Mexican red wolf + Coyotes in the uk?

J

Jose

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone just a quick post. I am wondering if any zoological gardens in the Brittish isles keep or have kept either the endangered Mexican wolf(Canis lupus baileyi) which is a subspecies of the grey wolf or the Coyote?
Here in Mexico city we have two zoological gardens with both of these species , zoologico de Chapultepec which also has Giant pandas (the famout Chia -Chia of London zoo was once a resident) and a smaller zoologico called Los Coyotes which has only fauna from Mexico. The smaller zoo is very close to where i live , so close in fact that i often can hear in the night the coyotes and wolves howling which is very beautiful to hear as both animals no longer exist in the wild in central Mexico. Anyway thankyou for any answers i recieve it is very helpful.

gracias y espero todo esta bein con ustedes.
 
I have a feeling that Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight was perhaps the last place to exhibit Coyotes in the UK. I'd have to double check but I think I'm right in thinking that these are last mentioned in a mid-1980s guidebook. I don't know of any others post this period.
 
Chester had coyotes in the 1950s. I expect London has had both species in the past.
 
The editorial in the IZES ZOO! publication number 23 , Spring 2004 , lists a number of species that have recently put in an appearance either for the first time or or after considerable absences in the UK . Amongst this list are red wolves ! All the other species on the list are in collections I am aware of . A mystery .
 
Where did the red wolves come from?....all red wolves in recent history (since late 1970s) have only been maintained in the US.
 
Bele said:
The editorial in the IZES ZOO! publication number 23 , Spring 2004 , lists a number of species that have recently put in an appearance either for the first time or or after considerable absences in the UK . Amongst this list are red wolves ! All the other species on the list are in collections I am aware of . A mystery .
Click to expand...

I remember that now, but no more was heard about them, and no one has admitted to seeing these UK red wolves or said where they are. I can only think either a university or a private collection.
 
The mention of Red Wolves in that issue of IZES news was erronous. A combination of mistaken identity and chinese whispers were to blame for that glaring blooper.
 
The title of the thread is 'Mexican Red Wolf' but I believe these are two different species/subspecies i.e. Mexican Wolf & Red Wolf. To my knowldge neither have been kept in Uk collections within recent history.

Howletts have the Spanish subspecies of European wolf, which to my mind is the European equivalent of the American Red Wolf -if you compare the colour and markings of these two they are extremely similar.
 
Bele said:
The editorial in the IZES ZOO! publication number 23 , Spring 2004 , lists a number of species that have recently put in an appearance either for the first time or or after considerable absences in the UK . Amongst this list are red wolves ! All the other species on the list are in collections I am aware of . A mystery .
Click to expand...
It all came about because a keeper from another collection mis-indentified the Dholes at Black Isle Wildlife Park as Wolves.
 
There are two subspecies of the red wolf, the Northern Red Wolf (Canis rufus rufus) and the Mississippi Red Wolf (C.r.gregoryi).

The Mexican Wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf (Canis lupus baileyi).

However some people consider the two forms of red wolf to be subspecies of the grey wolf i.e. C.l.rufus and C.l.gregoryi.

I have also seen that some people believe the red wolf to be an invalid taxon anyway.
 
Bele said:
The editorial in the IZES ZOO! publication number 23 , Spring 2004 , lists a number of species that have recently put in an appearance either for the first time or or after considerable absences in the UK . Amongst this list are red wolves ! All the other species on the list are in collections I am aware of . A mystery .
Click to expand...

I have read this editorial, at the time i could place every species mentioned all apart from the red wolf, and finally after all these years we have the answer.
I have to add that the article itself i think marked a turning point in the policy of species kept in British zoo's at the time, pointed out in the article was the homogeny of animals in UK collections, and pointed to the new dawn of rare and unusual species (zoo rare that is).
When you look back at the species mentioned red titi, rocky mountain goat and Kirk's dik dik amongst others, amazing all!
Now when we move on 5 years we are seeing Japanese serow, Chinese goral, wolverine, bharal, tree kangaroo, sifaka, drill, lesser kudu, blesbok, Bawean deer, European elk, white lipped deer, cusimanse, Owston's palm civet, Guinea baboon, Asian and African open billed stork, oriental white stork, Steller's sea eagle, Sulawesi tarictic hornbill.
Are the ones i can remember, sure there are many more:)
 
bongorob said:
There are two subspecies of the red wolf, the Northern Red Wolf (Canis rufus rufus) and the Mississippi Red Wolf (C.r.gregoryi).

The Mexican Wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf (Canis lupus baileyi).

However some people consider the two forms of red wolf to be subspecies of the grey wolf i.e. C.l.rufus and C.l.gregoryi.

I have also seen that some people believe the red wolf to be an invalid taxon anyway.
Click to expand...
there was/is evidence that the red wolf is a hybrid species derived from the coyote and grey wolf
 
Chlidonias said:
there was/is evidence that the red wolf is a hybrid species derived from the coyote and grey wolf
Click to expand...


Researchers found many of the surviving 'Red Wolves' suffered from hybridisation with Coyotes, to a greater or lesser degree, but NOT all of them. Rather like the Scottish Wildcat situation. Presumably nowadays they can tell from DNA sampling whether there are any coyote genes present in the 'pure' wolves and this seems not to be the case..

My personal opinion is that the 'Red Wolf' is a true wolf, but a southern subspecies/race of the grey Wolf, and not a truly seperate species. So it represents the counterpart of e.g. the Spanish wolf in Europe. Each (Red & Spanish) is found in the warm southern areas of the respective ranges of Wolves, while in size and color they are very similar, even to the dark stripes down the forelegs.
 
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