Reflections from the Annual Red Wolf Summit
Could you imagine four days of meetings where the only thing discussed revolves around the American Red Wolf? I can! And I’m fortunate enough to attend such a gathering every summer. I’ve just gotten back from the American Red Wolf SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) summit in Pray, Montana—this year a joint meeting with the Mexican Gray Wolf SAFE. The SAFE program fosters collaboration, allowing many experts to work together and pool resources to make a big impact. We are able to utilize experts from each American Red Wolf cooperator and bring partners other than zoos into the fold, including experts from other species’ SAFE programs. Joining forces, we can learn quite a bit from one another while sharing ideas and successes.
The amount of expertise and information from these two groups makes for a very intensive schedule, not to mention having a translator for all the meetings. There were a record-breaking 115 people in attendance and many more attending meetings virtually! With a five-year American Red Wolf (ARW) action plan in the works, it was very beneficial to have break-out sessions around particular topics. As the head of the ARW Education Task Force, I was focused on the action plan’s education components. It was really inspiring to see the ideas flow from these informal sessions—it’s all about the passion for the American Red Wolves and the desire to see them live sustainably in their native habitat without human management. Ideas poured from the great minds of the US Fish and Wildlife Service staff, keepers, educators, researchers, and more. We were able to further develop some of the five-year action plan components with plans for the best way to implement them.
Photo credit: Jessica Suarez
It’s always exciting to hear from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These dedicated individuals are the boots on the ground saving the American Red Wolf on a daily basis. Climbing through thick underbrush searching for litters, following signals from radio collars, and flying in airplanes to survey family groups, these biologists are intimately involved with the in-situ (wild) population and doing the work every day to save this species. They are literally pouring blood, sweat, and tears for this animal we all hold so dear.
One story told to us of a particular American Red Wolf family really inspires me. Let me set this up—as ex-situ (under human care) adults are released into the wild, they are placed in acclimation pens. These large, semi-permanent spaces give the animals time to get used to their new surroundings while they are fed natural prey items before being on their own in the wild. Also, when circumstances are just right, a pup who was born in a litter under human care can be fostered into a wild litter where the mother accepts them and raises them with her wild litter. Recently, the USFWS team had great success involving both of these management strategies. An adult wild female, who was fostered into a wild litter as a pup, was captured and paired with a male from the ex-situ population. They were placed in an acclimation pen together where they produced a litter, then were released after the pups reached a safe age. USFWS team members observed the female teaching the male where to hunt and presumably what to hunt. Since she had grown up in the area and hunted successfully, she shared her knowledge with her new, uninitiated mate. They hunted a few times together, then the team observed the female staying with the pups while the male hunted successfully on his own. This story illustrates so many successful aspects of the program and proof that these management tactics work. It’s why all of us do what we do every day for this animal.
In news from the ex-situ population, it was a bumper crop for pups this season. 78 pups in 18 litters with 56 in 13 litters surviving. One pup was fostered into the wild. We are still maintaining the excellent rating of 88% genetic diversity of the 14 founders. In 2023, the SAFE program has added four new partners with American Red Wolves on the ground in new locations and has eight more potential partners coming. Expanding space for more American Red Wolves under human care is a critical component to the success of our program so we can reach our goal of supporting multiple wild populations—and we are on our way! Other major goals of the ex-situ population are to produce American Red Wolves that are behaviorally fit for recovery and provide the knowledge, empathy, and resources needed to have a positive impact on ARW recovery.
The goal of the breeding season is to pair American Red Wolves that are currently underrepresented in the population. We must pair animals whose offspring will be least related to the current population in order to maintain our high rating of genetic diversity. Computer software and skilled geneticists help us to achieve these goals.
So what will happen with Reflection Riding’s American Red Wolves? We are going to hold what we have. Colbert 2055 and Juniper 2153 will technically remain a breeding pair with a low probability of success given Colbert’s low motility. We plan on banking his sperm again this year with a visit from Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute researchers in the winter. This will be the third time to bank him and with some luck, we can collect and freeze enough sperm for IVF at a later date, if needed. Clay 2145 and Artemis 2114 will remain a companion pair and will be separated during breeding season—they are not a good genetic match to produce offspring. With the large number of pups born last year, we deliberately made fewer breeding pairs for the upcoming season knowing we have to place last season’s puppies next year. Our currently empty pen will not stay empty for long!
On the last day of the meeting, we awoke at 3 AM and traveled into Yellowstone to meet some of the park’s gray wolf team. We got a radio call from one of the team members with a sighting of gray wolves in Lamar Valley. Once we arrived at this location, we were fortunate enough to see, with the aid of spotting scopes and binoculars, four wild gray wolves wandering through a bison herd. We even got to hear a presentation from a member of the Yellowstone wolf team telling us details about the wolves we had just seen. Next, we listened to author, storyteller, and Yellowstone gray wolf expert, Rick McIntyre. Also, one evening after meetings, we were treated to a presentation from Yellowstone’s retired lead gray wolf biologist Doug Smith. These individuals are leading experts in the gray wolf world and we were very fortunate to spend time with them. They are the rock stars of their field!
2023 marks the 50th year of American Red Wolf recovery. Reflection Riding has been part of this successful program since 1996 and we are proud to remain a critical component to American Red Wolf recovery. Howl, yes!
