A Wolf Family Returns to the Wild
The battle over America’s wolves goes back centuries. In this excerpt from the acclaimed, Wolf Nation, a journalist follows the release of a family into the wild.
I visited Wolf Haven International, a wolf sanctuary in Washington state, to witness the first litters of Mexican gray wolf pups born there in seven years. Via live remote cameras I watched as four gangly six-week-old male pups scampered and climbed atop their very patient father, M1066, nicknamed “Moss.” The big-eared and fuzzy pups romped and feigned attacks with tiny, sharp teeth, wrestling, then racing into the tall, cedar trees. These critically endangered Mexican gray wolves are part of the Species Survival Program (SSP) for possible reintroduction into Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
“They’re being raised by their parents, just like any wolf pup in the wild,” explained Wendy Spencer, Wolf Haven’s director of animal care. “Their world is so small now,” she added. “There is no concept of captivity or even humans for the pups. Just their parents, siblings, and home life.”
By the late seventies, Mexican gray wolf populations in the Southwest had crashed to a mere five wolves in Mexico and were all but eliminated in New Mexico and Arizona. Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government must work to recover this precious species. El Lobo, the Mexican gray wolf subspecies, is one of the most highly endangered of all wolves.
“All the Mexican wolves living in the wild today come from seven founding animals, composed of three distinct lineages,” Spencer notes. “They really need the genetic boost these new pups can give them.”
Except for their long-limbed prance and exotic colorings — sable and gray-tinged fur — and their much longer snouts, the little pups could be mistaken for a litter of domestic dogs. But there is something much wilder in their golden eyes — and wariness — even as they play. These pups are hidden from any public view and see humans only for medical exams. If they are the ones chosen for release into the wild, they must remain very cautious of us.
“We’re so delighted that this spring three litters of Mexican gray wolves were born here,” said Diane Gallegos, director of Wolf Haven International. In the office, she stationed me in front of another remote camera to take a look at a Mexican gray wolf family led by the breeding pair, F1222 (Hopa) and M1067 (Brother), and their rambunctious pups.
Like her mate, this mother wolf, Hopa, is lean and almost impossibly long limbed, with an elegant auburn buff on her forehead, intense amber eyes, and a dark mask shading into a long, pale snout. Surveying her three sons, she looks at once dotingly maternal and yet watchful. Certainly she can hear the hidden remote cameras rustle in the leaves above as they shift slightly for better angles in the trees. A first-time mother, Hopa has quite an impressive history already — and she’s only four years old.
“Hope and Brother are devoted parents,” the Mexican biologist, Pamela Maciel Cabanas, explained to me in her lilting accent. Cabanas works with Wolf Haven’s Hispanic Outreach and is a liaison with Mexico’s Wolf Species Survival Program.
Wolves are born blind, and their eyes open after twelve to fourteen days. With their distinctive brown furry capes and tiny, flattened ears, neonatal pups live underground their first weeks, denned up and protected by their mother. Soon three tiny pups crawled out of their den, trailing behind Hopa, their snouts raised high to sniff this new world of air and sheltering trees and sky.
They were clumsy and shaky as they took their first steps, their temporarily blue eyes now open, squinting against the surprise of sunshine. After nursing for so long or gobbling the regurgitated bits of food from their mother’s mouth, they now could nibble small bits of meat. They greeted their father, Brother, for the first time in the open air. In their next weeks, the pups would learn to play and socialize with their family and to follow their parents if frightened by an unusual sound or scent. For those first four-to-six weeks of the pups’ life outside their birthing den, none of the Wolf Haven staff came near. They observed and monitored the family only through remote cameras.
We watched as the father wolf endured his sons and daughter play by simply rolling over and yawning. He was about sixty-to-eighty pounds, and from tail to nose stood a little over four feet. The slightly smaller mother did a quick patrol of the underbrush, her ears perked, listening. As if on cue, a communal howl rose up in the sanctuary, where other wolves added their harmonies.
We all smiled as the father wolf raised his handsome head to answer a nearby howl with a long, sonorous bass song of his own. Startled, his pups glanced around, rather comically, bewildered at first. Then they lifted their small snouts and let out a series of yip-yip-yips — their very first tentative attempts at howling together with the family.
“Will this be the family chosen to go into the wild?” I asked Diane. I felt utterly privileged to observe these wolf pups without endangering or frightening them. How many people ever get to witness so intimately a wolf family simply going about their daily life?
But what dangers loom if they leave this sanctuary for the life of the wild? The Wolf Haven family had had very limited contact with human beings, but what would the effect be of their journey by highway, by plane, and then overland from New Mexico to Mexico?
Hopa and Brother, with their three yearling pups — were chosen for release into the wild. At last, they were going to their native Southwest.Everyone at the sanctuary began the protocol for release with a sense of excitement.
The Long Journey
The day the wolves leave on their long and dangerous journey, Wolf Haven’s forest is afloat in cool mists like a Chinese silkscreen. We are all being respectfully quiet so as not to disturb the wolves who have already sensed that something is up.The wolves howl — that ancient communal symphony of high-pitched yips, eerie whines, and haunting keens. How can a wolf’s howl sound both elegiac and triumphant? The woven wolf music is so intricate and multilayered, with unexpected baritone riffs and ultrasonic descants. Their voices improvise and counterpoint, like animal jazz. A song sometimes tender, sometimes fierce, always mesmerizing.
It’s a sound that so few people ever get to hear, especially in the wild, which is where these Mexican gray wolves are now at last headed. The wolf family will be transported by plane to Phoenix, then driven in a van all night to Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch in New Mexico, near the Gila National Forest, the sixth-largest national forest in the United States. The Gila Wilderness was the first designated wilderness reservation, in 1924. The transport and journey to New Mexico will be difficult; if it goes off without incident, the Mexican wolf family will spend the next three months in the ranch’s large canyon enclosure, acclimating to the high desert and arid climate of their ancestors.
“Quickly,” Gallegos tells me and the photographer, Annie Marie Musselman. “You don’t want to miss this!”
Annie heads into the sanctuary, heavy burdened with cameras, and I go into the office, where I will watch the wolves as I have before, via live remote cameras. Very few of the staff are allowed to assist with the delicate and skilled work of capturing the five members of this Mexican wolf family. All staff are highly trained in what’s called a “catch-up” and final medical exam of the wolves.
One might imagine catching wolves to be a risky and fearsome job. Images of menacing growls, gnashing fangs, all the Discovery channel documentaries of vicious wolves attacking prey come to mind. But this catch-up is more like a well-choreographed dance or mime. Everyone in the enclosure is silent. When absolutely necessary, only Wendy speaks sotto voce. The close-knit family takes its cue from the matriarch, Hopa.
“She’s calm, but really terrified,” Gallegos tells me. “She’s poised like the family matriarch that she is, but she’s also shaking.” Any stereotype of ferocious wolf attacks fades when we witness their fear. It’s a reminder that wild wolves are instinctively very wary of humans and spend most of their time in the wild trying to avoid or escape our attention.
Quietly Gallegos explains what’s happening on the screen with six people, each carrying a lightweight, four-foot-long aluminum pole with a padded Y at the end. “With each wolf, they’ll slide that Y-pole and gently put pressure on the neck and haunches. We don’t use the traditional catch poll with its lasso or rope. That can injure the wolves as they race away and then swing from their necks on the catch pole. Instead, we were trained by Dr. Mark Johnson, the wildlife vet for the Yellowstone wolves, to use this efficient but light pressure so as not to stress the animal.”
Dr. Johnson’s philosophy is visionary and compassionate. “There is no room for ego when handling animals,” he writes. When catching-up a feral dog or a captive wolf, he asks wildlife handlers to use this as an opportunity to “explore our connection with all things and to explore who we are as a person. This is a profound opportunity . . . exhilarating, sacred, and sad.”
It is a profound experience, even to watch over remote cameras, as the highly trained wildlife handlers stand in a silent line waiting to catch-up the wolves. None of the staff seem nervous or tense even though they are inside a wild wolf enclosure.
We watch the action a few more minutes as Gallegos explains,“The catch-up is very low stress. It’s quick. It’s like the techniques used in agriculture when a shepherd shears sheep. If you can make it a positive experience for that ram, then the next time you do it, the animals are not stressed out.”
The wildlife staff handle each animal one at a time, and usually only one or two people restrain the animal. Whether it’s some instinctive memory of being carried by the scruff of the neck by a trusted mother or the experience of being captured once a year for medical exams, the wolves are gently directed toward the safety of their crates, which become instant dens.
The three yearlings and their father, Brother, are all quickly crated. Not a howl, not a moan or a whine. The wolves are as mute as the people. The vet, Dr. Brown is quickly giving each wolf in the family a check-up. All looks good to go, he nods.
“It’s fast and efficient,” Gallegos murmurs as we watch. “Because they’re going to endure so much after this. Such a long trip.”
“Are they tranquilized?”
“No,” she replies firmly, “they can’t be. We don’t usually tranquilize our animals unless we absolutely have to. To fly in a plane tranquilized could be really dangerous. You don’t want them in cargo, unmonitored, choking. You want them to stay awake. It’s a two-hour flight and good, smooth weather, so we hope it will all go well.”
Still in the sanctuary, the mother wolf, Hopa, has denned up. She is the last to be shepherded into her crate. The last sight of this brave matriarch in her travel kennel is an image I’ll never forget: Crouched at the very back of her crate, as if to bury herself in the blonde straw, she gazes out, her ears perked to fathom each voice or strange sound; her golden eyes wide, wary, preternaturally focused; her distinctive rust- and black-colored fur dense and beautiful. But her dripping black nose betrays her terror. Her flanks are trembling.
Hopa doesn’t move or thrash or try to escape. She looks hypervigilant but eerily calm at the same time After all, she has a family to protect from whatever strange journey is being asked of her — nothing less than leading her pups and her mate into the complete unknown. The recovery and resurrection of an entire species await her. When I study this matriarch’s face I read both fear and courage. I’m reminded of the adage that, in humans, the bravest of us are those who actually feel fear and yet still perform some perilous feat.
All five of the family are now ready to go to the airport via van. The whole catch-up of the wolf family has taken just one hour. Inside, the wolves, each in their own crate, are utterly still.
This wolf family must now travel to New Mexico and beyond into unfamiliar wilderness that has always been hostile to wolves. They may lack the skills to survive in wild, rugged terrain with not a lot of prey. If they kill livestock, ranchers might regress to their history of hunting wolves. It is difficult to think of Hopa, and her mate, Brother, and their yearling pups being so vulnerable to hostile forces as they return to repopulate their native territory. But it is vital if their species is to again take a foothold in Mexico and the American Southwest.
Imagine what it must be like for these animals who have always known only the quiet and calm life of family and sanctuary to suddenly hear the rumble of SUV tires along a busy freeway, the scream of jets at the airport, the sensory overload of what must seem like multitudes of people jabbering, and the terrifying roar of a jet engine and perhaps even a little turbulence as they fly midair. What does the grease and jet fuel smell like to them? Can they even begin to make sense of the scent of so many passengers? In the cargo hold, which is unregulated and always icy cold, the only thing familiar now is family, the scent and sound of one another in nearby crates. One wonders what Phoenix-bound passengers might think if they had any idea that wolves are also aboard their airplane.
For the next twenty-four, hours those of us who know the importance of this Mexican wolf transport, including the thousands following it on the Wolf Haven Facebook page, will anxiously await word of the wolf family’s journey. Radio silence. Then the next day an email: “Transport went as smoothly as we could have hoped for (though, no doubt, the wolves were terrified).”
When they opened the crates at 4 a.m. at Ladder Ranch after the all-night transport the father, Brother, and the pups were too afraid to emerge. But the mother, Hopa, raced right out of her crate and into her new life. The next morning Spencer and Chris Wiese, who manages the wolf-release program at Turner’s Ladder Ranch, drove to the blind to better observe the wolf family. Hidden, Spencer and Wiese could watch the wolf family explore this new canyon land of mountains, prickly sagebrush, hot springs, and wide, semi-desert mesas. Once back in the wild, these Mexican wolves may travel forty miles a day at about thirty-five miles an hour. They can swim as much as fifty miles. With such an expanse of territory to reclaim, the wolves can roam together in their trademark single-file line, moving in what’s called a “harmonic gait.” The back paws fall exactly where the front paws have already landed, giving their movement a “rhythmic job that conserves energy.”
“We saw them eating, drinking, chasing ravens, and even snoozing. They looked very much at home — much more so than in the Evergreens of Washington. It was like they had been here their entire lives,” Spencer told me happily. While Spencer and Wiese observed the wolf family in their new habitat, several golden eagles circled above. “We should all feel so proud and honored to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.”
We are on the cusp of a cultural change in wolf recovery. As Sharman Apt Russel writes in The Physics of Beauty, “All Americans would feel better if we could agree to share our public land with one hundred Mexican wolves, a fraction of the wildness that once was here.”
At New Mexico’s Ladder Ranch Hopa and Brother and their young yearlings continue to thrive — and await release. Meanwhile extraordinary news came from Dr. Brown at Wolf Haven. Hopa was indeed pregnant when she endured the long transport from Washington State to New Mexico. In an email photo attachment sent by the Ladder Ranch, five dark-brown puppies huddle together in the straw of their den. Hopa and Brother’s family has now grown to eleven. At Ladder Ranch, Hopa and Brother and their nine offspring are growing strong as they roam and hunt in their new territory of crisp sagebrush and arroyos. There is hope that Brother and Hopa’s family will be less threatened by poachers, because they will be released on semi-private land in Mexico.
This wolf family is returning to a country where wolves were all but extinct for three decades, where author and wolf biologist, Cristina Eisenberg’s Mexican grandfather, ordered her father to kill wolves, but he chose to allow them to live on his own ranch land. Maybe Mexico will now lead the way in restoring this first wolf that crossed continents to claim North America.
At last, Hopa, Brother, and their now nine offspring were released into the wild in Mexico. Return of the wolves to their wild birthright. This successful release was the largest of its kind in either Mexican or American history. That snowswept evening, when the eleven crates were finally opened, the wolf family sprang out into the wilderness and freedom — fulfilling their long journey and giving hope for wolf recovery around the world. Wendy and Pamela from Wolf Haven helped release the wolves into a country that warmly welcomes El Lobo home. The next morning, Wendy sent me an email that said it all in one word: “La Liberacion!”
Excerpted from Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves by Brenda Peterson (DaCapo Press, Merloyd Lawrence Book, 2017).
Update on Mexican wolves in the Southwest from the Center for Biological Diversity:
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/mexican-gray-wolf-numbers-rose-to-just-under-200-last-year-2022-03-30/
In February, 2022, the Biden administration restored federal protection to gray wolves in much of the U.S., but the Rocky Mountain wolves are still in danger, with 80 percent of the slaughter in this region. You can help wild wolves by getting involved at Relist Wolves: https://www.relistwolves.org
Brenda Peterson is a novelist and nature writer, author of 20 books, including the recent memoir, I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, which was selected as an Indie Next “Great Read” and “Top Ten Best Non-fiction of the Year,” by the Christian Science Monitor. Peterson has covered wolf issues since 1993 for national media. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Seattle Times, Sierra, Orion, and Oprah. The story of El Lobo was begun in the photo-essay book Wolf Haven: Finding Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North America, with photographer Annie Marie Musselman. Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves was selected as a “Best Conservation Book of the Year” by Forbes magazine. This excerpt was reprinted in The Morning News. LOBOS: A Wolf Family Returns to the Wild is also a kid’s picture book (Sasquatch Books.)
www.BrendaPetersonBooks.com. More by Brenda Peterson
For students: YouTube video of my this story: https://youtu.be/EWFd5kCL-7g
