McCleery Ranch
In 2018, Wolf Haven assumed responsibility of a second, satellite wolf sanctuary in Bridger, Montana known as McCleery Ranch. This sanctuary location is closed to the public and is home to approximately 15 captive-born wolves. The care of these animals overseen by Wolf Haven’s Director of Montana Operations.
War on Wolves
For centuries, there has been a ruthless extermination campaign in the United States that nearly wiped out gray wolves (Canis lupus). When European immigrants arrived in the early 1500s, wolves were believed to be close to 2 million in number. By 1950, the species was absent from nearly every state in the country, with only a few packs remaining in the northernmost regions.
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Westward expansion in the 1800s was the largest source of discrimination for wolves. Stock grazers ran cattle herds over the vast areas of newly-formed states and frontiersmen freely hunted deer, elk, and bison - wolves' natural food sources.​ Wolves had to adapt to these changes in their environment by replacing lost food sources with domestic livestock.​
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In response to the competition this created for ranchers, state and federal agencies made every effort to eradicate wolves, including hunting, trapping, poisoning, and biological warfare. For decades, these federally instituted bounties were very successful, and by the 1920s, wolf populations across the country had been pushed to the brink of extinction.​
Dr. McCleery
At the height of the war on wolves, a small-town Pennsylvania doctor with a love of wildlife and a fascination with wolves journeyed from his home to "see the west" and quickly became distressed at the wholesale effort to remove wolves from the landscape. His name was Edward Heber McCleery.
Dr. McCleery took it upon himself to save some of these wolves and began writing to the government, zoos, and trappers, offering to pay for wolves to be shipped to him rather than be killed. Over the course of a decade, he purchased more than 20 wild wolves.
By 1928, the supply of wolves from the American West had dwindled, so Dr. McCleery turned his attention to other areas, collecting wolves from Sonora, Mexico and Hudson's Bay, Canada. He believed that these wolves were unique and established separate enclosure areas for the various subspecies he cared for.
As time went on and for reasons unknown, Dr. McCleery allowed the Mexican and Canadian wolf populations in his care to die out and began to solely focus on preserving the Great Plains or buffalo wolves (Canis lupus nubilus) he had originally rescued from Montana and Wyoming.
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For many years, Dr. McCleery’s wolves lived and bred in captivity in Kane, Pennsylvania. At its zenith, his wolf population numbered nearly 100 individuals.
Continuing
the Legacy
​Following his death in 1962, Dr. McCleery’s assistant, Jack Lynch, took over the operation and was clearly just as dedicated to the preservation of wolves as the doctor was. Jack relocated the wolves from Kane, Pennsylvania to Gardiner, Washington in the early 1970s, then to Emigrant, Montana in the early 1980s.
After Jack passed away in 2006, a combination of factors including extremely difficult access to the facility and a devastating forest fire led Jack's wife, Mary Lynch, to relocate once again.
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In August 2008, after 18 months of preparation, the wolves were moved for the third and final time to their current location in Bridger, Montana. This sanctuary, known as McCleery Ranch, is the closest this lineage of wolves has been to their original range in the Highwood Mountains of Montana since their removal in the 1920s.
Wolf Haven's Role
In 2016, Mary Lynch died unexpectedly after almost 40 years of dedicating her life to the care of the wolves. Because no one was designated to take over operations, Mary’s son, Ed Wheeler, took a leave of absence from his job and moved to Montana to work at the ranch. He was later joined by his wife, Terry, who retired early to help.
Over the next two years, Ed and Terry cared for the wolves while working with the McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation to find an organization with a similar vision and shared values to provide the wolves with permanent care in their current location. In June 2018, Wolf Haven International was entrusted to care for the wolves that Ed & Terry Wheeler, Jack & Mary Lynch, and Dr. E.H. McCleery dedicated their lives to.
The transfer of ownership included (at the time) 33 captive-born wolves, the property home, and various outbuildings. Since then, Wolf Haven has managed McCleery Ranch as a satellite sanctuary, allowing the last remaining McCleery wolves to receive high-quality, compassionate care without displacing them from the only home they've ever known.
The Future of McCleery Wolves
When Wolf Haven acquired McCleery Ranch and began caring for the wolves in residence, we recognized their historical significance and sought to better understand their genetics in case there was a conservation-related justification for Wolf Haven to consider breeding the McCleery wolves in captivity (if their genes, for example, carried significant attributes that ought to be introduced into the wild gray wolf population of the western United States).
We partnered with several renowned geneticists to explore this genetic question. We also engaged officials involved with the reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado to see if there was any chance that McCleery wolf genetics could be incorporated into the reintroduction process.
The findings from Canine Ancestry Project's analyses clearly indicate that any genetic uniqueness the McCleery wolves possess “is due to their exceedingly elevated level of inbreeding” – most likely since this lineage spent approximately 100 years as a closed, captive population. Additionally, we learned there is no prospect for captive-bred McCleery wolves or their genes to be included in the Colorado wolf reintroduction program.
Both results determine that there is no conservation justification to breed McCleery wolves, and thus, in accordance with our sanctuary principles, Wolf Haven will not allow captive breeding and/or the sharing of genetic material from the wolves in residence at McCleery Ranch. They will continue to receive the highest level and quality of care as they live out their natural lives in the only home they have ever known.​