Our female red wolf has been in estrous now for over a week. Unfortunately, the keepers have not seen any mating interactions between the male and the female. There seem to be some differences from last year, as well. For instance, the male chased the female around quite a bit last year while she was in estrous. But I have not heard any other keepers mention that they have seen him chasing her this year. Just today, Cassidy played aRead more
Posts tagged: #captive breeding
QuikPost: Update on our female red wolf
It looks like our girl went into estrous today! I saw her this morning with what looked to be some blood underneath her tail. It’s pretty remarkable that she started on February 9th/10th of last year, and she’s only a couple days off this year. Talk about having a regular schedule! We will keep you posted on the male and female interactions for the next few weeks.Read more
The time is near!
I’ve been pretty excited recently over the growing anticipation of red wolf breeding season. I’ve been watching our female, #1227, closely for early signs of her being in estrous. So far nothing yet, but last year we saw the first signs in late January and early February when the male started to show more interest in her. She actually went into estrous last year on February 10th, so hopefully we are less than two weeks away! Our beautiful pair ofRead more
Red Wolf Recovery: The Beginning
In my first post about red wolf history, I ended on the topic of red wolf-coyote hybrids and how they were identified from full-blooded red wolves. Since DNA testing was not available in the 1970’s, biologists used skull comparisons as a way of removing hybrids from the remaining red wolf population so that a breeding program could be started. The recovery program was led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), but they needed a place to start theRead more