2 more endangered wolves found dead
Associated Press
SILVER CITY, N.M. – Two more endangered Mexican gray wolves have been
found dead bringing the total to 11 deaths in New Mexico and Arizona since
March.
A female wolf from the Hondah Pack was found dead on the White Mountain
Apache Reservation on Christmas Eve. An alpha male of the Cienega Pack was
found on the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona on Dec. 21. Both
deaths are being investigated, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman
Elizabeth Slown said.
It has already been determined that two of the wolves died from gunshot
wounds and two were struck by cars, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
said. Another four are listed by the agency as possible gunshot or auto
collision victims.
The wolves are part of a federal reintroduction program trying to
re-establish a wild population of about 100 wolves in southwestern New
Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The program began releasing wolves in
March 1998. The animals were hunted to the brink of extinction in the
early 1900s.
The agency is awaiting necropsy results on six other wolves found dead
last year in Arizona and New Mexico.
The necropsies were not immediately completed because the agency has only
one person who does analyses of suspicious wildlife deaths in the United
States, said Colleen Buchanan, assistant wolf recovery coordinator at the
agency’s wolf recovery program.
The wolf recovery team is now trying to decide whether to release any more
wolves into the wild this year.
Center for Biological Diversity spokesman Michael Robinson said that
worries him.
“We’re very concerned about trends in population and whether the
population is going to go down precipitously,” he said.
A $45,000 reward is being offered by the federal agency, conservation
groups and civic groups for information leading to an arrest and
conviction of anyone who has killed a Mexican gray wolf.
As of late last year, there were nearly 30 wolves living in the wild, the
Fish and Wildlife Service said.