An endangered Mexican gray wolf named Taylor has once again returned to his namesake mountain, Mount Taylor, west of Albuquerque after having been captured and relocated twice by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department. Taylor is the fifth Mexican wolf known to have spent time recently in the Mount Taylor region. Other Mexican wolves have gravitated to the area south of the Grand Canyon, which is also officially off-limits according to wildlife agencies.

Conservation groups are condemning the decision by NMDFG to remove a wandering male Mexican gray wolf from northern NM late last week. His removal marks the second time that the agency has tried to confine him south of Interstate 40, denying both his wild instincts and the best available science about what lobos need to recover.

Newly released records reveal that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill two genetically valuable Mexican gray wolves. A 3-month-old female pup on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico — was shot from the air. The other targeted wolf, a young adult male in the Bear Canyon pack, is still alive in the Apache National Forest in Arizona. The Department of Agriculture shot his mother from the air in April while she was thought to be pregnant. Wolves are under siege from the very agencies charged with protecting them.

Asha, Arcadia, and their pups have been released into the wild at last as the Quartz Pack! Conservationists are celebrating their freedom and wishing the best for this wolf family. May they roam freely in suitable habitat of their choosing, and may the pups grow up in a world without arbitrary boundaries!