How is the Endangered Wolf Center restoring wolves to the region? Managed breeding and tough love

The Endangered Wolf Center, operating out of Eureka since 1971, is one of the region’s best-kept secrets, says Ginny Busch—but Busch, its executive director, wants to change that. Red wolves were once native to southern Missouri, but the population was declared extinct by 1980. With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the center is working through managed breeding and reintroduction to restore red and Mexican wolves to parts of the country. The center cares for four red wolves, 19 Mexican wolves, and five maned wolves, including puppies. You can catch them at this year’s Earth Day celebration—Earthday365—on a tour at the center and during school visits with their animal ambassadors. “Not only do we breed them and put them back into the wild to repopulate,” Busch says, “we also think the educational component is equally important.”

Did you grow up around animals? I grew up going to Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, and Grant’s Farm as a child. My grandfather had animals as well. I grew up on a farm in St. Peters, where we had horses, goats, cats, and dogs.

How did you get into this type of work? I went to college at Wash. U., and I majored in anthropology with an emphasis in animal behavior. While I was in college, I interned at the zoo; then I worked for SeaWorld and Busch Gardens for 10 years. I took a couple of years off—had young kids. I knew about the [Endangered Wolf] Center as a kid and had kept in touch. Then a woman called and said she had an opening.

Why does the center focus on wolves? Red wolves were native to Missouri until the mid-1800s, when the government had a bounty on their heads. The view at that time was to kill pest animals like wolves because they hunted the same animals people did—moose, elk, deer.

Is that why people are afraid of wolves? Yes, that bounty developed a culture in the U.S. that wolves are bad. But in reality, they’re good for the ecosystem. If we don’t fix the culture in addition to putting them back in the wild, then we’re never going to solve the problem.

Where do the wolves that live at the center come from? Many of our canids are born at the center or come from other facilities in North America that are part of the Species Survival Plan. The SSP is made up of a group of expert organizations that are dedicated to saving endangered and threatened species. 

How do you care for the wolves as you prep for their rerelease? One thing most people don’t know about wolves is that they are naturally shy and want to run away from people.  We maintain that natural shyness. We don’t pet, talk to, hand-feed, or habituate the wolves. That way, when they’re released into the wild, they run away from people.

Could red wolves ever make their way back into Missouri’s ecosystem? We’ve seen success with repopulating them in North Carolina, but it’s slow going. There is a pause on that program. We are a holding facility waiting to hear where the next release area will be. Southern Missouri could be one of them.

Part of your job is to expose people to animals they’re afraid of. We are inviting more curiosity to make a connection. When it comes to conservation, you have to fall in love with it first. When we educate, we think a powerful way to connect is to meet an animal in person. Having snakes and possums in our ecosystem keeps the rodents in check. You explain that to kids, and you start to see the wheels turn.

What are the best ah-ha! moments you’ve seen? I was with a fourth-grade class, showing them the African fennec fox, [teaching] about adaptation. I asked them, “What can you do for conservation in a place like Africa?” They scratched their heads. I told them that in your own town, you can choose the products that you buy. You’re actively changing wildlife that’s 5,000 miles away. Then I see it click.

You’ve studied animals abroad. What have you learned there that you’ve incorporated into your  work? The first time I went to Africa, I was watching a herd of elephants move from the hills into the plain. It was in the evening, and seeing them do their daily walk down to go eat, sitting there peacefully watching them…it was surreal. To think that this has been going on for eons, and we must preserve this—there’s got to be some connection between our health and their health. They don’t need us, but we need them, and we need a healthy habitat [for animals] in order for humans to stay healthy. It gave me a moment to pause and think, “The world is so much bigger.”

Why don’t we hear much about wolves or see them like we do coyotes? Our rereleased populations are still shot or hit by cars because they’re not accepted among the masses. We have to come up with ways to coexist. Part of that is demystifying the wolf: It isn’t as afraid of you as you are of it. Coyotes have done well across the U.S., but wolves need a much larger habitat, because they won’t come that close to people. When we capture them, we do so in a way that when they do go back to the wild, they aren’t reliant on people. It’s tough love. We want them to be afraid of us so they won’t approach humans.

How do your kids feel about your job? They don’t like to go to work with dad—he’s a doctor—but they will come to work with me. We had a maned wolf puppy, Lucky, stay at our house once while she worked with different trainers. She’s now at the center, and when the kids come to visit, she recognizes them.

Other than the occasional maned wolf, do you have pets of your own? We’re a dog family. We have four giant mastiffs, who definitely outweigh us, and a cat and two parrots…a menagerie. Oh, and two Clydesdales at another location. My kids are very much animal people.

What’s the best part of your job? To have someone overcome that hurdle of fear and touch [an animal] and say, “Wow, it’s not what I thought it would be.” What’s fun is that kids get so excited. We see it on tours and in schools, especially with our snakes. People are so afraid of snakes, like they’re wolves.

Earthday365, St. Louis’ 30th annual Earth Day festival, takes place 11 a.m.–5 p.m., April 27 & 28 on The Muny grounds, in Forest Park.