The red wolf is one of the rarest mammals in North America, only about 80 live in the wild on the Albemarle peninsula which juts into the Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina’s shore. And right now is puppy season. Female red wolves give birth to litters as small as one or two, or as large as 10, in April. And that’s when work gets really busy for the red wolf recovery program biologists. About 50 were born this year, and the Red Wolf Recovery Program staff are still in the process of finding all the dens and documenting the litters. I spent today shadowing several program biologists in the field, and it was a very special day. Sometimes, the program slips extra red wolf puppies into a mother’s den. They get the extra puppies from captive-breeding facilities that are contributing to the species continued existence on earth. And yes, red wolves they take from captivity and foster into a wild den are pure red wolves.
To foster puppies, several things have to align. The captive-born puppies must be very close in age to the wild-born puppies, and they must be placed in the den before the pups’ eyes are open. Biologists place transmitter chips between their shoulder blades in order to identify them later. The chips are very small and are uniquely coded; they are similar to what you place in your pet. Biologists also must be able to locate the red wolf mother’s den, which is easier said than done. They use radio telemetry to locate her position and then “walk in” on her using shorter-range telemetry receivers that are smaller. This comes in handy because they are often battling their way through thick briars, tunneling beneath dense brush, or wading through a green sea of wax myrtle bushes. Once they find the den, the mother wolf usually flees and then hangs around nearby. They monitor her position with the radio telemetry. The scientists work quickly, slipping the pups in and placing them next to their new siblings. They may rub urine from the wild pups onto the foster pups so that the female wolf will be more accepting of them. They’ve never had a female wolf reject foster pups. It’s one way of augmenting the wild population numbers. The book I’m working on is about red wolves. I hope that you will want to learn about them as much as I do, because I want for there to be red wolves in the future and this requires more people knowing about them and caring about them.
12 thoughts on “Tiny little red wolves”
Andreas Coveney
Awesome work! I know nothing about wolves (but will after reading your upcoming book!) but am surprised that wolves would leave their young when threatened. Is this always the case? Is this a trend among all “canines?”
DeLene
Hi Andreas, I don’t know if this holds true with gray wolves, but the red wolf biologists told me it’s pretty standard when they find the den for the female to run. I was really surprised too, thinking that they would stay to defend it. I don’t know if the females are trying to divert the people by running away, or what. They will almost always move the den though after it’s been located. Maybe they will stay and defend it against smaller threats, I don’t know. But as soon as they smell or hear people, they split.
Lynda
Really interesting, and great to see a picture of such young pups.
I was wondering whether they provide the mums with supplementary food to help them cope with the extra mouths to feed?
Wouldn’t the size of the natural litter largely be a product of food availablity?
Keep up the fantastic blog!
DeLene
Hi Lynda, they don’t provide extra food that I know of (perhaps they did in the early stages of trying out fostering, I will have to ask, that’s a good question; but they do not now). But I don’t think the litter size is always tied to food availability. We have no way of knowing if she perhaps gave birth to four or six puppies and only two lived to 10 days old or so when they found the den and decided to make this one a foster den. The female has a male mate that will help hunt and bring her food. She will be okay with the extra mouths to provide milk for. This same female was used for fostering last year, and did just fine. You have to wonder though, what goes through their mind when they come back and find additional puppies (joy, frustration, confusion)?
Lynnie
Delene.. this is so amazing. I looked at the one picture of all the myrtle and thought of you crawling around underneath it..and can hardly believe you would/could do that. You must be thrilled to be a part of all this work. Keep it up!
DeLene
Hi Lynne, Yep, and I followed the team all day Monday and they didn’t find any more… but they found four more pups in a wild “den” on Tuesday morning. I put quotes around “den” because it was really just a scraped out bit of earth in the middle of a dense copse of thickets. Nearly impenetrable thickets, actually. But it was neat to see how hard the program’s biologists work.
Andreas Coveney
DeLene… congrats on being a finalist in “Best New Blog” launched in 2009 by Research Blogging!
michael
I know about red wolves and I very much care about them! Great to see you are studying this topic. I’m writing a book about another subspecies of wolf. Even though they typically are found in backyards, foyers, and domeciles I look at them as wild animals and study them as such.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing your work!
Bill Hensley
DeLene, what an interesting post. I think that the mothers not ever rejecting the foster pups shows a level of intelligence on their part.
Cheers, Bill
DeLene
Hello Bill, I wish I knew… I’m not sure how one could separate out an intelligent/cognitive response by the mother from an instinctual one. The biologists told me they only do it when the pups’ eyes are still closed, which makes me wonder what the reaction may be if they did it with older pups whose eyes were open?
karen lyons kalmenson
The wolf spirit
The wolf spirit is like a beautiful song
One can feel it forever, it is never too long
The wolf spirit is like the freedom of clouds
Hovering ever so gently, with head held so proud
The wolf spirit dances in sunshine and rain
In all four of our seasons, without any disdain
The wolf spirit lives in the mountains up high
Its grandeur is endless, it can touch the sky
The wolf spirit belongs to all who live on earth
It will live forever, no one can measure its worth
douglas emerson
Awesome! I pray the local education effort is bearing fruit. It is so important to educate the local populace and that they cooperate with the recovery efforts. This is the LAST stand for these animals and can’t be squandered away. Not only is it great eco-tourism, but certainly a kudo for North Carolinians. Thank you.