Q4C Spotlight – Amur Leopard & Tiger Alliance (ALTA)

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Quarters for Conservation (Q4C) program is helping to save Amur leopards and tigers in Far East Russia by supporting the Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance (ALTA). Staff members Rachel Downing and Catrena Voci are champions of the ALTA Q4C project, and they are excited about the progress the group has made this year. 

Due to poaching and loss of their forest home, Amur tigers and leopards are two of the most critically endangered cat species. Funds given to ALTA are providing hope for the potential release of captive-bred leopards into the wild. ALTA also works to educate native people on the importance of saving Amur tigers in the region.

“When you look at the numbers of Amur leopards left in the wild, which is less than 40, and Amur tigers, which is less than 400, the numbers are scary and alarming, but it’s not hopeless,” Downing, Conservation Highlands Animal Keeper, said. “Great things are happening and great people are working on a solution. We are proud to be a part of the conservation work that is taking place.”

This year, ALTA’s Q4C funds will assist in building a research laboratory located in a future Amur leopard release area. Specifically, Downing and Voci are working towards raising enough money to buy a portable anesthesia machine for the research lab.

“A portable anesthesia machine would allow field researchers to anesthetize, take blood samples, and monitor the health of future released cats on the ground,” Voci, Conservation Highlands Animal Keeper, said. “In the past, researchers have had to wait for months to get lab results.  The portable machine and research lab would provide them with real-time, on-the-spot information.”

Voci and Downing explained that in addition to poaching and loss of their habitat, Amur leopards and tigers are also suffering from canine distemper, which is more prevalent due to the lack of vaccination of dogs in the region. The new research lab and equipment would help track and monitor canine distemper in leopards and tigers, too.

Q4C money from previous years funded a field team that tracked poachers and helped to educate locals about the issues that Amur leopards and tigers are facing. The funds also helped field teams promote the co-existence of people and animals by reimbursing farmers for livestock killed by big cats. Additionally, they used Q4C dollars to purchase a field vehicle. The vehicle has allowed ALTA to place camera traps in areas not originally available to them, as well as expand their educational outreach programs.

“Education is a key component of conservation,” Downing said. “ALTA is working hard in Russia to get people involved and excited to save our big cats, and we are doing the same at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.”  

Downing and Voci enjoy talking about the Zoo’s Amur tiger and leopard species ambassadors with guests, and have hope that someday ALTA will report that a captive-bred decedent from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo will actually be released in Russia.

“The hope is that someday, in the near future, ALTA will be able to pull Amur leopards from zoos for wild release,” Voci said. “It’s amazing to think that we could play a role in those efforts, too.”

To learn more about Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s ALTA Q4C project, or to make a contribution, visit: www.cmzoo.org/conservation. 

Mexican Wolf Wild Population Numbers Up

According to the 2013 Mexican grey wolf population survey, there are 83 Mexican wolves living wild in Arizona and New Mexico – this is a 10% population increase from 2012! The population increase is an important milestone for the threatened species, and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is excited to be part of the team working to further their reintroduction. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with Arizona Game and Fish reported the findings in the following press release:

2013 MEXICAN WOLF POPULATION SURVEY COMPLETE

NUMBERS UP FROM 2012

During its annual year-end population survey, the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team (IFT) counted a minimum of 83 Mexican wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico at the end of 2013.  This number demonstrates a 10% increase in the known population of Mexican wolves in the wild compared to the 2012 minimum population count of 75 wolves. 

 “With a minimum of 83 wolves in the wild, the Mexican wolf population has nearly doubled in the past four years,” said Benjamin Tuggle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest Regional Director.  “I’m proud of the remarkable progress that the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program and its partners have achieved in bringing the Mexican wolf back from the brink of extinction.”

Tuggle noted that all the wolves currently within the recovery area are wild born, which indicates progress toward establishing a wild population from a captive breeding program that started with only 7 wolves.  He further noted that future releases of Mexican wolves from captivity will be necessary to address genetic issues within the wild population.  Tuggle credited the progress in expanding the wild population to the collaborative efforts between the Service and its partners in Mexican wolf recovery – the Arizona Game and Fish Department, White Mountain Apache Tribe, USDA Forest Service and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – Wildlife Services, and several participating counties..  

“The continued growth of the Mexican wolf population demonstrates that our management actions and efforts to work with stakeholders are having a positive impact on the species. This is the third year of a greater than 10 percent increase in the wolf population, a success that is directly related to our science-based, on-the-ground management,’ said Arizona Game and Fish Department Director Larry Voyles. “Equally important to the population’s growth is the fact that now 100 percent of the Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico are wild-born, which is a factor that we have always considered an important milestone along the way to recovery.”

The results of the surveys reflect the end-of-year minimum population for 2013.  Results come from population data collected on the ground by the IFT from November through December of 2013, as well as data collected from an aerial survey conducted in January 2014.  This number is considered a minimum number of Mexican wolves known to exist in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, as other non-collared wolves may be present in the recovery area, but were not located during the survey period.

The aerial survey was conducted by a fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter.  Biologists used radio-telemetry and actual sightings of wolves to help determine the count.  The results from the aerial survey, coupled with the ground survey conducted by the IFT, confirmed that there are a minimum of 46 wolves in New Mexico and 37 wolves in Arizona.  The survey indicated that at least 7 of the 15 known packs produced pups with 5 of these pairs meeting the federal definition of a breeding pair at year’s end.

Pups born in the summer must survive to December 31 to be counted as part of the Mexican wolf population. The 2013 minimum population count includes 17 wild-born pups that survived through the end of the year.  This is also considered a minimum known number since it might not reflect pups surviving but not documented. This marks the twelfth consecutive year in which wild born wolves bred and raised pups in the wild.

For more information on the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program, visit www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/ or www.azgfd.gov/wolf .