(Eds: Updates with more details and quotes from animal care director, center director and others.)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Endangered Wolf Center west of St. Louis County is working to balance the need for visitors with the needs of the animals.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/zPq11i ) reported that visitors are banned on most days from the center, located within Washington University's Tyson Research Center.

The reason is the 40 wolves housed there must maintain their instinctive fear of humans. But more visitors would mean more money for the center's successful breeding program, which is central to efforts to reintroduce the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf to the Southwest and the red wolf to North Carolina.

New advocates also could promote the benefits of wolves, which help keep deer and elk populations from exploding and decimating the plants and trees that other species depend upon.

"I hear over and over again that we are St. Louis' best-kept secret," animal care director Regina Mossotti said. "That's not a good thing when you're a nonprofit. We need to get the word out about this center."

To boost its profile, the center has hired Virginia "Ginny" Busch, the great-great granddaughter of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch, to serve as its executive director. She served for eight years as director of corporate conservation programs and president of the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.

"I want it to be something akin to the Missouri Botanical Garden, the zoo, the World Bird Sanctuary, where people know about it and come," she said of the center. "I want the doors to be open. The hours may be different, and there are things we may need to do differently than those institutions because of the needs of these animals."

The center needs cash to cover its $800,000 annual operating budget. Also, Washington University asked the wolf center to find a new home so it could expand its programs. The wolf center bought a $5 million expanse of Jefferson County forest but could not afford to make payments on the property or build new facilities.

After unloading the property recently, the center is in no position to build another facility or launch a capital campaign, Busch said. She would like to stay at Tyson.

Barbara Schaal, director of Tyson Research Center, said the wolf center is welcome to stay, adding that, "It would not make a lot of sense to ask them to go if they didn't have a really good place to go."

However, Schaal wonders whether Tyson's ecological research projects could coexist with a public attraction.

"There are many, many programs here that simply cannot be disturbed," she said. "So the question is, how do we keep our research, which is the primary function of Tyson, safe and sound and protected but also interact with the public? That's a dialogue that has to happen."

Meanwhile, experts are watching what happens with interest.

Peter Siminski, head of the Mexican gray wolf Species Survival Plan and a director of conservation and education at the Living Desert University in Palm Desert, Calif., believes the center can increase attendance without compromising its role as breeder and protector of Mexican gray wolves.

"I don't think there is a problem with the wolves being habituated to humans," Siminski said. "They have the large pens, so the wolves can get away from the humans. Even with more tours, their contribution will be great for a lot of reasons, from the large-size pens to the large number of wolves they have to the professionalism of the staff in managing their wolves."

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com