For over 30 years, the Museum of Life and Science has been a sanctuary for one of the world’s most endangered animals: the red wolf. A native Tar Heel, the red wolf has seen its population severely drop due to hunting and land development.
From 1987 to 2000, 15 red wolves died from gunshot wounds, an average of 1.2 per year. But from 2000 to 2013, the total spiked to 73, an average of five per year—a 300 percent increase.
Sherry Samuels, senior director of animal care at the museum, has been caring for the red wolves almost as long as the museum has hosted them. On the heels of the late April birth of several new pups at the museum, the INDY spoke with Samuels about the work needed to repopulate the red wolves and why the story of their survival is intertwined with humans.
INDY: How did the Museum of Life and Science get involved in caring for red wolves?
SAMUELS: The museum has been part of the red wolf program. It’s had different names over the years, but we got our first red wolf way back in November of 1992. At that time, I was working in the education department, so I can’t speak to how we transitioned from a generic wolf habitat to an endangered red wolf [habitat], because by the time I moved into animal care, a few months later, is when our second red wolf came in.
We had pups later that year, in May of 1993, so I’ve been working with them for well over 30 years. Our commitment has only gotten stronger to red wolf conservation as a science museum that strives to use science as a way of knowing about the world and our community. It’s a perfect example of using the most endangered wolf on the planet, the only wolf that roams free here in North Carolina, to invest in what we can do with our over 500,000 visitors to tell this conservation story.
You are at the American Red Wolf SAFE conference as we speak. Who hosts the event and what do you all try to accomplish?
It’s a cooperative group that, through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, is put together to use our resources to save the red wolf. I’m on the steering committee for that group. Part of what we do is population management, husbandry, and support research. We have a research subcommittee. We work with fish and wildlife. National experts come together annually with private NGOs to see how we work together to keep this amazing, amazing creature alive on the ground and get the humans in our world to value that equally.
Are there other endangered animals in the care of the museum?
We have ring-tailed lemurs here. We have radiated tortoises. Those are certainly not native to North Carolina. The red wolf, certainly, is the most iconic native species. We have some special-concern species as well, like American alligators. They are certainly a pest, for example, in Florida. Here in North Carolina, we need an endangered species permit to keep our American alligators along with our spotted turtle and our northern pine snake.
Most people like to focus on the big furry things the most, and certainly the red wolf story in our home state is so big, it’s easy to focus on that, and even easier now with the red wolf pups. Babies help tell a story. The story is the same, whether we had those pups or not. But babies—cute, furry baby things—it really helps make the story so much easier to tell, and it brings in people who weren’t listening or engaged before.
How many red wolves are at the museum currently?
Currently, we have seven. We have the two parents and five pups, who are now almost three months old.
Given the space in the museum, when you all do have pups, how long do they stick around, and where do they go next?
The museum is one of about 50 institutions—museums, zoos, nature centers, vet schools, wolf sanctuaries—around the country that house red wolves, and we work together. So this meeting [SAFE conference] that we have will actually decide what happens—not just to them but to all the red wolves in the population. Some will stay put, some will move to other institutions, and some might get released to the wild.
It must be bittersweet when you know the pups have to find new homes.
I’m on the team that cares for the animals. My crew knows that we’re just temporary housing, no matter who comes through the door, but yet we still all get attached, and we want to see the best for the critters. So if it’s best for them to head somewhere else, if it’s best for them to go to a different institution, if it’s best for the population, then we will all get on board and support that. But bittersweet is certainly a good descriptive word.
What are some of the hurdles that you all come across trying to manage, nurture, and breed the red wolves? Do you get additional resources or funding?
By having red wolves [at the museum] we commit to supplying everything that they need. But what this group does collectively together is [offer] camaraderie, emotional support, expertise. I could call someone up, and I have, when I’ve had problems at certain times—whether it’s been with a pup from a past litter who had a foot injury [or about] what medicines can you use that are approved or a behavior—or I can call a veterinarian across the country for our veterinarian to consult with on what might be a best treatment. So it might not be direct financial support. It’s certainly the expertise in the community that is committed to the same goal.
Given that the pool of people dealing with endangered red wolves is not huge, being able to rely on that available network seems like a real benefit.
Just as a perspective, there are less than 300 red wolves under human care. By comparison, everyone knows what a panda is; there are over 1,500 pandas. Everyone knows what a polar bear is; there are over 10,000 polar bears. Both those animals are considered critically endangered at numbers of 10,000 and 1,500. And when talking about red wolves and the number 300, it’s just on a whole other scale. In terms of only in this country and only the institutions that have them, we rely on each other for support.
What is the population threshold you all need to meet?
To meet a sustainable population, we need to get to about 330 [in human care]. We’re at about 290 right now. And it’s not easy to get there. Once we mate them, where are we going to put them? We need to move from one wild site to three wild sites. And in order to support red wolves in the wild, we need to have a sustainable population under human care. So our numbers that we look at, we can’t magically make that happen. Breeding takes time. We need space. We need more cooperators on board. There’s a lot of nuance and work that will go into building this population safely and securely.
When you are educating folks when they come to the museum, what are you sharing with them to teach them about how important the red wolf is to the ecosystem and how to be good stewards of nature as it pertains to red wolves?
It’s a complicated question. What we try to do is meet people where they are. I met with an eight-year-old last week who was excited to ask me questions in her furry wolf costume. Talking with her is very different from talking with a reporter or a college student, etc. We’re ready to talk about what might be needed.
With that eight-year-old, what we’re doing with them is we’re building empathy and relationships, understanding what’s cool about nature and why nature is important. That’s different than maybe an adult scientist who comes through or a family that comes through.
So we’re trying to meet people where they are and be ready to talk, if it’s about stewardship, if it’s about climate change, endangered species conservation, small genetic population, apex predators, it could be anything. We let them use critical thinking on what they want to do with the information that they’re given, and what questions they have that start spurring more conversation and discussion. Empathy is going to save this species.
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