Pilot Breeding Program

PHOENIX ZOO PARTNERS WITH

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO

DEVELOP BREEDING PROGRAM

FOR MOUNT GRAHAM RED SQUIRREL

The Phoenix Zoo has coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists, along with state wildlife agency and U.S. Forest Service partners, to develop a pilot breeding program for the critically endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. The zoo will act as the coordinator for other zoos interested in participating in the program. Recently, biologists with the Wildlife Service collected three females and one male from the wild to bring the Phoenix Zoo population to three females and three males needed for the project.

The three pairs of red squirrels establish the base population for the pilot breeding program, which has officially begun. Eventually the Phoenix Zoo will transfer one male and one female to Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Ill., possibly in the spring of 2015, with the hope of establishing a breeding pair there.

Left: Female Pinyon Squirrel      KEVIN KRAHN/PHOENIX ZOO

Below: Parching Squirrel     CASEY ALLEN/PHOENIX ZOO

The 10-year pilot project is part of the Mount Graham red squirrel recovery effort and is designed to understand their husbandry needs. This subspecies has been separated from other red squirrel populations for approximately 10,000 years (since the last ice age). Its only habitat is in the Pinaleño Mountains in the Coronado National Forest in Graham County, Ariz. The area suffered from large fires in 1996 and 2004, affecting approximately 35,000 acres of forested area. Extended drought and outbreaks of forest insects and other tree diseases have also negatively impacted their habitat. Population estimates for the red squirrel have shown a 48 percent decline over the past 15 years,from more than 560 individuals in 1999 to around 270 individuals

in 2013.