May 24, 2005
Good News On The Wolf Front
Marlin Perkins' Legacy: Wild Wolves Bred at Facility
Two artificially inseminated Mexican gray wolves recently birthed a combined eight living pups at a research site founded by late naturalist Marlin Perkins, marking perhaps the first time the non-surgical technique has worked with endangered wolves.Posted by Ithildin at May 24, 2005 11:47 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHEWildlife officials cheered word of the newcomers to the St. Louis-area Wild Canid Survival and Research Center -- the world's largest holder and breeder of Mexican gray wolves -- as proof of the technology's usefulness in rebuilding the population of the animals.
Among other things, the "phenomenal'' breakthrough someday may enable noninvasive fertilization of female wolves in the wild, no longer requiring them to be caged or disruptively brought in for insemination, said Kim Scott, the center's assistant director.
"This could have huge implications for future genetic management of Mexican wolves,'' said Colleen Buchanan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Surgical inseminations have been done previously with endangered red wolves, though the noninvasive technique now appears to work with the Mexican wolves.
Of the nine pups born -- six on May 4, three on April 30 -- eight still were alive Monday and "are all doing wonderful, doing great,'' growing and increasingly vocalizing, Scott said.
