Wolf pups born in captivity at the WNC Nature Center in Asheville six months ago are being sent to new homes around the country this fall.

The WNC Nature center is one of 36 red wolf breeding facilities in the country that work with the Red Wolf Recovery Program to help bring the animals back from the brink of extinction.

“The red wolves born at the Nature Center on May 1 of this year are no longer the cute, squirmy little pups,” said Annie Shulman with Friends of the Nature Center. “At six months old, the pups are difficult to differentiate from their adult parents.”

A female red wolf pup left the Nature Center for her new home at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., in October.

“The employees there assure us that she has arrived safely and is currently getting more familiar with her future mate, a male red wolf about her age that has also just arrived from another zoo,” Shulman said.

The Nature Center’s adult male is also moving away — he’s going to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. Adult wolves in the captive breeding program are occasionally moved around the county to breed with different mates and keep the gene pool diverse.

The red wolf is one of the most endangered species in the world. There were less than 100 red wolves left in the wild in 1970. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service started the Red Wolf Recovery Program with just 14 wolves in 1974. Today, there are more 250 descendents of the original 14.

Most remain in the captive breeding program, but some have been released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina and are now reproducing in the wild.

The WNC Nature Center entered the program in 1992. A new natural habitat for the red wolves is in the planning stages. It will include state-of-the-art den-houses that will make medicating new pups easier for keepers and less stressful for the red wolf parents.

If you are interested in contributing to this project or to the new habitats being built for the foxes and raccoons, contact Friends of WNC Nature Center at 828.298.5600 ext. 308.