Wild Inside the National Zoo: The Future of Maned Wolves

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, VA (part of Smithsonian's National Zoo), is an eminent research center dedicated to studying and saving rare animals. The web series WILD INSIDE THE NATIONAL ZOO takes an eye-opening look at these creatures and the complex relationships they have with the professionals who study, protect, and care for them. In this episode, “The Future of Maned Wolves,” we meet Echo and Zayda, a pair of maned wolf adults who’ve finally welcomed their first litter of pups into the world after three years together. Female canids like Zayda have only one estrous cycle a year with a five-day window to conceive, which makes successful captive breeding efforts both crucial and very difficult for near-threatened species like this pair. But fascinating in-vitro fertilization research with beagles at the Cornell-Smithsonian Joint Graduate Training Program could impact the future of canid conservation in new and groundbreaking ways.