Where's Wolf Mom?

Had a few comments in the "flickr" links to my recent postings of photos of the five, new red wolf pups born at the NC Zoo.

Two questions were the same: where is the pups' Mom (not shown in the photos)? She is right nearby. In the same, off-exhibit breeding compound, behind the exhibit for elk and bison ("Great Plains").

Mom is part of the NC Zoo breeding group for the program to add to the wild population of red wolves.

The NC Zoo has had four successful births of litters of red wolf pups. Pups are raised at the Zoo until the red wolf Species Survival Plan calls for (and they are ready for) a trip to Alligator River, near North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Usually the pups of the North Carolina Zoo's breeding red wolves have their own pups in the Alligator River area, and those new pups are the ones that are released to the wild.

Our breeding wolves are treated as more "wild" than our exhibit red wolves. The ones that breed at Alligator River are further prepared for a "wild" existence. It is the next generation (when it reaches the right age) which truly lives in the wilds of the Alligator River area.

This is working rather well and the numbers of wild red wolves are climbing. The wolves are generally being well received and tolerated by their human neighbors.