Mexican wolves m1297 & m1298 at 47 days old

During the afternoon of May 8, 2013, Mexican gray wolf F749 crawled into her homemade den and quietly gave birth to two male pups, m1297 and m1298. Due to the mother’s poor record of keeping her vulnerable and valuable pups alive (F749 has lost several litters in her 11 years, only 2 of her last 19 pups survived), the 2 one-day-old pups were pulled from their parents less than 24 hours after their birth to be hand reared at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden and eventually placed with Mexican wolf foster parents there.

Yesterday, we received an encouraging update from our friends at Mesker – the pups are doing great!  The process has been arduous but they are coming along nicely.  The introduction to the surrogate parents has just recently begun.  At this point the pups are in an acclimation pen where the wolves have the option of checking meeting one another through a fence. This part of the introduction process is very slow and the zoo will keep us updated.