Every year, the Red Wolf Management Team and institutional representatives get together at the annual Red Wolf Species Survival Plan (RWSSP) Summit meeting. As a member of the management team, education advisor, and Reflection Riding’s institutional representative, I always attend this meeting. This year we met in person for the first time in a few years in Tacoma, WA at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, which is ground zero for the red wolf population under human care. We met for four days to talk about all things red wolf with lively discussions, key speakers, updates on research being conducted, and a main goal of creating breeding and companion pairs for the next year’s breeding season. 

One thing to note is an upcoming name change from Red Wolf SSP to Red Wolf SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction). The Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan programs are changing and many of the existing programs will transition to SAFE. The red wolf team had already joined SAFE before we received this news so our transition has been fairly simple and will be a model for other species. I have been elected as the inaugural education advisor, and will continue to be on the management team and the blood champion. This will not change how we operate to save this species, in fact it should give us some added benefits. Our main goal and priority is to support recovery of the red wolf into the wild by providing wolves that are fit for release.

Why do we create breeding pairs — they need help breeding? Well, it’s slightly complicated.

As one of the goals,  we are making efforts to increase the current population under human care to ultimately 400 animals. There are currently 242 red wolves at 49 institutions. Every red wolf pedigree is tracked in a software program, and we rely on this program and the expertise of a geneticist to help us create breeding pairs. Our goal is to breed red wolves who are the most unrelated. With only 14 founding parents, our gene pool is very limited and maintaining genetic diversity of this critically endangered species is paramount. Red wolves are also only viable one time per year — females go into estrus and males produce sperm only in mid-winter. 

Our geneticist helps us determine a mean kinship value which guides us in our selection of breeding pairs. In the simplest of terms, we select wolves that are the most unrelated to breed with one another in order to produce offspring that are the most unrelated to the current population. We look at each individual and whether they are currently overrepresented in the population. If they are, they will have a high mean kinship value and will most likely not be selected to breed. For instance, our male wolf Colbert has been selected to breed because his genes are underrepresented in the population, meaning he has a low mean kinship value. He has never sired a litter (unproven vs proven), and is currently the most genetically valuable red wolf in human care. He was paired with a female last year at our facility, but they did not produce offspring. Additionally, Colbert has low motility. We banked his sperm last year and we will do so again this year. If he does not reproduce naturally, there is the possibility of IVF in the future. 

A lot of factors go into possible pairings besides relatedness. We also consider space at each facility; red wolf personality and size; the age of the animal; whether the animal is proven; how far a red wolf has to travel to make the transfer; and if the transfer can be done by automobile or if we need to request a flight from one of our flight benefactors. It gets complicated quickly!

The management team, led by the red wolf coordinator, comprises a handful of institutional representatives that have been involved in the RWSSP/SAFE for many years. We work together very well and each person has a job during this process. We have several people taking notes on what pairs we create, one person calculating miles the wolf will need to travel, one person monitoring each wolf’s move from the current facility to the receiving institution, and several people watching the overall process to make sure we don’t miss anything that needs to be attended to. Red hearts are drawn for breeding pairs and smiley faces are given to companion pairs, and the process begins to flow.

Another factor our geneticist helps us with is knowing how many pairs to create to increase, decrease or maintain the current population. Knowing we need to increase our population, our goal this year was to create 35-40 pairs which we achieved. We increased capacity this year with several new cooperators on board and we anticipate continuing to increase capacity. Great news!

In more exciting news, the canids discovered near Galveston Island, TX continue to be studied. This population has proven to contain some red wolf ghost alleles, with some animals having a high percentage of red wolf genes. This area was the last known location of red wolves prior to 1980, and it’s believed the red wolf gene has sustained in some percentage given the inbreeding with coyotes. Trapping and testing will continue with the goal of determining how much red wolf ancestry is contained in this population. 

When the meeting is over, we all go back to our facilities to continue our work with red wolves and to prepare for any transfers that may take place. Reflection Riding is excited to announce we will be making some transfers and receiving some red wolves. We’ll announce more about this soon!

This meeting is always a time of networking, fun, rejuvenation, exciting news, development of new ideas and a time to highlight our work in saving the red wolf. It takes a team of dedicated individuals to do this and Reflection Riding is proud to work closely with this program. Since 1996, Reflection Riding has been part of the RWSSP — housing, breeding and educating folks about red wolves and their critical importance to our ecology. With your financial support we can continue to care for our red wolves and play a vital role in this crucial endeavor to sustainably restore the most endangered canid in the world, the red wolf, to its native territory of the southeastern United States.

Howl, yes!