While filming Operation Wolf Foster, I witnessed firsthand the immense coordination needed to transport critically endangered Mexican wolf pups into the wild. It took years of persistence to reach the point where I could document the work happening in the field and follow a single litter of pups from managed care to the wild.
When I documented the pup swap just one year ago, I learned that the program had been going strong for a decade, following the first successful foster in 2014. But it had taken nearly 20 years to get to that first foster. Since 1998 the Mexican wolf recovery effort has been an extraordinarily complex initiative, spanning state and international borders and requiring the collaboration of local nongovernmental organizations, tribal leaders, and state and federal agencies.
The decades of effort seem to be working. As of last year, nearly 300 Mexican wolf pups have been fostered into the wild.
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Now that progress hangs in the balance.
Severe funding cuts to the agencies that have been responsible for this work are putting the Mexican wolf—and countless other endangered species—at greater risk. And while the Mexican wolf recovery project may seem like an effort to save one isolated species, the reestablishment of ecosystem architects such as this wolf can have huge long-term effects on the health of our ecosystems.
As Danielle Rosenstein of the Endangered Wolf Center said in Operation Wolf Foster, “Mexican wolves play a key role in the ecosystem in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. They’re what’s known as a keystone species. And without them, that whole trophic cascade falls apart.”
As conservationists brace for an uncertain future, they are being forced to navigate the growing challenges left in the wake of the current administration’s policies. And for the Mexican wolf, the future may be less bright.
TRANSCRIPT
Sarah Holaday: Is everybody ready?
Holaday: Okay.
Danielle Rosenstein: This is what it’s all about to save this endangered species.
Pito Lopez: This is our annual Mexican Wolf population census, where we set out to get a minimum count and number of Mexican wolves in the wild.(…) To do this, we use a helicopter that goes out with a team to dart and catch wild wolves.
Lopez: It’s extremely hard to hit a small Mexican wolf out of a helicopter. So that takes a lot of training, a lot of knowledge of the wolves, a lot of knowledge of darting. Once they dart a wolf, they’ll fly it back to us.
Lopez: We’ll have someone go out there, grab the wolf. We then bring them back to the processing station here and check their health, as well as put a radio collar on them to track their movements once released.(…)
Susan Dicks: Do you know about what time the second dart went in?
Dicks: 9:06? Okay.
Dicks: Danielle, 9:06, 400 milligrams. All right.
Dicks: The wolf was darted with some drugs so that we can safely work on the wolf. We do blood tests, we do vaccines, we stabilize the animal with IV fluids and subcutaneous fluids. We’ve kind of advanced in all our evaluation to doing some measurements, and so we get lots of data from the teeth, from the body length, the feet, everything.
Dicks: After she recovers, we’ll take her back to her territory and we’ll release her back to the wild. And we found the radio collar will tell us where she is, so we will get to see that data that they rejoin. And we actually don’t seem to ever have problems with that. They find their pack pretty quickly.
Lopez: We’re finishing up taping a collar right now. The red on the shoulders identifies that they’re breeding. We also like to put some fun tape on the box so we can ID the wolf on trail cameras. You’re good? You’re ready? Yeah. That’s all good to go.
Lopez: The collar has both VHF and GPS.(…) On it, the GPS is how we’re able to keep track of the wolves. The VHF is real time, so whenever we need to look for a wolf pack, that is how we track our wolf packs as we’re out working out in the field.
Lopez: So this individual is Alpha Female 2503. So she came from the Endangered Wolf Center and was a cross-foster. She is a product of the captive program. So cross-fostering is during the springtime, we’ll bring pups out at about 10 days old, and we’ll introduce them into a wild den. This helps get genetics into our population. It’s very effective. And the wolves are like so family oriented that they’ll take care of any wolf’s pups. They’re like, oh, there’s pups. And they’re excited, even if it’s not theirs.
Rosenstein: So this pup was fostered in 2020 and is now the Alpha Female in her pairing. And it’s just really very exciting to get to see her kind of come to fruition and have her own pack out in the wild. Our sense is kind of the whole reason why we work at the Indian Wolf Center, doing what we do is getting to see these animals live their wild lives. I have a lot of feelings right now. I’m very happy. I’m a little bit emotional getting to see her here. And just really excited for her future out in the wild.
Lopez: Our next step in this process is to release the animal back where her mate is. Eventually they’re going to translocate each other through howling. By tonight they’ll probably find each other again.
Rosenstein: I’m feeling like pretty ecstatic that I got to be here for this. She has her feet under her. She’s out back in the wild now, hopefully finding her mate really soon.(…) And to get to be out in the wilderness with wild wolves is just incredible.
Maggie Dwyer: Mexican wolves once roamed all throughout southwestern United States and down into Mexico. And settlers moved west with their livestock that came into conflict. Mexican wolves were typically shot or poisoned to death.
Dwyer: In the mid to late 1800s there was an anti-predator campaign that tried to get rid of wolves and bears and mountain lions from the landscape. By the 1970s there were no Mexican wolves left in the United States and only a handful existed in the wild in Mexico. In the late 1970s the last few remaining wild Mexican wolves were caught and brought into zoological institutions to help breed the animals for future recovery efforts.
Dwyer: One of the biggest challenges left in Mexican wolf recovery is maintaining the genetic health of the wild population. And the safe population of being able to foster pups into the wild population is a great solution for that.
Rosenstein: We are here at one of our Mexican wolf habitats getting ready to give them some fresh water and food for the day.
Rosenstein: The Mexican wolves we take care of here at the Endangered Wolf Center are all potential release candidates for their wild counterparts. So we care for them as if each individual is going out to the wild.
Rosenstein: Mexican wolves are a critically endangered species. Some of the reasons why include habitat loss and hunting. Over the years Mexican wolf population has declined drastically due to the misconception that wolves are dangerous.
Rosenstein: Mexican wolves play a key role in the ecosystem in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. They’re what’s known as a keystone species. And without them that whole trophic cascade falls apart. They play a key role in maintaining that balance in the wild.
Rosenstein: Caring for these critically endangered Mexican wolves is such a unique experience. We aren’t able to train them like a typical zoo animal. So we have to use keen observation skills to make sure they are healthy and displaying appropriate natural behaviors.
Rosenstein: We limit our time around the habitats. We give naturalistic enrichment. We want to make sure that their pack dynamics are as natural and healthy as possible. So our family groups consist of typically a mom and a dad, the offspring from last year and then the puppies. The way we can do that is by having large habitat spaces for that whole pack to live.(…) The way we’re raising these puppies is to make sure that they are the most genetically healthy, well balanced, have great natural instincts and making sure that they can then go off to reproduce in the future.
Rosenstein: Alright, so we scatter the sense around the front of the habitat and we’re going to leave and get to watch and see if the wolves are curious and what they think about our sense.
Rosenstein: Now that we’ve exited the habitat, we’re able to watch the wolves come down and interact with the enrichment that we just gave out. One of them picked up a stick and ran off with it already. So I’d say we have a pretty good success on our hands.
Rosenstein: So right now it’s the beginning of April and we’re just a few weeks away from experiencing hopefully a pup foster. We’re watching moms very closely to see if they’re having any kind of physiological changes associated with pregnancy. We’re watching if her belly’s growing, if she’s starting to pull belly fur. We’re watching if she’s spending more time in the den. We’re taking very careful notes and coordinating back with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if any of the wolves in the wild are experiencing some of the same things. The wolves in the wild will start localizing around the den as they’re getting closer to giving birth and we’ll start seeing a similar thing with our wolves here.
Rosenstein: So it’s about three in the morning. We just got down to the habitats at the Endangered Wolf Center and we’re getting ready to head in to see how many puppies they have for us.
Holaday: Come on through. Everybody stay clumped together.
Holaday: People who have guard poles are on the outside.
Tamara Smith: It’s a male
Rosenstein: So we’ve just started pulling the puppies out of the den. Tami’s doing a really quick sex check.
Smith: It’s a male
Rosenstein: So far we’ve got two boys.
Smith: Male.
Rosenstein: Three boys.
Smith: Female
Smith: Male, this guy’s little
Smith: Male
Smith: Chunky little girl.
Rosenstein: Alright, we have two females and five males.
Rosenstein: And we’d like to leave a female and the smallest female, correct? Is this the only one? I think this one’s the smallest one.
Smith: Okay, let me just check this guy out real quick for a cleft palate just to make sure we don’t have any issues. We look good there, okay.
Smith: Alright we’ll put this girl back.
Holaday: Alright,(…) let’s go.
Rosenstein: Alright, so we’ve just got six puppies in this carrier. We’re heading out of the habitat to begin their pup exams. We left one female in the den to stay here and help contribute to the managed care population. And the rest of these guys are going to head out to a life in the wild. (Music)
Rosenstein: It’s the first pup of the morning.(…) So the very first thing we’re going to do for these exams today is whiz them. And whizzing is a very special talent. It’s where mom would actually stimulate the genitals and make the puppy go to the bathroom. But because mom’s not here, we have to do it for him. But we have them whiz before we weigh them to make sure we’re getting an accurate weight on this puppy for all of the treatments it’s going to receive today.
Rosenstein: We’re making sure that they look big and strong, that all their reflexes are appropriate, that they are going to be set up for success in a life in the wild.
Rosenstein: We’re going to be taking a little bit of blood on these puppies to do a health check-up. We are giving them a dewormer.
Rosenstein: Our veterinarian is checking their heart rate to make sure that it’s beating appropriately and checking their respiratory rate as well.
Rosenstein: This left one’s great. Good job, little one.
Vet: Just the regular location?
Rosenstein: Yep, yep, just between the shoulders.
Rosenstein: We’ll be inserting a microchip into these pups. This is going to be the first identifier when these pups grow up in the wild and they get caught again. This will be how we know that they were a foster puppy. This microchip number will stay with them for their whole life.
Rosenstein: We’re about to load up the pups and head to Spirit of St. Louis airport where we’re going to meet a Lighthawk pilot and head out to the recovery area.
Rosenstein: So right now we are getting ready to tube-feed these pups. We’re about an hour away from landing and in order to help expedite everything once we get on the ground, we want the pups ready to go.(…) We are doing everything we can to prepare for the next step of the adventure.
Rosenstein: Once we land, we’re going to meet up with the field team and we’re going to head out to the staging area where we’re going to wait to hear if the field team has found the den location and how many puppies are out there.
Rosenstein: They seem to be handling the journey super well.
Rosenstein: Once we get the go-ahead from the search team, these pups are going to go on about an hour-long hike to that den. They’re going to do a quick check on those wild puppies. They’re going to mix all the puppies together, make them all smell the same, and then put them back in that wild den.
Tessa McDonnell: So once we have our pups in a backpack, it’s my job to get these pups to the den site. This is a pretty intense period.
McDonnell: We’re trying to get them there as quickly as possible and we’re competing with rising temperatures. It’s getting hot in the day. We’ve got hills to climb, so we’re going over steep terrain. It’s rocky hills. You’re sliding down washes as you’re going down into the den site in the canyon.
McDonnell: It’s hot. We’re sweating. We’re trying to make sure that these Mexican wolf pups that you’re carrying on your back are healthy and in okay condition the whole time. I’m going to have to check these guys real quick. I’m checking on them periodically, making sure they’re cool, making sure they’re healthy while getting them there just as soon as possible.
McDonnell: We’re very close to the den and just kind of trying to stay quiet as we approach.
Field Team: All right, we’re reading your loud clear. We are a little past the location. So be careful coming in. There is an open face on the opposite side.
McDonnell: Copy that.
McDonnell: Ahead of us is another team currently locating the wild den. When they approach, the wild wolves often flush from the den and watch us from afar.
McDonnell: Once we get out to the den site, we’re going to pull the wild pups out of their natal den. We remove them over nearby the den to process them with the cross-fostered pups. We’re going to mix them together and we take their saliva for genetic information.
McDonnell: We try to make them all smell the same. That way it kind of tricks mom a little bit into thinking they’re hers. And then we take them all back together and put them back into the den very carefully.
Biologist: I’m Santa Claus over here.
McDonnell: It’s a really exciting endeavor to carry them into the wild and be a part of their journey and to safely take them and place them into their new home.
Dwyer: We started with zero wolves in the wild, so to go from zero animals in the wild to almost 300 is a great success story.(…) I’m excited for the future of Mexican wolf recovery. Our population is growing at a really healthy rate and I think we have a lot to look forward to.
McDonnell: I think what excites me about the program is that this is a multi-use ecosystem and it’s really reflective of natural environments that we see moving into the future and to be able to have wolves on that landscape is incredible.
Lopez: When I first moved to New Mexico, I heard stories of wolves howling on the banks of the Gila and for decades that howl went missing.(…) Because of recovery efforts, Mexican wolf numbers are getting back up. I get to hear that same exact howl and preserve that howl for future generations.