Today, driving down Route 22…
Happy Thanksgiving!
We want to wish a very happy holiday to all our friends, including visitors to the Center or one of our off-site programs; all those who have donated time, energy…
F836 Update
We received some good news from the US Fish and Wildlife Service last week. F836 and M1039 (now referred to as the Moonshine Pack) have chewed their way out of…
Close Encounters of the Weird Kind
We’re constantly trying to make sure that our ambassador wolves have interesting experiences. Their enclosures are spacious and have natural varied terrain, but we also try to provide them with…
Into the Wild…
F836 (photo by Mike Clough) The Wolf Conservation Center is pleased to announce that F836, a five-year-old female Mexican Gray Wolf who lived at the Center for several…
Something Fishy…
On Friday November 14th Atka visited the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT as part of the Aquarium’s efforts to educate visitors about endangered species. Atka hung out in a spacious…
Help Protect the Wolves!
Wolves in the Northern Rockies are once more in danger of losing the protection of the Endangered Species Act. After delisting the wolves and then being forced to relist them…
The Wolf Conservation Center Goes, uh, Chimp!
There are few people whose names transcend their chosen fields. Yesterday, the Wolf Conservation Center was lucky to meet one of those people, Jane Goodall, world famous primatologist and environmentalist,…
Snowy Owl in Norwalk!
Atka is appearing at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk several times this month. During his first visit last week we received word that there was a Snowy Owl at nearby…
First post
Greetings! Welcome to the blog of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York (www.nywolf.org). We plan to update the blog as often as possible with stories about our…
- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 202
- 203
- 204