Cheyenne Mountain Zoo hopes Mexican gray wolves will find love

Moments after a Cheyenne Mountain Zoo keeper set out a couple clumps of ground meat, LightHawk emerged from a small snow shelter nestled next to a pine tree. The zoo's newest edition sniffed around for a few minutes Wednesday morning then made her way to the food, nibbling the morsels as male wolf Leopold kept his distance. Leopold eventually took a bite, then retreated back up the snow-covered hill in the Mexican gray wolf exhibit. Kristen Cox, an animal keeper at the zoo for the last decade, said the pair were "doing real well, actually" after their introduction less than a day before. LightHawk was flown from Scottsdale, Ariz., on Tuesday to fill the void left when her sister, Weeko, died of cancer in January. She was named for LightHawk Conservation Flying, the volunteer organization that brought her to Colorado Springs. LightHawk was brought to Cheyenne Mountain to pair with Leopold in a last-ditch effort to continue their genetic lines. According to the Mexican Gray Wolf Species Survival Plan, which tracks genetic lines of wolves in human care, both Leopold and the new female have under-represented genes in the remaining wolf population...more

 Let's hope she gets the cross legged colic instead.