Rebecca Bose: Undoing an American Extinction

Rebecca Bose: Undoing an American Extinction

From Species Unite by Species Unite

January 21, 2026 · 44 min · Season 13 · Episode 18

About this episode

Rebecca Bose discusses the threats facing gray wolves in the U.S. and the implications of removing their protections.

"I don't know of another animal mammal that does not protect their young. Everybody protects their young. A wolf does too if another predator came. Of course they would protect their young. But with humans, they are that afraid of us, that they will leave their den. They will leave. " – Rebecca Bose At a moment when gray wolves in the United States are once again under serious threat, with the House just voting to delist them, it's worth asking a question that we seem determined to forget Once we remove protections and populations collapse. Do we really think history won't repeat itself? This conversation is with Rebecca Bose, curator at the Wolf Conservation Center , where she has spent the last 25 years working at the intersection of recovery and survival for some of the most endangered wolves on the planet. Rebecca is deeply involved in the painstaking effort to undo past mistakes, helping recover Mexican gray wolves and red wolves, two species that were nearly wiped out entirely by government sanctioned killing. Rebecca walks us through what bringing wolves back actually means - decades of captive breeding, genetic management, pup fostering operations that involve private…

People in this episode

Guest: Rebecca Bose

Topics covered

  • gray wolves
  • endangered species
  • animal protection
  • conservation

Keywords

  • extinction
  • animal rights
  • wildlife conservation

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Wolf Conservation Center

Places: the United States

More episodes of Species Unite

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Species Unite podcast page.