Brush with Extinction
Thirty-three years after receiving protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Mexican gray wolf remains the most endangered mammal in North America and the most endangered subspecies of gray wolf in the world.
Following the Mexican gray wolf listing as an endangered species in 1976, the United States and Mexico collaborated to capture all lobos remaining in the wild. This extreme measure prevented the lobos' extinction. Five wild Mexican wolves (four males and one pregnant female) were captured alive in Mexico from 1977 to 1980 and used to start a captive breeding program. The captive population is managed for maximum genetic integrity by experts with the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan.
Planning For Recovery
The out-of-date Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, approved in 1982, called for the continued propagation of Mexican wolves in captivity and for the re-establishment of two viable populations in the wild in Mexico and/or adjoining areas of the United States through reintroduction, as a first step toward eventual recovery.
PLACEHOLDER FOR VIDEO - DO NOT REMOVE
Following nearly two decades of captive breeding and reintroduction planning, approval for the first releases of Mexican wolves to the wild was granted by Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, in 1997. The plan was to re-establish a population of at least 100 Mexican wolves in an area referred to as the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area by the end of 2006. It was expected that the target population would include 18 breeding pairs at that point in time.
The Recovery Area spans 4.4 million acres, twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. Ninety-five percent of the area is public land, comprising the Gila and Apache national forests. Most of the national forest lands are grazed by livestock. In addition, the White Mountain Apache Tribe supports recovery of Mexican wolves on the adjacent Fort Apache Indian Reservation, an additional 1.6 million acres.
Wolves have done what is needed to thrive in the wild: They have formed packs, had pups and successfully hunted elk and deer.
Unfortunately, the recovery effort has failed to reach the first reintroduction objective of at least 100 wolves in the wild. Until recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's aggressive wolf "control" measures repeatedly knocked the population down. The wild population of Mexican gray wolves has declined over the past five years, and at the end of 2008, only about 50 wolves lived in the wilds of the Southwest. The wild population was lower at the beginning of 2009 than it was at the end of 2003.
With so few wolves, each member of a pack is important.
Restoring Mexican gray wolves will restore an important ecological player to the Southwest's wild areas. To ensure they thrive in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must give Mexican wolves a distinct listing for higher protection, develop a new, scientifically valid Recovery Plan, and keep wolves in the wild.
