Several changes have occurred within our Red Wolf pack recently. As the 2007 litter of five pups grew up, four family members were transferred to other facilities. The father was transferred to Sandy Ridge, the captive facility within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, to be paired with a female in hopes that any offspring could be fostered into a wild den; they produced a litter this season, but it was too early to find a wild den with pups the same age. Two female pups are living at the nature station at Land between the Lakes, Kentucky.
One very lucky male pup has gone to live in the wild on an island in the Florida panhandle. He shares the 12,000 acre Saint Vincent Island National Wildlife Refuge with a very young female and a very old female. This spring, my family and I had the great opportunity to track this male using telemetry with the resident bio tech, Eddie Eckley. We heard the CNC pup’s radio collar beep about ¼ mile from us, but we never saw him. A few weeks later, Eddie called me to say that the younger female and our male pup were producing beeps in the same area for 8 days. He later found a den, but no pups – this female is a little too young to produce yet. He did get a visual on our male pup with a piglet in his mouth! The island has a large population of non-native pigs, non-native Sanbar deer and native white tail deer that provide excellent hunting and nutrition for the three resident Red Wolves. With this year’s experience, hopefully this male pup will father some pups next year and add to the wild population!
The mother of the 2007 litter along with the remaining two male pups, reside at CNC. (We refer to them as pups when in fact they are larger than their mother!) Our red wolf pack also includes a new pair – a female from Tallahassee and a male from Knoxville. These 4-year-olds are currently a companion pair and get along very well. Hope and I will attend the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan summit meeting this summer where we will learn if there will be any more changes within our pack, so stay tuned!
As I write this article, all the Red Wolves are in some stage of blowing their winter coats and may look raggedy, but rest assured they are just preparing for the hot summer that has come upon us so quickly. When the winter coats come off, they often look thin, but they are not. They eat high quality dog chow and lots of meat treats six days per week. They are living large while helping educate all of us about their importance. Not a day goes by that I don’t marvel at these fascinating creatures.