Escaped Binder wolf found dead
Animal apparently hit by train
By Chris Springsteen
The Enquirer
The two-month search for an escaped Mexican gray wolf ended Monday when the animal was found dead in Vicksburg.
Apache, the 19-month-old wolf, apparently was hit by a train in the town, about 20 miles southwest of the zoo. Greg Geise, Binder Park Zoo’s president and chief executive officer, said the wolf probably died about three days ago.
“The repercussions are everyone is very upset,” Geise said. “I did all my graduate work with wolves. I’ve been around them for 30 years. This is very hard. This stinks.”
Apache and two other wolves escaped from Binder Park Zoo on Jan. 3. The other two were caught by the zoo a short time later, but Apache evaded capture despite the zoo bringing in expert wolf trackers and pursuing more than 400 possible leads in the field, Geise said.
The wolves, which are an endangered species, are part of a captive breeding program to re-establish the breed.
They are owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the program.
Colleen Buchanan, captive management coordinator for the fish and wildlife service’s Mexican gray wolf reintroduction team, said Apache would have been a good candidate for reintroduction into the wild.
“Had he been captured, we would have thought seriously about using him as a release candidate for the reintroduction project in the Southwest since he seemed to be doing well and making a living somehow,” Buchanan said in an e-mail interview.
Geise said he is sad for the outcome but is glad to finally put an end to the searching.
“This is closure to the situation, not the closure we wanted, but closure,” he said. “When you work with living creatures, it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.”