Carlsbad Mexican gray wolf to mate with Mexican female in breeding program

After several months of talks and mounds of paper work, a male Mexican gray wolf from the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park was flown earlier this month to a facility in Mexico where it will be paired with a female of the same species. The wolf, sent to Centro Encologico de Sonora in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, is one of six Mexican gray wolf brothers housed at the park that came from the Wild Canid Research and Survival Center in Eureka, Mo. The endangered wolves are placed in institutions by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums through the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan, said Holly Payne, park general curator. The six wolves have been fostered at the park since 2005 and have not been bred, Payne said. "The AZA Species Survival Plan contacted us and said the facility in Mexico has a single female that is genetically important and since our six brothers also are important genetic-wise, they recommended breeding one of our males with the female in Mexico," Payne explained...more