by Tom Meersman

Forest Lake, Minnesota (AP/ICC)

In a wildlife drama watched by many tribal members in Wisconsin, three orphan wolf pups are back in Minnesota to stay.

The pups were taken back to the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake after an attempt to reintroduce them into the wild in northeastern Wisconsin on or near the Menominee Reservation was apparently ruined by a poacher.

“Long term, they’ll be here,” said Bob Ebsen, the center’s education coordinator. “My guess is that if they’re coming here, they’re going to be (permanently) captive.”

The pups will join an existing pack of eight wolves at the center, which currently houses 38 wolves in several packs. The captive wolves are used for research and environmental education programs at the center, which also houses bobcats, raccoons, bears, foxes and raptors.

The three males were the first pups in 75 years to be born on the Menominee Reservation northwest of Green Bay, Wis., and tribal officials hoped they could grow to maturity there.

The pups’ mother died or was killed in early May about three weeks after their birth. Biologists brought the pups to the center in Forest Lake during late July to be nursed by a female wolf in captivity who was already raising three of her own pups.

Once the wild-born pups were weaned, they were returned to the reservation on July 10 and placed in a holding pen near where their original pack was running wild. The hope was that their biological father would find and raise them.

Tracking signals from the father’s radio collar showed that he came within a half-mile of the pups on July 11, but his collar was found cut the next day. He apparently was killed illegally. The case is under investigation.

Attempts to trap other adult wolves in the area failed. Wolf biologists said the pups are too young and inexperienced to survive in the wild.

Peggy Callahan, executive director of the wildlife center, said she’s frustrated that a poacher ended the pups’ chances of being raised on the reservation.

Since the pups left the center, the female wolf who nursed them has been agitated and anxious, Callahan said, pacing in the enclosure and digging in the direction of the gate where the pups were removed.

The pups will be placed in an adjacent enclosure so the female and other pack members can sniff them and get reacquainted before they begin to live again in the same space.

Each of the pups weighs more than 25 pounds and is about one-third of their adult size.