When you name something, you rescue it from indifference, you commit to it the energy of your attention.  Liz Cunningham in Ocean Country

By Alejandro G.
5th Grade

Stella. Auia. Suki. Bosque. Mago. Esprit. Libre. Kiko. Leopold.

Nine pups born in the spring of 2015 to Mexican wolf packs living in the wild have been given names in the fourth annual contest sponsored by Lobos of the Southwest.

Kids ranging from kindergarten through the eighth grade submitted essays, poems, drawings, and other artwork along with their name selections—104 entries in all.

Once again, I had the pleasure and honor of participating as a judge, but it’s a tough job!  We needed a lot more wolf pups to do justice to all of the creative and thoughtful names.  Only those that had been captured, collared, and assigned official studbook numbers by the field team were given names.   Thirteen additional entries, including Faith, (see drawing above and the accompanying essay below by fifth grader Alejandro G.) were selected as runners up and will be assigned if and when other pups are identified.

I’ll be featuring more of the essays and artwork on my blog in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime you can see all of the entries here.

A big thank you to each one of the students who put their time, effort, and imagination into naming the newest members of the Mexican wolf packs!