First Wolf Offspring Get Vaccinations Shots Will Protect Pups Of Canadian Transplant

National Park Service biologists gave a series of vaccinations Monday to the eight wolf pups that were born in late April to one of the 14 Canadian wolves transplanted to the park.

The shots will protect them against common canine diseases and parasites, and booster shots are planned later, said wildlife veterinarian Mark Johnson.

The pups and their mother are being held in a pen about a mile north of the Lamar ranger station, where they were moved after the adult male that had fathered them was killed near Red Lodge, Mont.

“We have no choice. This is simply responsible management,” Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Mike Phillips said.

Johnson noted that the biologists “handle these animals as little as possible to minimize their stress.”

Each pup got three injections.

One syringe delivered a vaccination against parvo virus, canine distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and parainfluenza, Johnson said.

The second and third injections will protect them against roundworms and tapeworms.

The pups are too young to be vaccinated for rabies, Johnson said. But they will be vaccinated against the disease later, even though no case of rabies ever has been verified in Yellowstone’s wildlife, he said.

Phillips said he has no fear that the handling of the wolves might habituate them to humans and somehow make them less wild.

Phillips, who led a red wolf restoration project in the East, said he worked to return wolves, which had not lived outside captivity for several generations, to the wilds there. The test is whether the animals can survive on their own once they are released, he said.

“As for wild and what’s not wild, I’ll leave that to philosophers.”

Wolf biologist Doug Smith said he had worried more about the mother wolf than the puppies, but he believed she was not overly stressed.