A hands-free scale weighs endangered red wolves without a dart
Students and Navy scientists built a scale that weighs endangered red wolves without tranquilizers, so keepers can check the animals while they stand on it themselves.
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Students and Navy scientists in Charleston built a scale that weighs endangered red wolves without tranquilizers, The Post and Courier reported. The animal can stand on it and be weighed while awake.
The point is a less invasive check for wolves already in care. A weight on that scale is a health measurement. It is not a count of wolves recovered in the wild, and it does not replace the rest of the work of keeping the species going.
For the classroom
Red wolves are an endangered animal, which means very few are left. People who care for them need to know how much each wolf weighs, because weight says something about health. The old way often meant a tranquilizer, a drug that makes the wolf sleep so it can be lifted onto a scale. Students and Navy scientists in Charleston, South Carolina, built a different scale. The wolf walks onto it and is weighed without a shot. Hands-free means no one has to hold the animal down. The scale is a tool for the wolves already in human care. It does not, by itself, put more wolves back in the wild.
- Why would a sleeping drug be hard on a wild animal?
- What would a wolf need to do for a hands-free scale to work?
- How is a scale different from a cure for an endangered species?
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Charleston, South CarolinaWildlife conservationSTEMZoosGood news on November 2
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