‘Brunhilda’ May Be Mother of New Generation of Wolves

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--Meet Brunhilda, the poster wolf for efforts to return rare Mexican gray lobos to the American Southwest.

You might already know her by her picture, even if you do not know her name. She is the photogenic creature whose image often runs with newspaper stories about a federal wolf restoration project in national forests along the New Mexico-Arizona border.

She has her own story, too.

Even though Brunhilda was born in captivity two years ago, she has displayed remarkable wildness, according to biologists who have watched her roaming free in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and in captivity at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico.

They say she is savvy, physically strong, domineering, bold and loyal.

In short, she possesses qualities wolves need to survive in the wild--qualities especially important for the captive-bred pioneer wolves of the restoration project, who are expected to raise the first new generation of wild Mexican gray wolves, or lobos.

But Brunhilda’s virtues in the wild also can create problems for her around civilization, biologists say.

Brunhilda left her parents shortly after gaining her first taste of freedom last year in the Apache-Sitgreaves forest. Alone, she wandered far, about 70 miles as the crow flies. She traveled unafraid, near people and farms and onto private land. She attacked and injured a miniature horse.

She was recaptured after she strayed off public land.

Now she may get a second chance.

Biologists were planning to take the pregnant Brunhilda and her mate deep into the back country of the Blue Range Primitive Area along the New Mexico-Arizona border and release them. But those plans were postponed after biologists discovered that Brunhilda’s pregnancy was further along than they thought.

After she gives birth, biologists say they probably still will move Brunhilda and her mate into the mountains.

Last year, Brunhilda was one of 11 Mexican gray wolves released in the Apache-Sitgreaves. Until those wolves were released, biologists believed lobos were extinct in the wild.

But the first year of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf reintroduction program in the Southwest was plagued with gunfire.

Five of the wolves were shot to death. Several, like Brunhilda, were recaptured. Among those first 11 restored to the wild, only Brunhilda’s cautious father remains free.

Going into the reintroduction effort’s second year, biologists again are hoping that captive-bred wolves can raise the first wild-born generation of pups in decades.

The key to the reintroduction effort, biologists say, is getting that first healthy, wild-born generation living in the wild.

They think Brunhilda is up to the task of helping raise that first generation.

“She’s amazing,” said Colleen Buchanan, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and the caretaker of the lobos at the Sevilleta refuge. “You know when an animal has it and when an animal doesn’t. She has it.”

Brunhilda made an impression on biologists and other observers even before her release.

On a chilly January morning in 1998, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt led a horde of biologists, wildlife advocates, reporters and camera operators to the Campbell Blue holding pen north of Hannagan Meadow, Ariz.

The conventional wisdom was that the wolves, traumatized by their move, would hide in their kennels until the humans left.

That wasn’t the case. Almost as soon as the door to Brunhilda’s kennel was opened, the 9-month-old wolf pup bounded out. She ambled a few feet across the snow, then stopped and looked back at the dozens of reporters, photographers and television crews watching her. She explored her new surroundings, curious and energetic.

Cameras clicked and rolled. The images today are not only seen in newspapers, they are on an Arizona Game and Fish Department poster and a new Forest Service map for the Blue Range Primitive Area.

“She’s the poster wolf for the program,” said Dave Parsons, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mexican wolf recovery leader.

She was nicknamed “Brunhilda,” for a princess of Norse mythology, because of her “monstrous” size as a pup, Buchanan said.

The characteristics biologists have found encouraging in Brunhilda--her apparent intelligence and strength--by no means guarantee her success.

Two months after Brunhilda was moved into the holding pen near the New Mexico-Arizona line, the pen gates were opened. Biologists who have viewed videotape from the pens say Brunhilda was the first one out.

A month later, Brunhilda’s three-member, tightknit family, including her mother and father, was joined by a female from the six-member Hawks Nest pack, which was released at the same time about 3 miles away.

Brunhilda left her pack on May 5, the day before her first birthday.

Buchanan said it’s unusual for wolves to leave their packs before their second year. “My gut says it has something to do with that other wolf joining up with them,” Buchanan said.

Wolves wander to find mates. But biologists knew Brunhilda’s wanderings would be unsuccessful: There were no potential mates out there.

On May 9, she crossed the boundary of national forests along the New Mexico-Arizona line designated for the wolf releases. Biologists began efforts to recapture her.

The next day, while still wandering outside the boundary, Brunhilda approached a cow and calf. Biologists tracking her from an airplane scared her away.

She turned south back into the wolf recovery area, but on May 13 she was again spotted outside the boundary. On May 16, she attacked the miniature horse.

On May 18, she was recaptured in open country near Show Low, Ariz., about 70 miles as the crow flies from the Campbell Blue pen.

“She had tremendous stamina,” Parsons said. “I couldn’t believe it. She was in excellent condition.”

At the time of Brunhilda’s capture, the wolf was “acting much wilder than before her release into the wild,” Buchanan said.

She was returned to captivity at Sevilleta, but it did not suit her. “I saw her jumping up the fences trying to get out. She was howling a lot,” Buchanan said.

When fall rolled around, it was time to find Brunhilda a mate. Biologists decided to try something new.

Before Brunhilda, the Mexican wolf captive breeding program was strictly a computer dating service. Biologists would punch numbers into a computer, and the computer would tell them who to pair up with whom.

This time, however, they put Brunhilda into a pen with three brothers. They decided to let Brunhilda choose her mate.

Among the three brothers, the biggest was picked on constantly. Despite his low social standing, Brunhilda selected the big wolf “within five minutes,” Buchanan said.

“I don’t know what she keyed into. My guess is it was his size, although I don’t have anything to back that up,” Buchanan said. “Ever since they have been together they are practically inseparable. They sleep next to each other. They are very compatible. They are a very strong pair.”

Today, five wolves roam free in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, and five more are in forested holding pens awaiting release. Biologists plan to release at least four more wolves, probably including Brunhilda.

Recently, they said they had hoped to take Brunhilda and her mate deep into the remote Blue Range area, where the wolves would have less help from biologists and they would be harder to track.

“We wanted to put her in the wilderness,” Buchanan said. “We have to choose animals that we think have the best shot at making it.”