The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Kayak and Canoe Adventures
Chipola River Paddling Trail | The Ovens and...
Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...
Wacissa Springs Adventure | Kayaking a Wild Florida...
A Geologist’s View of the Apalachicola River |...
Upper Chipola River Kayak Adventure | Ghosts &...
Tate’s Hell & the Apalachicola River Delta |...
Kayak Scouting Mission on the Ochlockonee Water Trail
Merritt’s Mill Pond | Kayaking and Spring Caves
Kayaking the Apalachicola River with my Four-Year-Old Son
Canoeing the Aucilla: A Red Hills River Steeped...

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Wildlife in North Florida- Critters Big and Small

Red Wolf Pups at the Tallahassee Museum- December 2017 Update

by Rob Diaz de Villegas December 5, 2017
by Rob Diaz de Villegas December 5, 2017 0 comment

Not only are the Tallahassee Museum’s red wolf pups getting big- they’re going to be here longer than originally expected.  Learn more below:

Subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog to receive more videos and articles about our local, natural areas.

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU Public Media

When I get to the enclosure, three red wolves of similar size are out.  At first it looks like three adults, one more than I know should be here.  The father wolf has always been easy to pick out; he’s a good bit bigger than the mother.  I take a close look at the other two wolves, and it’s the skinny legs that give away the pup.  In the almost three months since I last visited the Tallahassee Museum, these puppies have done a bit of growing.

They tell me that the pups are a little less shy than they had been.  They make occasional appearances when Museum patrons visit them.  Still, they prefer to leave their little house after the Museum closes, and the animal staff rides away in their golf cart.  This is my first time here after the time change; the Museum closes at 5 and sunset is now 5:30.  I get a lot of shots of yawning and laying down.  Then, just after the sun goes down, the rest of the pups come out for a little run.

There’s just enough light to see this growing family play together.  It’s a sweet scene, and one I hadn’t planned on seeing in December.

Four red wolves, the mother and three eight month old red wolf puppies.

The mom is not much bigger than the pups at this point, but it looks like that’s her on the left, with three of her pups.

When I first interviewed Tallahassee Museum animal curator Mike Jones about the pups, he told me they’d be gone by the end of the year.  This is standard procedure within the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP).  There are still so few red wolves in the world, and so pups are always redistributed with an eye towards future breeding.  That’s what usually happens, anyway.

This year is different.  The system is at capacity.  It’s bad news for the breeding program, but good news for Tallahassee.  North Florida is, for the foreseeable future, home to a multi-generational wolf pack.

Mike Jones, animal curator at the Tallahassee Museum

Mike Jones, animal curator at the Tallahassee Museum

Red Wolf Species Survival Plan Update

I touched base with Mike Jones in September.  He had just returned from the Red Wolf SSP meeting, and I was curious as to the fate of the pups.  To recap, the Tallahassee Museum is one of 43 zoos or other facilities where red wolves breed.  The ultimate goal for all of these animals is reintroduction to the wild; currently, the wild population lives in and around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.  There are also island propagation sites like at the St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge here in the panhandle.

This is an animal that was extinct in the wild by 1980.  Starting with 14 individuals, the population now includes about 45 wild wolves and about 200 more in captivity.  Breeding is carefully coordinated by the managers of the 43 breeding facilities and refuge managers.  We’ve previously covered that process.

Red Wolf SSP participants meet once a year to make the best possible breeding matches.  At 200 wolves for 43 facilities, however, the captive population is at capacity.  So instead of relocating at 6 months old, we’re going to get to see our local pups for a while longer.

Quick Hits

Here are a few more tidbits from our conversations with Mike Jones, and some observations.

  • Since the pups are here to stay a while, the mother wolf underwent a procedure to insert a contraceptive.  Female red wolves go into heat once a year; last year that happened in February.  By keeping the wolves from breeding this year, they can keep their pack a manageable size.
  • If you saw our second red wolf pup video, you may have noticed how the mom became nervous when the pups came out in the presence of the camera.  She would whine, and run to guide them back into their shelter.  During this visit, she seemed more at ease.
  • The animal staff has a different kind of relationship with the wolves than with other Museum animals.  Since the goal is to introduce these animals to the wild, staff puts less effort into gaining the animals’ trust.  “That’s one reason these animals are so shy,” says Mike Jones.  For instance,  “with other animals in our collection, when we have to do a medical procedure, we would talk soothingly and reassure them and that kind of thing.  With the red wolves, when we have to vaccinate them, we just catch them up and stick them and let them go.  We make them think that we’re bad news.”
  • The pup with the darkest fur is the female.  The other three pups are male.
  • Mike Jones had previously mentioned a couple of genetic problems that afflict red wolves.  If a family of wolves has one of these issues, the wolves aren’t bred.  One such wolf is off-exhibit at the Museum.  At the SSP meeting, a British ophthalmic surgeon presented news about retinal degradation in the wolves.  She had isolated the one to mother wolves- so potential fathers wouldn’t pass it on.

Red Wolves in the North Florida Landscape of Old

We’ve spent the fall covering various animals in our local ecosystems, places where the red wolf had once been the top predator.  These animals once lived side by side with wolves and Florida panthers, which once roamed the panhandle.  Back then, at right about this time of year, whooping cranes would migrate into our marshes.

We spend a lot of time learning about our local wild areas, but in a way, they’re incomplete.  We regain some of that completeness by learning new things about these areas, through new (to us) species and insights into how ecosystems function.

The animals we got to know this fall are much smaller, but no less important.  Some have become endangered, and their loss would have ecological repercussions of their own.

A Hillis's dwarf salamander perches on the finger of Dr. Bruce Means.

The Hillis’s dwarf salamander (Eurycea hillisi), a species new to science.

Bruce Means led us into three wetland habitats in search of three different salamanders.  The Hillis’s dwarf salamander is a new species found mostly on seepage slopes.  The southern dusky salamander is a swamp dweller that has disappeared from much of its range- its stronghold now is in the Apalachicola National Forest.  And the Apalachicola dusky salamander‘s primary home is the steephead ravine, a rare and uniquely Floridian habitat full of ice age refugees.

Common buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Common buckeye (Junonia coenia) in the Munson Sandhills region of the Apalachicola National Forest.

We also explored the butterflies of Tallahassee.  Just as salamanders a re a great way to learn about wetland environments, butterflies are a great way to learn about native plants.

Sometimes it seems strange that we’ve spent so much time covering a captive zoo animal. But when we learn about the red wolf, the salamanders and their wetland habitats, and the butterflies and their larval plants, we get a fuller picture of what north Florida is and was.

Facebook Comments
endangered speciesmammalsMike Jonesred wolfTallahassee Museum
0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
Rob Diaz de Villegas

Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for WFSU-TV, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

previous post
Tallahassee Butterfly Count 2017: Know Your Local Species
next post
Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living Coastline

Related Posts

Interning at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab: Hands...

December 3, 2014

Shorebirds in the Misty Morning | Surveying the...

December 15, 2020

Jim and Tara’s Wood Stork Rookery | A...

June 30, 2019

Red Wolf Pups at the Tallahassee Museum |...

June 22, 2017

Saying Goodbye to (some of) the Tallahassee Museum...

July 27, 2018

Sounds of the Oyster Reef

March 13, 2012

Frosted Elfin | Rare Butterfly of the Apalachicola...

April 17, 2019

Peeking into Gopher Tortoise Burrows at Birdsong

March 31, 2016

New WFSU Ecology Intern To Help Out at...

February 18, 2021

Behind the Scenes at the Saint Marks Whooping...

January 21, 2016

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more outdoor adventures, and an in depth look at our local forests and waterways by Email.

If you do not receive a verification e-mail, check your spam folder.

Category

Florida milkvetch

Florida milkvetch (Astragalus obcordatus) in the Munson Sandhills

When I test out a new camera, I usually head to a random spot in the Munson Sandhills and take a series of videos and photos. This small flower caught my eye, as almost nothing was in bloom. I identified it as Florida milkvetch (Astragalus obcordatus) in iNaturalist, and it was confirmed.
I then saw a photo of this plant in a Facebook group for native plant enthusiasts. It turns out this is kind of a rare plant, and one botanist went so far as to classify it as imperiled. It pays to keep your eyes down by your feet when walking in the sandhills.

WFSU-FM Environmental Stories

  • Florida House Plan Targets Flooding, Sea Level Rise
  • Lawmakers Look To Fund Environmental Projects Despite Budget Shortfalls
  • Florida Forest Service Warns Panhandle Communities Of Wildland Fire Threat
  • Controversial Wastewater Project In Wakulla Gets Public Hearing
  • FWC Considers Banning Commercial Sale Of Tegus, Green Iguanas

2021 Backyard Blog update- migratory birds and invasive plants

Cedar waxwings eating glossy privet berries.

Cedar waxwings eating glossy privet berries.

Twitter

Tweets by wfsuIGOR

iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist.org

Thumb
View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • Hiking the Aucilla Sinks | Geology of the Floridan Aquifer Uncovered
  • New WFSU Ecology Intern To Help Out at Lake Elberta
  • Florida and Georgia Head to the Supreme Court — Again — In Fight Over Water
  • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
  • Shorebirds in the Misty Morning | Surveying the St. Marks Refuge

Archives

December 2017
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Nov   Jan »

WFSU Ecology YouTube

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

test title

this is the info in my test popup.