Red Wolf Species Survival Plan

What is a Species Survival Plan (SSP?). The American SSP program was developed in 1981 by the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The mission of an AZA SSP Program is to cooperatively manage specific, and typically threatened or endangered, species population within AZA-accredited Zoos and Aquariums, and other AZA conservation partners including Certified Related Facilities, and Approved Non-Member Participants.

SSP programs focus on animals that are in danger of extinction in the wild, these captive breeding programs may be their only chance to survive; these programs also help maintain healthy and genetically diverse animal populations within the zoo community. SSP programs significantly contribute to field conservation efforts, species recovery, veterinary care for wildlife disease issues, and establishment of assurance populations. There are currently more than 300 SSP Programs, each managed by their corresponding Taxon Advisory Groups, within AZA. For each species, a comprehensive population Studbook and a Breeding and Transfer Plan are developed which identifies population management goals and recommendations to ensure the sustainability of a healthy, genetically diverse, and demographically varied AZA population.

Red Wolves were nearing extinction in the wild when the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington established a captive-breeding program in association with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The Point Defiance Zoo developed husbandry techniques, recruited four additional cooperating institutions to house wolves in the captive program and received AZA approval for a Red Wolf SSP program in 1984. By 1984, the captive population numbered 63 individuals and was growing, largely through the coordinated efforts of the Point Defiance Zoo and Red Wolf SSP cooperators.  These efforts made the release of red wolves into the first reintroduction site at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 1987 possible.  Today, there are 43 SSP facilities participating in the Red Wolf SSP program (use this link for map and websites of all SSP cooperators), with ~190 red wolves.  The Red Wolf SSP is the foundation of the recovery program. Without its collective expertise and resources, the future of the red wolf would be uncertain. The contributions of the RWSSP include: (1) managing populations, (2) training field personnel on techniques for proper capture and restraint, (3) applying captive research to the field and (4) reintroducing captive born red wolves.

 Red wolf SSP locations. 

Successful conservation programs are often developed through partnerships. The Red Wolf Recovery Program is a great example of organizations working together to benefit a species. Zoos can play a significant role in red wolf recovery by informing visitors about the value of wolves in ecosystems and inspiring the public to support the wolf's reestablishment in the wild.  We encourage you to check out the websites of the Red Wolf SSP program participants.  There are a lot of photos, videos, and educational resources available on red wolves! Most of them also have Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter, and You Tube accounts as well.

Here’s just a few you can explore the resources of:

Chattanooga Nature Center (Chattanooga, TN)

Endangered Wolf Center (Eureka, MO)

Fort Worth Zoological Park (Fort Worth, TX)

Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens (Chicago, IL)

North Carolina Museum of Life & Science (Durham, NC)

Wildlife Science Center (Forest Lake, MN)

Wolf Conservation Center of New York  (South Salem, NY)

Red wolf cam video at Wolf Conservation Center of New York

Management Techniques: 2013 Wolf Capture and Processing

Currently, the field biologists of the Red Wolf Recovery Program are spending many hours trapping wild red wolves.  It’s the time of year when efforts are focused on capturing pups from last season in order to assess their health and fit them for a radio-telemetry collar to ensure future monitoring.  To safeguard against poor collar fit, we wait until pups are approximately 8-9 months old and have reached their full size.  Once a red wolf is captured via a soft-catch steel leg-hold trap, it is secured in a kennel and transported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Education and Health Care Facility.  Here, it is processed and held prior to its release.

Wild red wolves are instinctively fearful of humans and are generally docile when handled. A wolf is typically restrained by placing a muzzle over its mouth, tying or holding its hind legs together, and keeping a hand on its shoulder to hold it down. All precautions are taken to maximize the safety of the wolf as well as the biologists handling the wolf. 

Wolf biologists performing a health check and fitting a red wolf for

a radio-telemetry collar.  Photos by C. Lucash/USFWS.

Processing involves recording the wolf’s weight and body measurements, drawing a blood sample for future research, administering vaccines to prevent rabies and other common canid diseases, assessing the overall health of the wolf, and finally, fitting it with either a GPS or VHF radio telemetry collar so that it can be monitored upon release.  This year, Red Wolf Recovery Program biologists are also helping Louisiana State University graduate student, Kristin Brzeski, to collect ectoparasites from a captured wild red wolves. Ectoparasites, such as ticks, are being collected from wolves as part of a larger study examining red wolf immunocompetence (more to come on this research project soon!).  

 Radio-collared red wolf in kennel, waiting for transport and release.  Photo by C. Lucash/USFWS.

After the processing is complete, the wolf is usually transported back to its home range and released (see videos below). In some special cases, biologists can also pair up individuals who have previously lost a mate.  In cases like these, the animals are introduced to each other in a captive pen to hopefully establish a bond and become a breeding pair in the home range of the original wolf. Stay tuned for more details on a pair like this (blog forthcoming on Valentine’s Day)!

 Red wolf releases. Videos by A. Beyer/USFWS.