Seven Mexican wolf pups were born at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo on April 27, 2023, but only one male emerged from the burrow and the other six pups returned to the wild. I am embarking on a remarkable journey. On May 6, the remaining puppies (4 males and 2 females) were flown to Arizona as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Program and housed in a wild Mexican wolf den. The six puppies, just nine days old, set out on a plane trip accompanied by the zoo’s veterinarians and animal care staff. From there, the Mexican Wolf interagency field team placed three of the pups in a wild herd in southeastern Arizona and three in a wild herd in southwestern New Mexico. This process of crossbreeding pups in different packs and then breeding puppies in the natal pack is done to increase the genetic diversity of the entire Mexican wolf population. The purpose of the breeding and rewilding program is to reestablish Mexican wolf populations in their original habitats in the southwestern United States and Mexico. Over the years, the Chicago Animal Society has bred several puppies to wild herds, and has even successfully raised puppies from adult zoo dogs released into the wild. The estimated population for 2022 is a 23 percent increase from the 2021 low of 196. This marks the seventh consecutive year of population growth and has more than doubled his size since 2017. From the 1980s until 1998, when reintroduction efforts began, the Mexican wolf was thought to be extinct in the wild.