Endangered Wolf Pups Snuggle With Mom
Your moment of critically endangered cuteness.
The teeny tiny 10-week-old Mexican gray wolf pups are smaller than the rest, but the snuggly siblings might be Mom’s favorites.
At just around 5 pounds, the brother and sister are half the size of most of their 7 other siblings but are otherwise healthy and thriving.
Follow the pups’ progress via live webcams here.
These critically endangered Mexican gray wolf pups represent the Wolf Conservation Center’s (WCC) active participation in an effort to save a species on the brink of extinction.
The Mexican gray wolf or “lobo” is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America. By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. In 1998 the wolves were reintroduced into the wild as part of a federal reintroduction program under the Endangered Species Act.
Today in the U.S., there is a single wild population comprising only 114 individuals – an increase of just one from 113 counted at the end of 2016.
For almost two decades, the WCC has played a critical role in preserving and protecting these imperiled predators through carefully managed breeding, research, and reintroduction. To date, the WCC remains one of the three largest holding facilities for Mexican gray wolves and three wolves from the Center have been released to their ancestral homes in the wild.