October 7, 2009

Kaila and Lucas, pictured above, are two of the Wolf Conservation Center's oldest residents (ZT Pet News Photo Courtesy of the Wolf Conservancy Center)

NEW YORK -- When initially taking in this 27-acre wooded reserve in South Salem, N.Y., one can only suspect the first signs of fall. Blazing orange and yellow leaves shine on the canopied trees, falling scattered, every so often, on the rocks and paths below.

That is, until Spencer Wilhelm tilts his head back and shouts into the air: “Apache! Kaila! Lucas!”

He repeats the call, explaining that his subjects are much like cats, and don’t always respond when called, even though they certainly know their names. Yet just as Wilhelm, 30, is explaining Apache, Kaila, and Lucas’ continued absence, they appear: three wolves, alert and inquisitive.

Apache, Kaila and Lucas, along with 26 other Mexican Gray and Red wolves, have spent the majority of their lives at the Wolf Conservancy Center, the largest East Coast facility that houses, breeds, and promotes the conservation of Mexican Gray and Red Wolves.

There are fewer than 300 Red Wolves and approximately 400 Mexican Gray wolves in the world; the WCC is home to one Red wolf, and 22 Mexican Gray wolves -- one of the largest sequestered communities in captivity. Their population shifts periodically, as they welcome transfer wolves from approximately 60 other facilities in the country, and also release animals into the wild.

“We’re really focused on education here, and ensuring a way for these animals to reestablish themselves in the wild,” Wilhelm, the WCC’s operations manager, explained to Zootoo Pet News. “Wolves are not dogs; they are not pets. But they obviously have a very important role, ecologically speaking, and we are working to strengthen those genetic lines and boost their general population.”

The WCC is open to the public year-round. Visitors receive a 30-minute educational presentation in a homey log cabin on the grounds, and are then brought to stadium-like bleachers, overseeing one of the wolves’ enclosed one-to-two acre habitats.

Rocks and raised log platforms offer the wolves a chance to perch and oversee happenings from a safe, prime distance; toys are strewn about the ground, and on this particular morning, Wilhelm was in the process of filling a pool, which the wolves sometimes like do “the wolf-paddle in,” he said.

“One of the hardest jobs here is trying to constantly keep these guys engaged and entertained,” Wilhelm said. “We try to think of different toys and other things that we can give them. Stuffed animals are fun, but they are kind of like children, in that they play with something for a long time and they get bored of it.”

Cardboard boxes are regular favorite chew-toys for the wolves -- once, several years ago, they received a couch. It was destroyed within 20 minutes, Wilhelm recalled.

Despite the facility’s efforts to ensure that the wolves retain their wild, natural characteristics, the majority of the animals have lived in captivity for most of their lives. They occasionally hunt unsuspecting, smaller animals that find their way into the wolves’ enclosures, but the WCC also feeds the wolves regularly. Their diet, for the most part, is based on “a healthy supply of Westchester’s finest roadkill deer,” Wilhelm said.

“We will get calls and just go and collect roadkill,” Wilhelm said. “The Department of Transportation will also sometimes just bring the deer they find on the side of the road to us. They would just normally dig a ditch and bury the animals, so it’s kind of a unique, good way to recycle.”

As Wilhelm talked, Lucas and Apache, two of the WCC’s “ambassador wolves,” lounged peacefully close to the high, overarching wire fence, dividing them from the public that normally occupies the bleachers. Though Wilhelm cautioned that “it’s not like you can have them roll over and make kissy-faces with them,” the animals are responsive and communicative, much like a domestic dog.

They do, after all, share nearly 99 percent of the same genetic makeup with dogs; the main differences between a gray wolf and a Husky, Wilhelm said, could be found in the length of the animals’ muzzle (wolves have longer snouts), their coats, and their skull structure. Dogs have nearly half the jaw strength that wolves do, a testimony to their need to hunt and chew tough meat in the wild.

And much like a dog, the wolves appear keenly aware of humans and their methods of communication. At a certain point during the morning, as the wolves lay lazily on the ground, casually considering their spectators, Wilhelm let out his best howl, a tiered call which lingered for nearly a minute. Apache, the alpha male of the pack at the center, appeared to consider the call for a minute, then echoed Wilhelm, casting his long snout toward the sky.

Wolves howl for a variety of reasons, Wilhelm said, sometimes to find a lost member of the pack, to signal signs of danger, or in mating season. When a wailing fire truck goes past the WCC, “it can get pretty noisy around here,” he said, “with all 29 of them just howling at once.”

Founded in 1999, the WCC has found success with releasing wolves into the wild, strengthening genetic lines and placing the animals in a better position for long-term survival.

As part of the U.S. Species Survival Program, the WCC successfully released several Mexican Grays into Arizona -- one of their natural habitats -- in Summer 2006, and also placed a Mexican female alone in the wilderness; this fall, she will receive a mate.

The WCC does not place grown Red Wolves into the wild, but engages in a foster-pup situation.

“If, by chance, one of our two wolves has pups, it is possible to take a certain percentage of those pups and place them on the doorstep of wild wolves who have pups at a similar age,” Wilhelm said. “It’s been really successful, and is a great way to change the genetics ever so slightly, and to avoid having to introduce a new pack of wolves into the wild.”

The wolves who remain at WCC, though, are given long, healthy lives. Kyla, 14, is the facility’s oldest wolf; Apache is 12, and Lucas is 11 years old. Wild wolves are generally considered lucky to make it past puppyhood -- about 50 percent of wolves won’t live past one year, Wilhelm said. The average life expectancy for a wild wolf is six to eight years.

Visitors are able to go visit all the wolves, including Apache, Kyla, Lucas and Atka, who makes 140 to 150 public appearances each year, by appointment only. A guided tour -- and howling session -- costs $12 for adults and $10 for children under the age of 10.

For more information, visit NYWolf.org.

Amy Lieberman is a Zootoo Pet News correspondent, covering the New York region, and can be reached at alieberman@zootoo.com.