Artificial insemination could make the difference for endangered wolf species
By Traci Angel
Dr. Sue Lindsey works the overnight shift, attending to baby Mexican gray wolves at the Wild Canid Survival and Research Center like a nurse in a newborn ward. There are the around-the-clock feedings, the cleanups, the regular checks of vital signs. Lindsey and her staff at the center in Eureka watch as “the pups start to open their eyes and they get more rambunctious, start howling when they think it is time to eat.”
Rearing pups to adulthood, whether by hand or by making sure mothers are caring for their young, is critical to boosting wolf populations diminished by hunters and a shrinking natural habitat. Sleep deprivation and sanitary Clorox foot baths are small prices to pay for the chance to reintroduce wolf populations into the wild.
More pups were born and survived this year—35 total, including 29 Mexican gray wolves—than in any year since the center began breeding wolves in 1981. Three of the five litters were conceived with the use of a revolutionary method of artificial insemination.
For more than a decade, the center has collaborated with the Saint Louis Zoo on breeding the wolves. This time, it also sought the assistance of Norwegian veterinarian Dr. Ragnar Thomassen, known for his near–90 percent success rate in breeding foxes and dogs in Norway.
Surgical insemination is not a realistic option for wolves because they are wild animals and the chance of infection is greater. A noninvasive method is preferred, so until this year the center used conventional insemination techniques. But the semen often didn’t get far enough to fertilize the female. In Thomassen’s method, timed for ovulation, the female is catheterized so that the semen may be injected all the way into the cervix.
This new plan gives wolf-survival efforts a boost that wasn’t possible when wolves bred naturally, Lindsey says. Not all female wolves possess the maternal instinct necessary to keep pups alive, and artificial insemination can be used on the females who make the best mothers. This method is also advantageous because it does not require breaking up the pack or pairing genetically selected males and females in captivity on “blind dates,” Lindsey notes.
The Wild Canid Center is the largest holder and breeder of Mexican gray wolves in the world. Every Mexican gray wolf in the wild now traces its genetic lineage to the center. Tours are given on Saturdays or by appointment.
