New wolf pups born at Edmonton Valley Zoo for 1st time in many years: officials

Arctic wolf pups at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. (Edmonton Valley Zoo)

The Edmonton Valley Zoo welcomed three new additions in the last month, wolf pups.

The zoo is home to dozens of different species of animals, including the Arctic wolves Tundra, Aspen and Anuri.

Tundra has been at the zoo since 2014 and is the father of the three new wolf pups with Aspen, the mother.

“We noticed Aspen, our mum, digging a den a couple days before she disappeared into it for about five days, so we’re suspecting she had her babies about the 23, 24 of April,” said Mia Morely, an animal care crew lead with the zoo.

“That’s a very regular, natural behavior, moms would den up for three days to a week to have their babies and get over the process of giving birth, make sure everyone’s healthy during that time.”

The zoo is very excited about the pups, particularly because Tundra is considered a geriatric male wolf at age 14.

“He’s not going to be with us for too many more years, but he’s a wonderful wolf,” Morley said.

“It was very exciting to watch him move from his old habitat into this new one with two new females that welcomed him into their group.”

Aspen and Anuri came to Edmonton from France in 2024 after officials spent more than a year searching for new packmates following the death of Tundra’s partner Shilah in 2022.

• 2 arctic wolves arrive in Edmonton from France

Officials say this birth is the first time wolf pups have been born at the zoo in “a long time, probably 20 years or so.”

Anuri is also taking a “super attentive” role in raising the pups, added officials, who will be helping make sure the animals are comfortable, but leaving the childrearing to the wolves unless they have to intervene.

“(For) their first health checkup, we’ll get some weights, we’ll find out what sexes they are, we’ll vaccinate them, and then we’ll leave,” Morley said.

“We do want to maintain a presence in the area, so that they grow up knowing that we’re not harmful, we’re safe people, and that’ll help us as we learn to work with them and perform training, perform other veterinary behaviors, as well as getting them to shift into and out of the yards that we need them to, in order for us to make their enclosure beautiful.”

Arctic wolves reach their adult size at around six months of age, the zoo added.

“They’re already playing with each other, jumping around, going up to meet Tundra,” Morley said. “They’re very interested in who dad is right now.”

The pups don’t have names yet.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell