3 Endangered Wolves Killed
By Tania Soussan
Journal Staff Writer
Three endangered Mexican gray wolves have been found dead in New
Mexico and Arizona in the past two weeks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service said Thursday.
The federal agency responsible for reintroducing the lobos into the
wild would not say how the wolves died, but the bodies have been sent out
for necropsies, said acting program coordinator Colleen Buchanan.
“All of them are under investigation,” she said. “It’s definitely a
blow to be losing all these animals.”
Two of the wolves were particularly valuable to the reintroduction
effort, she said.
The alpha female from the Saddle Pack, found dead in Arizona on Sept.
15, was part of the most genetically valuable breeding pack in the wild
because of its lineage, Buchanan said.
She had as many as four living pups when she died and “the survival
of
those pups will now be uncertain,” Buchanan said.
The second dead wolf was an uncollared male found Sept. 19 near
Gilita
Creek on the northern edge of the Gila Wilderness. He was born in the
wild, probably last year, and was valuable to the program because he had
never been in captivity, Buchanan said.
A third wolf, the alpha male from the Francisco Pack, was found dead
off U.S. 180 near Silver City on Wednesday, Buchanan said.
The number of collared wolves in the wild now is probably in the 20s
and the total wild population is an estimated 50 or 60 animals, she said.
Michael Robinson, a wolf program advocate with the Center for
Biological Diversity in Pinos Altos, said there is a good chance the
wolves were shot.
“It appears all three will eventually be confirmed as illegal
mortality,” he said.
Robinson said the Francisco Pack male was found dead just about an
hour after its presence there was broadcast on a local radio program.
The wolf reintroduction program is unpopular among many residents of
rural southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona where the animals
have been released.
Members of the Francisco Pack were captured this spring because they
had strayed onto the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona and the
tribe asked that they be removed. The pack split up after being
re-released.