Eight red wolves will move to Mill Mountain Zoo in Virginia; two male wolves to remain at Museum
December 06, 2019
Durham, NC - The Museum of Life and Science announced today recommendations from the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) for a transfer of eight members of the Museum’s endangered red wolf family to a larger, half-acre habitat at the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke, Virginia. The move will likely happen in January.
The relocation of two adults, Moose and Cary, and the six pups born at the Museum in late April — Bronto, Rocket, Sprout, Lunar, Mist, and Carolina — will help provide more open space for the wolves and allow for better management of their breeding cycles. The two wolves remaining at the Museum, adolescent brothers Ellerbe and Eno, will benefit as well from having more space.
“Any time we transfer wolves, it's hard,” said Sherry Samuels, Director of Animal Care for the Museum. “While it’s sad, it's the right move for the individual animals and the species. They're heading to a space that's double the size, which is not only better for them, but better for the wolves that remain behind here.”
The Museum encourages visitors to see the red wolves before they leave early next year and will provide a public space for visitors to leave messages, thoughts, and well-wishes for the wolves in the weeks leading up to their move.
Museum staff will manage the transfer and transport the eight wolves in vans. The wolves will be carefully corralled in their habitat and put into crates before the move. Prior to their departure, each wolf will receive a hands-on vet check to verify their health. All six pups completed their last “well pup” check-in early September and were found to be in excellent health. The Mill Mountain Zoo is less than three hours from the Museum, so a team of drivers will bring them to their new home with minimal or no stops.
The Mill Mountain Zoo is located within Mill Mountain Park, a 568-acre regional park maintained by Roanoke Parks and Recreation. Located at the top of Mill Mountain just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, the zoo overlooks the city of Roanoke and the surrounding mountain vistas. Founded in 1952, the Mill Mountain Zoo is the only major non-profit wildlife attraction on the entire 469-mile span of Blue Ridge Parkway.
“They're heading to another cooperating institution that knows what it’s doing. They're going to have more space. We're keeping two wolves here in our space,” Samuels said. “And at the same time, for the bigger picture, sending a family of wolves to a new institution means that thousands of new visitors will learn about these animals and the efforts to protect and preserve their species.”
While saying goodbye to the wolves will be difficult for both staff and visitors of the Museum, Samuels says that the transfer is the right thing to do for the long-term survival of the species. The network of zoos and animal preserves that works together to help protect the red wolves makes decisions that will best improve their odds of long-term survival, and animal relocations are a key part of that process.
“The fate of the red wolves is in the hands of 42 cooperating Red Wolf SSP institutions,” Samuels said. “We have to work together in order to do right by these individual animals, and do right by the species, whether that's easy or hard or sad.”
“The wolves that come to the museum are only here temporarily from the very beginning. This is just a stop on their way, but we're still attached to them,” Samuels said. “It's going to be hard to see them go, but this is the right choice for these animals.”
About the Red Wolf
In addition to the cinnamon coat highlights which lend them their name, red wolves are visibly smaller and more slender than gray wolves. Adult red wolves typically weigh between 45-80 pounds and can live up to 15 years in captivity, but rarely longer than seven years in the wild.
Once a top predator throughout the southeastern United States, the red wolf is now categorized as critically endangered. Only about 270 red wolves remain (fewer than 20 in the wild and approximately 250 in captivity). To protect the remaining red wolf population, a managed conservation and recovery program was established in 1973 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. The success of this program led to the reintroduction of red wolves to North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 1987. Red wolves now inhabit a five-county area in northeastern North Carolina and although their numbers had grown, gunshot, vehicle strikes, and habitat loss have reduced the wild population numbers and continue to threaten their survival. The red wolf is one of our planet’s most endangered species and continues to be at risk.
About the Museum of Life and Science
Located less than five miles from downtown Durham, the Museum of Life and Science is one of North Carolina's top family destinations. Its mission is to create a place where people of all ages embrace science as a way of understanding themselves, their community, and their world. Situated on 84-acres, the immersive environment of this outdoor science park and two-story science center inspires curiosity, the capacity for scientific thinking, and the desire for lifetime learning. The Museum is proud to be an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. To learn more, visit lifeandscience.org.
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