It’s the perfect time of year to venture into wolf country in the beautiful Gila and Apache national forests! While experiencing the wild lands where Mexican wolves live, you may even get to see or hear them - and at the same time, you can help gather important information that may save wild lobos.
Mexican wolf packs, especially those in New Mexico, are at risk as livestock owners who graze their cattle on our public lands fail to clean up dead cattle in the wolves’ home ranges.
Right now, breeding pairs are teaching their young how to hunt elk and deer in the wilds of the Southwest – but untreated livestock carcasses lure wolves into preying on cattle—a deed for which wolves can be trapped or shot.
Livestock in the Southwest die for a wide range of reasons, including disease, starvation, poisonous weeds, lightning, falls, birthing complications, and predators such as mountain lions and bears. And livestock owners are not required to treat or remove their dead animals from our public lands.
Wolves are drawn to scavenge on dead cattle and horses, which has repeatedly led them to begin preying on livestock. Scavenging on carcasses they did not kill lures wolves to areas with vulnerable livestock, which puts them at risk of being trapped or shot by the government if they kill domestic stock.
You can help the wolves by documenting wolf sign and carcasses in wolf country to show the Fish and Wildlife Service that wolves are being led to depredate by the presence of dead livestock.
If you take a camping trip this fall, plan to take it in wolf country. Bring a camera and/or video camera to document livestock carcasses and wolf sign. And if you are lucky enough to hear or see one of the most imperiled mammals in North America—the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf—please tell us about it.
Call or email us for information about which areas have wolves and where to camp and hike.
Phone: 928-774-6542
Email: info@mexicanwolves.org
