Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Welcome to New York, Rare Endangered Mexican Pups


While it may not be in New York City, the news of eight rare Mexican wolf pups being born at a preserve in the suburbs is making news.  The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem just announced the births to the Mexican wolves that are known as F749 and M740.


They include five males and three females.  As Peter Siminski, the coordinator of the Mexican wolf program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, "It's always a good day when we learn of the birth of an endangered species. Eight new pups in a world population of around 366 is a 2 percent increase."


As part of the announcement of the pups, the Wolf Conservation Center said, "These pups are not only adorable, they're also great contributions to the recovery of their species."  A federal program helps to reintroduce these endangered wolves into the wild.  The wild population is carefully restocked from pups that are born to wolves in captivity.  If these pups are chosen, they will probably first be sent to a prerelease facility and paired with opposite-sex wolves to raise pups themselves.


While you can’t go visit the pups, you can enjoy seeing a peak at them on a number of webcams that have been set up.  As the birth announcement said, "We'll remain glued to our eight webcams to watch the new parents care for their young and the arrival of more potential pups in the coming weeks."