NM researchers study trapping methods
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) – Researchers at New Mexico State University are helping state game managers with a study to determine the impacts of trapping in the portion of the state where Mexican gray wolves have been reintroduced.
The New Mexico Game and Fish Department and the university’s cooperative fish and wildlife research unit in Las Cruces are working on the project.
Regulated furbearer trapping on the Gila and Apache national forests in southwestern New Mexico was banned last summer by Gov. Bill Richardson, and the state Game Commission extended the ban while the study is conducted.
The researchers are looking for information that will help them evaluate the potential risk of permanent injury or death to a wolf resulting from the use of each trap or snare type allowed by state trapping rules.