Midwest
4 endangered American red wolf pups born at St. Louis Zoo in historic first
The St. Louis Zoo recently announced the birth of four endangered American red wolf pups earlier this year in what is a first for the zoo.
The pups were born at the St. Louis Zoo Sears Lehmann Jr. Wildlife Reserve, which is located in Eureka, Missouri – about 20 miles southwest of the zoo’s WildCare Park, according to a news release.
“Our goal is keeping this vital American species on the planet,” Martha Fischer, general curator of St. Louis Zoo WildCare Park, which oversees the reserve, told Fox News Digital in an email.
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“The St. Louis Zoo and wildlife organizations across the country have joined together to grow the population of red wolves so that recovery in the wild remains possible,” Fischer said.
The first pup, a female named Otter, was born on April 26, according to the zoo. Her parents, Lava, age 8, and Tyke, age 9, moved to Missouri in late 2023 from another wolf conservation center in New York.
The pups were born in April and May and are “thriving,” the St. Louis Zoo said. (Sara Burran/St. Louis Zoo via AP)
The other three pups – two males named Finn and Obi and a female named Molly – were born on May 4.
The pups are “healthy and thriving,” according to the zoo, and underwent their first checkups in late June.
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Their parents are Ladybird, age 3, and Wilber, age 8, and the three pups are their first offspring, the St. Louis Zoo said.
This was the first breeding season for the American red wolf at the reserve.
Mother Ladybird originated from another wolf conservation facility in Missouri, while father Wilber was brought to the St. Louis Zoo’s wildlife reserve from Homossa Springs Wildlife State Park in Florida, the zoo said.
This was the first breeding season for the American red wolf at the reserve, according to the zoo’s news release.
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“When you consider how few red wolves remain, each birth is an achievement,” Sabarras George, director of the St. Louis Zoo WildCare Park, said in the July release.
“I am incredibly proud of the team who have worked for years to reach this milestone,” he added.
Three of the wolf pups were born to first-time mother Ladybird, the St. Louis Zoo said in a news release. (St. Louis Zoo/TMX)
The pups are “healthy and thriving,” according to the zoo, and underwent their first checkups in late June.
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The American red wolf is the most endangered wolf species in the world, according to the St. Louis Zoo.
The animal is only found in the wild in North Carolina, the zoo said, and there are only slightly more than 300 red wolves left in the world.
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Of the remaining wolves, “about 20” live in the wild, the zoo said.
The other 290 red wolves “live in human care as of May 2024.”
Only about 20 American red wolves live in the wild today, the St. Louis Zoo said. (Getty Images/Sara Burran/St. Louis Zoo via AP)
Including the four pups, 17 American red wolves live at the St. Louis Zoo Sears Lehmann Jr. Wildlife Reserve, according to the release.
The reserve is not open for visitors “to give the 17 resident red wolves privacy, allowing them to maintain natural behaviors and survival skills with limited human interaction.”
The wolf pups will stay with their parents for “at least two years,” according to the release.
After that, they may be sent to other wolf conservation centers to begin packs of their own, or they may be picked to be released into the wild, the release said.
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Since the late 1960s, there has been an effort to rebuild the American red wolf population, which was hovering near extinction, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.
The American red wolf used to live in an area spanning from Texas to New York, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website said.
In the early 1900s, a combination of “intensive predator control programs” as well as “the degradation and alteration of [their] habitat” resulted in the population shrinking rapidly, the website said.
“When the red wolf was first designated as a species that was threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve and recover the species.”
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LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s coyotes are back to year-round pressure from hunters and trappers after a major policy reversal by state game regulators.
The state Natural Resources Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday on a controversial measure to allow coyotes to be killed all year long, backtracking on a position the state had successfully defended in court. Hunting groups immediately praised the change.
“It empowers landowners, safeguards the wildlife, protects our agricultural community and upholds Michigan’s conservation legacy,” said Merle Jones of the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association.
Previously, Michigan game regulators had established a “quiet period” when coyotes could not be killed from mid-April to mid-July. That’s when coyote pups are vulnerable and not yet weaned from their mother’s milk.
State officials had been motivated by concern that hunters would leave young coyotes orphaned, turning public perception against hunting more broadly. Hunting groups balked at that notion and sued the state to overturn the policy.
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Last June, an Ingham County judge ruled against the hunting groups; an appeal of the decision remains pending.
Since then, the NRC has faced months of calls from hunters to restore coyote hunting opportunities. That’s while animal rights activists urged commissioners to stay the course.
This week the commissioners responded to the pressure from hunters.
Regulators didn’t fully restore year-round hunting and trapping of coyotes, though.
Instead, the NRC expanded “out-of-season” killing of overabundant coyotes or those causing interspecies conflicts on public and private lands, according to the approved state wildlife order.
A coyote hunting and trapping season will run from Oct. 15 through March 1. Then what regulators call a “management season” will cover the remainder of the year, when coyotes could only be killed on private property.
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The new rules will take effect March 1 this year.
The coyote regulation changes also drew opponents to this week’s meeting in Lansing.
Mitchell Nelson of Humane World for Animals nonprofit criticized the language of the wildlife order. He specifically complained that interspecies conflict isn’t defined, nor is a standard for what qualifies as an overabundance of coyotes.
“We don’t even have a current population count of coyotes, so with no accurate additional count of coyotes, no metrics for determining relative coyote abundance and distribution in an area, and no reporting requirement for the killing of coyotes, the concept of addressing overabundance is rendered completely meaningless,” Nelson told the commissioners during public comments.
“The bottom line is that increasing the random and indiscriminate killing of coyotes will not achieve any management objective,” Nelson said.
Game regulators also heard from a state scientist during their meeting.
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Commissioner John Walters asked the furbearer specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources whether it’s believed the change to coyote regulations would have any negative effect on the species population.
“We do not expect this proposed change to have a population level impact on coyotes,” said Cody Norton, DNR wildlife biologist.
Research has shown that more than 70% of coyotes in an area must be killed to reduce the population. As prolific breeders, the animals can recover their population within a year if only 60% are removed.
Rebecca Humphries, NRC chairperson, said the change is meant to address nuisance animals without altering the regular hunting and trapping season.
“The whole concept is to try and keep the integrity of the hunting and trapping season when they’re used as a furbearer species for pelts, and then outside that give people essentially the ability to take the species whenever it’s causing problems for them,” Humphries told MLive.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has recalled defenseman David Špaček (SPAH-chehk) from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Špaček, 22 (2/18/23), owns 19 points (3-16=19), 61 shots and 10 penalty minutes (PIM) in 35 games with Iowa this season, leading the team in assists (T-12th among AHL defensemen) and ranking second in points and shots. The 6-foot, 190-pound native of Columbus, Ohio, recorded 31 points (4-27=31), 31 PIM and 117 shots in 72 games with Iowa during the 2024-25 season, leading the team with 18 power play assists, ranking second in assists, and pacing team defensemen in scoring. For his career, Špaček owns 62 points (10-52=62), 62 PIM and 251 shots in 168 games over three AHL seasons (2023-26).
Špaček will represent Czechia at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic games and has previously represented Czechia at multiple international competitions, including the 2025 IIHF World Championship, where he recorded two assists in eight games, and the 2024 IIHF World Championship, where he posted five assists in 10 games to help Czechia secure gold. He also helped Czechia to a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Tournament, recording eight points (3-5=8), 11 shots and a plus-7 rating in seven games.
Špaček was selected by Minnesota in the fifth round (No. 153 overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft and has yet to appear in an NHL game. He will wear sweater No. 82 with the Wild.
Minnesota will host the Winnipeg Jets tomorrow, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. CT on FanDuel Sports Network and KFAN FM 100.3.
Minnesota Wild single-game tickets are on sale now at wild.com/tickets, ticketmaster.com and at the Grand Casino Arena Box Office. Flex, 11-Game, half and full season memberships are also available for purchase. Please visit tickets.wild.com or contact a Wild Ticket Sales Representative by calling or texting (651) 222-WILD (9453) for more information. Group reservations of eight or more tickets can contact [email protected] for more information. Single game suite rentals are also available, contact [email protected] for more information.
Follow @mnwildPR on X and visit www.wild.com/pressbox and for the latest news and information from the team including press releases, game notes, player interviews and daily statistics.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Last year, 88.4 million lightning strikes occurred across the United States. Missouri ranked 10th in lightning flashes per square mile.
Lightning flashes increased 10 percent in 2025 compared to 2024.
With nearly 90 million flashes last year, that amounts to 3.7 flashes an hour and 62,000 flashes a minute.
43 percent of the strikes were cloud-to-ground flashes, meaning the majority, 57 percent, were cloud-to-cloud.
Oklahoma ranked No. 1 with 73 flashes of lightning per square mile, and Texas ranked No. 1 with 13.3 million flashes total in 2024.
Kansas came in fourth with more than 5 million strikes, and Missouri ranked 11th at 2.6 million.
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.
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