New Mexico Wolves Need Your Help!

Code red: New Mexico wolves need your help! The end of 2009 count of Mexican wolves in the wild is sadly disappointing. In Arizona, the number went up from 23 to 29, but the count in New Mexico is down from 29 to only 15!

Only two packs, both in Arizona, have two pups surviving into this year, which is what qualifies them as “breeding” pairs. Two other packs in Arizona have one pup, but the only surviving pup in New Mexico belongs to the famous three-legged Middle Fork pack.

It is to be expected that some wolf pups will not survive their first year, but losing 24 of the 31 wild-born puppies is unusual and the causes are not known. Two wolves were confirmed illegally shot in 2009 and the cause of death of an additional six is under investigation. To their credit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer killing and removing wolves that prey on cattle as a matter of policy.

It is only fitting that Mexico is now planning to reintroduce lobos into their own country because the last Mexican wolves known to be in the wild were captured there in the late 1970s and placed into captivity to save the entire species. Five wolves will be released into the Sierra San Luis Mountains about 100 miles south of the Arizona/New Mexico border. As we have seen with our own wolf reintroduction, wolves are capable of roaming and leaving their prescribed boundaries. No one knows what they will do, but a hundred miles is not so great that these Mexican Lobos couldn’t roam north into the United States. In this area, there are sections of the Border Wall that only exclude vehicles. The wolves in the United States were introduced under an “experimental, non-essential” provision of the Endangered Species Act. This situation is dire. Please send an email to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (exsec@ios.doi.gov) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Director Sam Hamilton sam_hamilton@fws.gov ).Please tell them that this population decline is unacceptable. We want wolves to survive and thrive in the southwest and additional aggressive action is needed by the Mexican wolf program. These include releasing more wolves into the wild to boost genetic fitness of the population, bringing wolf poachers to justice, and writing a new science-based recovery plan because the outdated 1982 plan is not working.

Hellp keep the dream of restoring this essential creature alive. For more information, contact Mary Katherine Ray, Rio Grande Chapter Wildlife Chair (575/772- 5655, mkrscrim@kitcarson.net). —Mary Katherine Ray