Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo welcomes family of 5 grey wolves from Vancouver

CBC News

· Posted: Jun 06, 2025 7:26 PM EDT | Last Updated: June 6

Assiniboine Park Zoo successful Winnipeg is inviting guests to link with and conscionable a caller household of 5 grey wolves that it welcomed from the Greater Vancouver Zoo connected Thursday.

The battalion includes the parents, seven-year-old Chinook and Gigi, and their 3 offspring — Comet, who is male, and Stella and Virgo, who are pistillate — curator Shane Pratt told CBC News connected Friday. The pups are 3 years old. 

"This is truly big. They're precise interactive animals," Pratt said.

"We truly similar having radical link with our animals and animate radical to conserve," arsenic good arsenic "learn astir however important they are for ecosystems," helium said.

The family's accomplishment follows the decease of Bear, 14, successful March, the past grey wolf successful the zoo's archetypal pack, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy said successful a Friday property release.

"Grey wolves are an iconic Canadian taxon that tin beryllium recovered crossed the country, including close present successful Manitoba," Dr. Chris Enright, elder manager of zoological operations, said successful the release.

"Unfortunately, fearfulness and misunderstanding person led to instances of human-wolf struggle and, successful immoderate cases, over-hunting," helium said.

"Educating radical astir the captious relation keystone taxon similar wolves play successful their ecosystems and wherefore they should beryllium protected is an important portion of what we bash present astatine the zoo."

So far, the caller battalion appears to beryllium adapting reasonably good into their expansive boreal wood and grasslands habitat, Pratt said, with Gigi being the archetypal to travel retired and showing the astir confidence.

Due to the ongoing wildfire situation, Pratt says they're keeping a adjacent oculus connected aerial prime statements, particularly for those animals with the astir delicate lungs, specified arsenic birds.

The zoo has policies and protocols successful spot to assistance determination animals into a cleaner aerial environment, Pratt said.

"We haven't truly seen immoderate animals successful distress yet," helium said.

"We're precise thankful, due to the fact that we similar keeping animals extracurricular arsenic agelong arsenic possible."

The household of grey wolves joins different caller additions astatine the zoo since past fall, including 3 reddish pandas, called Suva, Mei Mei and Kelly, and a Siberian musk cervid named Ozzy, the conservancy said successful the release.

The zoo is besides hosting an grounds called the Survival of the Slowest featuring a hedgehog, a bearded dragon and two-toed sloths, on with different animals, until Sept. 1.