The wildlife enthusiasts had a reason to celebrate as two Indian grey wolves delivered a total of 10 pups at Junagadh’s Sakkarbaug Zoological Park (SZP) in Gujarat. Indian grey wolves are endangered species.

With these new born pups, the number of these creatures have become 60. More importantly it marks the beginning of breeding by the second generation of wolves in the zoo.

Talking to Indian Express, Dushyant Vasavada, the Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) of Junagadh wildlife circle said: “The two wolves that delivered 10 pups are mother and daughter themselves… While the mother delivered six pups, her daughter delivered four.”

SZP has a major role in the conservation programme of these creatures started by the Central Zoo Authority in 2016-17, as it is the coordinating zoo. The total number of pups delivered by the captive wolves in SZP has gone up to 21 this year — the highest for any season since the conservation breeding programme began.

As per statistics, the second highest number of births that is 14 was recorded in 2019-20.

Sharing more details, Vasavada added: “More importantly, the litter by the daughter marks the beginning of breeding by the second generation of wolves born in the zoo as part of the conservation breeding programme. We are planning soft release of some of the wolves born in the zoo as part of the conservation breeding programme.”

Abhishek Kumar, Director of SZP informed that 10 wolves form the founder population of the conservation breeding programme and these 10 have so far delivered 46 pups which form the second generation of wolves in the conservation breeding programme.

What is important is that now some of these Indian grey wolves are ready to be released in the wild. “We are working out details on whether to release only the F1 generation members or to release them with a few members from the Founder population to guide them,” revealed Kumar.

Meanwhile, CCF added that the location of the proposed release was being finalised.