ナショナルジオグラフィックさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ナショナルジオグラフィックInstagram)「Photos by @katieorlinsky | In 1909, when legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold was a young forester tasked with exterminating predators, he had an encounter that may very well have led to the creation of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes,” he writes. “I was young then, and full of trigger itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” This same species, the Mexican wolf, was nearly driven to extinction until the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan began in 1982. Read the full June cover story at the link in bio. 1. Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service capture Mexican wolves, native to the region, at a facility east of the Gila Wilderness. The Mexican wolf population is frequently transported among various habitats and breeding facilities to ensure genetic diversity. 2. Before administering vaccines, biologists apply blindfolds to the wolves. 3. Captive-bred Mexican wolf puppies are reintroduced to the wild as part of a “cross fostering” program. The process entails biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish transporting captive pups to a den of wild Mexican wolf pups, covering all of them in one another’s urine and feces, and returning them—together—to the den. When the wolf mother returns, she will likely raise the captive-bred pups as her own, bringing a healthy new set of genetics to the wolf population in the Gila Wilderness.」6月24日 22時00分