Wolves get a little help from their two-legged friends

A female wolf pup cowered underneath a juniper tree while fish and wildlife workers attempted to coax her into a "shade box" to receive her vaccinations. United States Fish & Wildlife Service biologists Maggie Dwire and Susan Dicks were required to snare Mexican gray wolf No. 1167 after failing to coax her inside the box. The shots were administered and the 13-week-old pup was soon released back into the care of her parents in one of a half-dozen spacious pens located in a remote part of Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge north of Socorro. The facility is used as a temporary home for wolves as part of the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program, which was approved in 1982. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Web site, the program involves maintenance and a captive breeding program to re-establish a self-sustaining population of at least 100 wolves in the wild within their historic range, which includes parts of New Mexico and Arizona. The recovery project developed after the Mexican Gray Wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1976...El Defensor Chieftain