Latest / Back From the Brink, from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom / The Wolf America Almost Lost with Bailey Cadena

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The Wolf America Almost Lost with Bailey Cadena · Back From the Brink, from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

• 0:00
  (warm rustic music)
• 0:02
  - [Narrator] The Mexican gray wolf, the lobo,
• 0:04
  was systematically hunted
• 0:06
  and poisoned out of existence by the government.
• 0:09
  As ranching spread across the Southwest,
• 0:11
  wolves were branded as a threat to livestock.
• 0:14
  And by the early 1900s,
• 0:15
  killing them had become the official policy.
• 0:19
  Bounties, traps, and poison carcasses laid across the range.
• 0:24
  By the 1970s, only seven wolves were left in the wild.
• 0:28
  Today, we're looking at a very different story.
• 0:32
  - To think about seven wolves being where we began
• 0:35
  and to think about where we are now,
• 0:37
  Mexican wolves have come back from the brink.
• 0:39
  - Our guest today is Bailey Cadena,
• 0:42
  AZA's co-vice program lead
• 0:44
  for the SAFE Mexican Wolf Program,
• 0:46
  and part of the Coexistence Conservation Team
• 0:49
  at the Cincinnati Zoo.
• 0:51
  Today, we'll learn how a species
• 0:53
  that was down to just a handful of wolves
• 0:56
  clawed its way back,
• 0:57
  and why its recovery depends as much on people
• 1:01
  as it does on the animals themselves.
• 1:04
  (upbeat adventurous music)
• 1:07
  Welcome to "Back From the Brink"
• 1:09
  from "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom."
• 1:11
  I am Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant.
• 1:14
  - [Narrator] Each episode, we're going deep
• 1:16
  on a single species,
• 1:18
  one that went to the very edge of disappearing
• 1:20
  and on the fight to bring it back.
• 1:23
  - To tell the story of how I became involved
• 1:26
  in the Mexican Gray Wolf Program,
• 1:29
  I have to zoom out just a little bit to share that my teams
• 1:32
  and our zoo's approach to conservation
• 1:35
  really is supporting communities
• 1:38
  that live alongside wildlife.
• 1:40
  When we think about wildlife, I think it's really important
• 1:43
  to know that where there's wildlife, there are people,
• 1:47
  and people often are the heroes
• 1:49
  of the story within conservation.
• 1:52
  And through my work
• 1:54
  wearing one of my two hats at Cincinnati Zoo,
• 1:56
  I was brought into SAFE Mexican Wolf Program.
• 2:00
  This program, it's been absolutely exceptional.
• 2:03
  And going back to those zookeepers
• 2:05
  and animal care staff
• 2:06
  that are vital to the work that zoos do,
• 2:10
  they're also vital to this story.
• 2:13
  Why I was brought in is we wanted to expand the reach
• 2:17
  and the impact that zoos could play in this story
• 2:20
  forever and ever, but we also were ready to expand into
• 2:26
  how can we support communities
• 2:27
  living alongside wolves as zoos?
• 2:30
  And so that's kind of where I started to come in,
• 2:32
  and I am now AZA's SAFE Mexican Wolf co-vice program lead.
• 2:38
  - Like, three snaps for you because that is a long title,
• 2:41
  but a very revered one.
• 2:44
  You know, you're right.
• 2:45
  I do know a lot about the SAFE program for Mexican wolves.
• 2:49
  I do know a lot about what's going on
• 2:51
  with Mexican wolves in the US right now,
• 2:54
  but that's because I was able to like join the project
• 2:57
  that you worked on for a couple of days to film it
• 3:00
  for "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild."
• 3:03
  I think that probably if anyone was asked
• 3:06
  to like close their eyes and visualize a wolf,
• 3:09
  they would be able to.
• 3:10
  But can you describe to us like what is a Mexican gray wolf?
• 3:15
  What does it look like? Where does it live?
• 3:17
  Like, what is kind of the biology and ecology in general,
• 3:20
  general about this species?
• 3:22
  (transition whooshes)
• 3:22
  - So the Mexican gray wolf is the smallest
• 3:27
  and most genetically distinct subspecies
• 3:30
  of the gray wolf.
• 3:32
  They historically were found in the Southwest US
• 3:35
  and throughout northern Mexico,
• 3:37
  and that remains true today due to these recovery efforts.
• 3:40
  Today, they are found
• 3:41
  in the US states of Arizona and New Mexico
• 3:46
  and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Durango.
• 3:49
  - You know, as typical with lots of wild animals,
• 3:52
  particularly in North America,
• 3:55
  at one point they were abundant.
• 3:57
  And so tell me about the trajectory
• 4:00
  from when they were abundant
• 4:01
  to, you know, a couple decades ago.
• 4:04
  Like, what happened? What drove their population decline?
• 4:07
  - So by the 1970s, settlers had expanded west
• 4:13
  into the area of the historic range of Mexican wolves.
• 4:19
  And with them, they brought their livestock
• 4:21
  in abundant numbers.
• 4:23
  And there was a culture of dominating the landscape,
• 4:26
  and the livestock that were brought in
• 4:30
  were brought in such abundant numbers so rapidly
• 4:32
  that the populations of the hoofstock,
• 4:36
  the herbivores that were there before then,
• 4:38
  didn't have a chance to really adapt,
• 4:40
  and they started decreasing pretty rapidly
• 4:42
  due to competition.
• 4:44
  And as a result of that, wolves, among other predators,
• 4:48
  were predating on folks' livestock.
• 4:51
  And essentially a whole anti-predator campaign
• 4:55
  that I'm sure hit on the bears that you love as well.
• 4:59
  - Oh, yeah. Mountain lions, bears and wolves.
• 5:01
  - Mountain lions, yeah, was initiated,
• 5:04
  and eventually they were extirpated in the United States,
• 5:08
  and there was only of tens left in northern Mexico.
• 5:12
  - Oh, I didn't realize.
• 5:13
  They were gone completely from the wild in the US.
• 5:17
  - Yeah. - Wow.
• 5:18
  And just a dozen or, you know,
• 5:21
  like a very small number left in Mexico as far as we know.
• 5:25
  - Mm-hmm. - This is important
• 5:27
  because for a lot of species
• 5:29
  that we are discussing here on "Back From the Brink,"
• 5:33
  you know, maybe we got down to a couple thousand,
• 5:37
  you know, sometimes a few hundred,
• 5:40
  but to know that they were gone in this country,
• 5:44
  that really, I mean, that really hits.
• 5:47
  (transition whooshes)
• 5:48
  - [Narrator] You've probably heard the name Marlin Perkins.
• 5:50
  He was the original host
• 5:51
  of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom,"
• 5:53
  but he was more than a face on television.
• 5:55
  In 1971, he and his wife Carol
• 5:58
  founded the Wild Canid Survival and Research Center
• 6:01
  in Eureka, Missouri.
• 6:03
  They started with a single enclosure and just five wolves.
• 6:07
  (transition whooshes)
• 6:08
  - Five wolves were found in the wild in Durango,
• 6:12
  and there were a few others
• 6:13
  that were in professional care at the time.
• 6:15
  And those wolves were transported
• 6:18
  to the Endangered Wolf Center,
• 6:20
  which has direct ties to the work that "Wild Kingdom"
• 6:24
  and then "Back From the Brink" is involved in.
• 6:25
  - Absolutely. Yeah.
• 6:26
  I mean, we can spend a minute
• 6:28
  talking about the Endangered Wolf Center
• 6:30
  and was brought to life by Marlin Perkins,
• 6:34
  who was the original host, one of the original hosts
• 6:37
  of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom."
• 6:39
  He really, I mean, he started the show.
• 6:42
  His legacy is so important.
• 6:44
  And he also was truly a conservationist off camera.
• 6:49
  So he had a place at the St. Louis Zoo.
• 6:51
  He began the Endangered Wolf Center.
• 6:53
  I mean, his legacy of impact truly lives on,
• 6:57
  and it's something that makes me really proud
• 6:59
  that he wasn't just a host.
• 7:00
  He was walking the talk.
• 7:02
  And so the five that were taken from the wild
• 7:06
  that might have been the last five
• 7:08
  and they probably were facing, you know,
• 7:10
  a pretty dire situation were brought to St. Louis.
• 7:14
  - Absolutely.
• 7:14
  And so it feels as though our beginnings
• 7:18
  and the beginnings of "Wild Kingdom,"
• 7:22
  we just come from the same roots.
• 7:24
  And I was lucky enough to visit the Endangered Wolf Center
• 7:29
  for the first time, interestingly enough, just last week.
• 7:32
  You can feel the magic of it,
• 7:34
  and you can feel the way
• 7:36
  in which Marlin and Carol Perkins' vision
• 7:38
  of supporting the recovery of the America's canids,
• 7:45
  it still rings true today.
• 7:47
  And that's where it all began.
• 7:48
  - And so I imagine
• 7:49
  that at least one of those wolves brought in was female
• 7:53
  because they were able
• 7:55
  to provide protection for these wolves
• 7:57
  so that they could do some breeding.
• 7:59
  And this was decades ago.
• 8:01
  And so throughout those decades, I mean,
• 8:03
  like, what does the trajectory look like?
• 8:05
  - There were no wolves on the landscape
• 8:08
  for about 20 to 30 years as this breeding effort began.
• 8:13
  And this is where I like to say
• 8:16
  zoos have been one of the heroes
• 8:19
  of the story of Mexican wolves, without a doubt.
• 8:22
  Mexican wolves would not be here if it were not for the zoos
• 8:28
  that have been invested in this species' recovery.
• 8:31
  Through the breeding efforts of these zoos,
• 8:36
  the number went from zero in the wild in 1998.
• 8:41
  I'm gonna out my age here. I was born in '97.
• 8:45
  So in my lifetime,
• 8:47
  we have gone from zero wolves in the wild.
• 8:51
  In '98, the first were reintroduced in the US,
• 8:55
  and in 2011, the first were introduced in Mexico.
• 8:59
  And today we stand
• 9:00
  at a minimum of 319 Mexican wolves in Arizona, New Mexico,
• 9:06
  and a minimum of 25 in Mexico.
• 9:09
  We still have a long ways to go, but what an amount of work
• 9:14
  to be done over the last 30 years.
• 9:16
  - I mean, I have to applaud that
• 9:18
  because that is a short amount of time,
• 9:20
  you know, for an animal like this, wide-ranging.
• 9:24
  You know, the birth rates are not,
• 9:27
  you know, they're not rabbits. (chuckles)
• 9:29
  They're not giving birth every couple months,
• 9:31
  an animal that faces a lot of threats
• 9:33
  in its natural environment, this is a huge feat
• 9:36
  to have a number over 300 and hopefully growing.
• 9:40
  (transition whooshes)
• 9:40
  - [Narrator] Ecologists call wolves keystone animals
• 9:43
  in the same way the centerstone of an arch
• 9:45
  holds every other stone in place.
• 9:47
  A keystone, like the wolf,
• 9:49
  holds the whole landscape together.
• 9:52
  (transition whooshes)
• 9:53
  - You know, a lot of folks have this understanding
• 9:55
  that there is a direct impact on the environment
• 9:59
  when we have an animal like wolves in an ecosystem
• 10:03
  or when we don't have it.
• 10:04
  Has there been any discussion or measurement or evidence
• 10:09
  that those years when there were no wolves
• 10:12
  that the ecosystem changed
• 10:15
  or that it has changed since they've returned?
• 10:18
  - So I think the best-studied ecosystem,
• 10:21
  and in response to this question is obviously Yellowstone,
• 10:24
  the Yellowstone wolves.
• 10:26
  There's stories of rivers changing
• 10:31
  and restoring their natural hydrology
• 10:33
  as a result of wolves being back.
• 10:36
  So flowing in the classic river bendy way
• 10:39
  that we all know and are familiar with.
• 10:43
  And when I first heard that, I just was like,
• 10:45
  "How could the presence of a wolf impact a river flowing?"
• 10:51
  And folks shared with me
• 10:52
  that it was a result of the presence of predators,
• 10:57
  wolves made it so that the hoofstock,
• 11:01
  the elk, et cetera, eating grass had to move more.
• 11:05
  And so they weren't overgrazing in one area sedentarily
• 11:09
  and then moving to another.
• 11:11
  And that movement of those hooves,
• 11:13
  think about those hooves on that soil
• 11:15
  and really kneading in different grasses,
• 11:18
  established natural hydrology.
• 11:21
  And so that is, I think we can take lessons.
• 11:24
  Obviously the Southwest US and northern Mexico
• 11:27
  is a different ecosystem than Yellowstone,
• 11:31
  but I think that undoubtedly the presence of wolves
• 11:34
  has helped restore some of these components.
• 11:39
  - You know, I am a bear biologist,
• 11:41
  and so they're also a top predator.
• 11:43
  You know, just the understanding the trophic cascades,
• 11:46
  like the food web, you know,
• 11:47
  like these predators eat animals that are herbivores,
• 11:51
  the herbivores eat grass, the grass grows in soil,
• 11:54
  the soil impacts water systems.
• 11:57
  So if we have no predators,
• 12:00
  then we might have too many herbivores,
• 12:02
  which means too much grass is getting eaten.
• 12:04
  There's not enough roots in the soil.
• 12:06
  We face some erosion into the water,
• 12:07
  and then we can, you know, ideally reverse that.
• 12:10
  (transition whooshes)
• 12:10
  - [Narrator] The ecosystem argument is clear,
• 12:13
  but getting wolves back into the ecosystem
• 12:15
  required a solution that nobody had tried before,
• 12:18
  and it started in a zoo nursery.
• 12:22
  - So someone listening to this podcast might think,
• 12:26
  "Okay, the Mexican wolves were vulnerable
• 12:30
  because they were being extirpated in the wild.
• 12:32
  So folks took them into human care
• 12:35
  to keep them protected and to breed them again,
• 12:37
  and then they just brought those adults
• 12:40
  that had been bred back to the wild."
• 12:43
  But no, it is not necessarily adults
• 12:46
  that were being relocated back to the wild.
• 12:49
  Can you tell me about how you all
• 12:52
  use wolf pups to rewild?
• 12:55
  - In the early years, it was those adults.
• 12:59
  The packs had to be reestablished,
• 13:01
  but once we had wolves on the landscape
• 13:03
  that knew how to act like wolves, that knew how to hunt,
• 13:07
  that knew how to survive
• 13:10
  and really thrive as much as a wolf can, right,
• 13:13
  the life of a wolf is very difficult.
• 13:15
  We looked across the landscape,
• 13:17
  and we really heard a few needs across the landscape.
• 13:22
  One is people living alongside wolves
• 13:26
  want and need wolves that act like wild wolves.
• 13:30
  And two, we always want to be doing everything that we can
• 13:33
  to support the genetic health of the population in the wild.
• 13:38
  And the answer to these big questions
• 13:41
  is actually quite adorable,
• 13:44
  as you alluded to and got to experience.
• 13:46
  I haven't yet got to experience the magic that you did.
• 13:50
  - Oh, it'll change you. (chuckles)
• 13:51
  - I believe it. I believe it.
• 13:53
  Essentially, we as a program
• 13:58
  have breeding efforts every year.
• 14:00
  So there are wolves paired based on the best genetics,
• 14:04
  and those mom and dad have a litter of pups.
• 14:08
  And through some magic
• 14:11
  and a lot of expertise and coordination,
• 14:14
  they're able to time the birth of pups
• 14:18
  that are born in human care
• 14:20
  with those that are born in wild dens.
• 14:23
  And pups born in zoos that are part of this program,
• 14:28
  some of them are taken from their moms in human care,
• 14:30
  and they're put into wild dens.
• 14:33
  And so I recently watched again
• 14:36
  the episode of "Wild Kingdom,"
• 14:39
  and I just remember, Rae, you sharing, like,
• 14:41
  "These pups will never know that they were born in a zoo.
• 14:45
  They will always know themselves to be wild wolves."
• 14:47
  - Because they're taken when they're days old,
• 14:50
  I mean, I think in my experience,
• 14:53
  deliberately before their eyes open.
• 14:55
  - Yeah.
• 14:56
  There is so much that goes into the care
• 14:58
  and ensuring that the pups are well taken care of,
• 15:01
  the moms are well taken care of,
• 15:03
  the packs both in the wild and human care
• 15:06
  are well taken care of.
• 15:08
  And it just is this absolutely beautiful answer
• 15:12
  to a lot of very real parts of recovery.
• 15:16
  - So these pups are adorable. The moms are superheroes.
• 15:22
  They accept these foster pups
• 15:24
  and make them wild, grow them up wild,
• 15:27
  which is just in and of itself already just incredible.
• 15:32
  And so I'm curious, like what's the best-case scenario
• 15:36
  like for now, for the future,
• 15:38
  or even for a fostered or wild Mexican wolf?
• 15:44
  I mean, what does a healthy population
• 15:46
  kind of look like on the ground?
• 15:47
  Like, their specific pack structure,
• 15:49
  like, you know, what is even survival rate like?
• 15:52
  Like, what are we kind of expecting
• 15:54
  under the best-case scenario?
• 15:56
  - So for wild wolves, what you're really looking for
• 16:01
  is a pack structure that's you've got mom, you've got dad,
• 16:05
  you have pups from a year or two before,
• 16:09
  and then you have this year's pups.
• 16:11
  So siblings helping raise siblings,
• 16:15
  everybody playing together, play hunting and whatnot.
• 16:20
  And to me, success for this program
• 16:24
  is not limited, or to the recovery effort,
• 16:27
  is not limited to success with the wolves,
• 16:30
  but it really also is the recovery of a culture,
• 16:34
  the recovery of humans living alongside these wolves.
• 16:38
  If you think about it, if you became a rancher
• 16:42
  in the late '70s in the Southwest US,
• 16:45
  you learned how to ranch in an ecosystem without wolves.
• 16:50
  But if you were born around the same time that I was,
• 16:54
  as I shared earlier, you've only known ranching with wolves.
• 16:58
  So that's a generation
• 17:00
  that has been able to culturally recover in a sense, right?
• 17:05
  The recovery story is not limited to wolves.
• 17:08
  It also includes communities living alongside those wolves.
• 17:12
  - Wow, that's a really cool way to put it
• 17:14
  and to think about it, that everyone's kind of changing
• 17:19
  and growing together at the same time in the same ecosystem.
• 17:25
  - If anybody listening has ever gotten the experience
• 17:28
  of watching a wild pack run,
• 17:33
  if you've seen parents run with their puppies,
• 17:38
  there's this absolutely raw feeling that it evokes in me.
• 17:42
  And I think that that is recovery, the resilience.
• 17:46
  There is not the state that we will one day reach
• 17:49
  and then everything will be perfect.
• 17:51
  Coexistence is hard. It's ever-changing.
• 17:56
  What works today won't work tomorrow.
• 17:58
  What worked 20 years ago might work in 20 years.
• 18:02
  And really being committed
• 18:03
  to the recovery effort of the wolves
• 18:06
  and meeting the needs of communities living with them,
• 18:09
  that's the work.
• 18:10
  That's recovery. (warm rustic music)
• 18:12
  - [Narrator] Bringing back a predator
• 18:13
  means learning to live alongside one.
• 18:15
  That's coexistence.
• 18:18
  - Bailey, tell me some anecdotes about coexistence,
• 18:22
  like especially about like innovations
• 18:24
  or, you know, just wacky things
• 18:27
  that folks are doing that are allowing them to live in the,
• 18:32
  you know, shared ecosystems with these Mexican wolves.
• 18:35
  - One extraordinary team
• 18:37
  that I love to talk about is Tonkawa.
• 18:41
  They're an organization that is responsible
• 18:45
  for monitoring wolves in Chihuahua, Mexico,
• 18:49
  but they've really taken it upon themselves
• 18:52
  to be a community-driven organization.
• 18:55
  They've seen that long-term wolf recovery is not possible
• 19:00
  if the ranchers that live alongside them
• 19:04
  that keep these areas, this landscape,
• 19:09
  suitable habitat for Mexican wolves,
• 19:11
  these alpine desert areas
• 19:15
  that has some of the hardest ranching in the US and Mexico,
• 19:19
  they keep it suitable habitat for Mexican wolves.
• 19:22
  And one of my favorite stories
• 19:25
  is the idea of dog treats,
• 19:29
  wolf-friendly dog treats.
• 19:31
  - Okay. Say more about that.
• 19:33
  Wolf-friendly dog treats. Break it down for me.
• 19:36
  - For ranching communities that are living alongside wolves,
• 19:40
  one of the ways that Tonkawa,
• 19:42
  their team has helped unlock the value
• 19:44
  of having wolves on this land, sharing space with people,
• 19:49
  is by asking those communities, "How can we help?"
• 19:52
  And what those communities have said is,
• 19:55
  "We want some market analysis done.
• 19:59
  How can we find a market where we can sell our beef
• 20:03
  at a higher price per unit cow?"
• 20:07
  And Tonkawa was like, "All right, let's figure that out."
• 20:09
  And they were able to find a market
• 20:12
  where ranchers can sell their beef
• 20:15
  at three times the profit that they were before.
• 20:18
  And in doing so and having this relationship with Tonkawa,
• 20:22
  Tonkawa being present and being very transparent
• 20:26
  that they're there because they love the wolves
• 20:28
  and they were there to support the communities,
• 20:31
  those ranchers that have had that value unlocked
• 20:34
  of tripling the profit for their unit of cow
• 20:39
  have agreed to decrease the number of cows
• 20:41
  that they have in their herd by half.
• 20:44
  So that means less interaction potential
• 20:47
  between wolves and livestock,
• 20:51
  more regenerative ag practices.
• 20:54
  To me, it sometimes just feels like magic,
• 20:56
  the work that this team of four
• 20:57
  has been able to do alongside these ranchers.
• 21:00
  And the dog treats will allow for additional markets.
• 21:07
  - I have to say, I got worried
• 21:08
  'cause I thought you were gonna suggest
• 21:11
  that the key to coexistence
• 21:13
  is like giving the wolves dog treats to eat.
• 21:16
  But no, you're saying that- - Absolutely not.
• 21:18
  - dog treats are made of ingredients from these ranches
• 21:24
  that do wolf-friendly ranching,
• 21:26
  and they can be sold with this tagline,
• 21:29
  like, "Supports wildlife,
• 21:31
  you know, choose this brand over another brand
• 21:33
  because we are contributing to conservation."
• 21:35
  And that is brilliant.
• 21:38
  - I think so as well.
• 21:39
  And thank you for distilling it down in that way.
• 21:42
  Sometimes the story of coexistence can be so complex
• 21:46
  the closer and closer you get to it
• 21:49
  because there's so many awesome components of it.
• 21:52
  In this work,
• 21:53
  when you are supporting communities living with wildlife,
• 21:58
  it feels like the opposite
• 21:59
  of feeling like there's a lack of hope in the world.
• 22:04
  I come home from work and day in and day out
• 22:07
  hearing stories of success that feel like,
• 22:10
  "How could they be hitting success here and here and here?"
• 22:14
  And I think it's important for people to know
• 22:16
  that this work is happening,
• 22:18
  this community-led work is happening, and it is hopeful,
• 22:21
  and there are people doing absolutely incredible work.
• 22:24
  This is our 10th year of population growth in the states.
• 22:29
  It's also our 10th year of pup fostering.
• 22:32
  And I believe that long term,
• 22:37
  what the success looks like is not only
• 22:40
  the appropriate amount of Mexican wolves on the landscape,
• 22:44
  but also the appropriate support going to these communities.
• 22:48
  - I think what's interesting in conservation
• 22:50
  is that like our goal is always
• 22:51
  to put ourselves out of a job.
• 22:53
  - Yes. - You know?
• 22:54
  But knowing that humans have so much impact
• 22:59
  on the viability of these species,
• 23:03
  we may not put ourselves out of a job
• 23:04
  even if the species recovers,
• 23:07
  because there may likely just be work that needs to be done
• 23:11
  as societies change and landscapes change and growth happens
• 23:16
  just to make sure that coexistence is still at the top.
• 23:20
  - When we think about the life of the wolf
• 23:21
  or these ecosystems that include people,
• 23:26
  you've got your wolves, your livestock,
• 23:28
  people, elk, rivers, all of these things.
• 23:31
  Change is our greatest constant.
• 23:34
  And I resonate deeply with what you shared
• 23:38
  that we should constantly be trying
• 23:39
  to work ourselves out of a job in conservation.
• 23:42
  And maybe with change as our only constant,
• 23:45
  we're working ourselves into a new job.
• 23:47
  - Into a new job. Yeah.
• 23:49
  - And that's changing,
• 23:51
  changing and putting autonomy in the hands of people
• 23:54
  that should have decision-making power
• 23:57
  to be able to do what they need
• 24:00
  as Tonkawa is supporting ranchers and...
• 24:03
  - Bailey, I have to thank you so much for talking to us
• 24:07
  about this awesome, awesome, awesome animal
• 24:10
  that I'm sure a lot of people
• 24:12
  didn't even know was a subspecies of the gray wolf
• 24:15
  that we have here in North America.
• 24:16
  Thank you for joining us
• 24:18
  and for representing the Cincinnati Zoo so well.
• 24:21
  You know, again, shout-out
• 24:23
  to the people who are working hands-on
• 24:25
  with the animals under human care at the zoo,
• 24:27
  and shout-out to people like you
• 24:29
  who are doing completely different work
• 24:33
  that is still in service
• 24:35
  to the overall conservation efforts that the zoo has.
• 24:38
  You're awesome. We'll have you back anytime.
• 24:41
  - Thank you so, so much.
• 24:42
  Those of you who are interested in learning more,
• 24:44
  we have a new area for Mexican wolves opening this fall.
• 24:50
  So come see Fiona, come learn more
• 24:52
  about the awesome work involved in this program,
• 24:56
  and then to see Mexican wolves
• 24:58
  and hopefully a pack running together yourselves.
• 25:02
  (transition whooshes) (warm rustic music)
• 25:03
  - [Narrator] Seven wolves, a single enclosure,
• 25:05
  and people who refuse to give up.
• 25:08
  Today, the lobo runs wild again
• 25:10
  across the American Southwest,
• 25:12
  and the work of bringing it back is still going on.
• 25:16
  (bright music)
• 25:17
  - And it needs people in its corner.
• 25:20
  Follow the show, leave us a review,
• 25:22
  and send this one to someone
• 25:24
  who needs to hear a good comeback story right now.
• 25:27
  I'm Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
• 25:29
  and I'll see you next time on "Back From the Brink"
• 25:31
  from "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom."
• 25:34
  - [Narrator] The "Back From the Brink" podcast
• 25:36
  is sponsored by "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom,"
• 25:39
  hosted by Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, narrated by Peter Gros.
• 25:44
  Executive producers are Jen Wulf and Jenny Van Soelen,
• 25:48
  podcast production by Lower Street Media.