Wolves for Lake Superior Zoo

DULUTH, Minn. — “One of the missions of the wildlife science center is education. More people visit zoos in this country than all sporting events put together,” explains Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center.

And that means that the wildlife science center will be loaning a few wolves to the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth.

“The Lake Superior Zoo went to great ends, they built a nice exhibit.”

But first, you have to catch them.

“They tend to want to run into the holding area. We’re going to run in and file down the north wall as quickly as we can and when we get beyond all three animals we file over and make as quick of a wall as we can.”

“Head down. Keep going!”

“Okay, close it Meg!”

“Yeah that was real easy. We’re not done yet.”

“I need the drugs and the pole syringe.”

The wolves need to be anesthetized so that they can do a physical exam.

“Top guy is starting to have drug affects already.”

“It really is important moment to get our hands on an animal that’s that big and stressed out by human contact. These three males have participated in reproductive studies for many years on behalf of the Mexican gray wolves for many years.”

“We’re banking blood for that project. We’re also vaccinating. Wolves get all the diseases dogs get.”

After a thorough exam it’s time to go.

“We are going to drive these guys up to Duluth.”

“They’ve got great digs here.”

“I’m excited that Duluth gets a chance to learn from these guys, they’re pretty awesome.”

Leslie Larsen of the Lake Superior Zoo is pretty excited too.

“We are just extremely fortunate to be able to partner with the Science Center.”

(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)