Meet SF Zoo’s 4 New Residents: Mexican Gray Wolves
The San Francisco Zoo’s newest residents are four endangered Mexican gray wolves that moved into the Wolf Canyon habitat last week.
The four female siblings were brought to the zoo following the deaths of two old Mexican gray wolves who were transferred to San Francisco in 2016, according to zoo officials. The new wolves were born May 13, 2018 at the California Wolf Center and are part of the Association of Zoo and Aquarium’s Mexican Gray Wolf Species Survival Plan and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Program.
The goal is to increase the population in order to release healthy wolves into the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area in the Southwest.
Once nearly extirpated by the 1970s from livestock ranchers, hunting, trapping and poisoning, Mexican gray wolves have made a rebound. With an original group of 11 wolves bred under human care and released to protected pockets of Arizona and New Mexico, there are now approximately 186 now living in the wild, and another 220 wolves living in managed care like the ones here.
The four siblings will be part of health studies and maybe bread in the future, according to zoo officials.
One of the wolves was named “Betty White” to honor the actress for her support of zoos and “her great love of animals,” according to the zoo.
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