On December 30 of last year, maned wolf puppies were born at the Houston Zoo. This is what we like to call a “big darn deal” here at the zoo, we’ve been trying to breed maned wolves for several years. Maned wolves are not common in captivity, less than 30 AZA zoos have this species and only 17 pups were born in all of 2009. Check out this video for some background on this rare canid:

The carnivore staff has been working hard since last fall to prepare for this, carefully observing the adult pair, Lucy and Seis, to monitor behavior, consulting with experts, and setting up night vision cameras to monitor them remotely.

On the morning of December 30, keepers noticed a puppy on the camera. We immediately began constant monitoring and unfortunately later that night, we began to notice that Lucy was having trouble caring for the new pups. We had hoped she could do this on her own, but with the weather turning cold we were ready to intervene to make sure these valuable puppies survived. Late that night I called in Carnivore keepers, supervisors and a veterinarian and we brought the newborns to zoo’s animal clinic.

The priority for newborn pups is to keep them warm so they were placed in an incubator while we checked everyone for injuries (they had none) and took their temperatures. Carnivore supervisor Sara and I stayed overnight, making bottles every 2 hours and keeping our fingers crossed for healthy pups. By morning the pups were warm and taking their bottles like champs.

a handful, in more than on sense of the word!

Now the real work begins!

Since these adorable puppies won’t be visible to guests for a while, we’ll be posting updates here on the blog – stay tuned!

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