KPBS: Julian Wolf Center is expanding care for wolves at a time when federal protections seem uncertain

For the first time last week, staff at the California Wolf Center separated two of its most popular Mexican gray wolves: the tan, black and rust-coated brothers Thor and Durango.

That’s because eight-year-old Durango was about to meet a potential mate. She’s a female wolf from New Mexico.

“After being medically cleared, over the next few months, she and Durango will spend time getting to know each other and, fingers crossed, become a bonded pair,” said Christine Barton, the Wolf Center’s executive director.

Staff won’t know for sure if the pair will hit it off until next spring, she said, adding that the goal will be to get their pups “out into a wild den to start their life raised alongside their foster siblings somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.”

The organization’s Mexican gray wolf breeding program and federal protections under the Endangered Species Act have helped the population return from the brink of extinction by humans by the 1970s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, about 317 roam the southwestern U.S… [READ MORE]