N.C. Zoo welcomes two more endangered red wolf pups
The North Carolina Zoo is celebrating the birth of a pair of endangered red wolf pups this month. The two female pups were born May 4 to mom Taylor and dad Solo and comprise the second litter for the zoo this year. In late April, five pups were born there.
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With 27 red wolves, the zoo in Asheboro is now home to the second-largest pack in the United States after Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash., according to the press release. All seven pups are doing well.
The newest pups were named in honor of former North Carolina zookeeper Jessi Culbertson, 32, who worked with the red wolves for several years before passing away in 2019 after a courageous battle with cancer, the press release said. The pups are named Arrow, in honor of Culbertson's Native American Cherokee heritage, and May, for the month that both Jessi and the puppies share a birthday.
The zoo, which is temporarily closed during the pandemic, is housing the pups in a quiet area where they have minimal contact with staff and keepers, allowing their mother to raise them with as little stress as possible.
Red wolves are endangered. Only 15 to 20 red wolves remain in the wild, and they’re all in eastern North Carolina, according to the zoo.
In the press release, Susi H. Hamilton, secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources, praised the zoo’s efforts to help this critically endangered species survive.
“It’s really a testament the staff’s dedication, teamwork and passion toward helping one of the most endangered canids in the world,” Hamilton said.
According to the zoo, once common throughout the southeastern United States, the wolves were driven to near extinction during the late 1960s, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began an aggressive conservation effort – the American Red Wolf Recovery Program – that led to new ways to track and protect the species.
The zoo has been part of the American Red Wolf Recovery Program since 1994. With these recent births, the zoo’s red wolf pack has bred thirteen pups over the past three years and has successfully bred 36 wolves since the program began. Currently, there are about 240 (that number can change daily during the whelping season) red wolves in breeding programs throughout the U.S. Red wolves normally have three to five pups per litter.
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