Maddy Hayden, Carlsbad Current-Argus
CARLSBAD — It’s Wolf Awareness Week, and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park is taking the opportunity to educate people on the large predator and the park’s role in helping to save one wolf species.
The zoo houses one Mexican wolf, an endangered species of gray wolf that was nearly hunted to extinction before being named an Endangered Species in 1976.
Kathryn Law, interpretive ranger at the park, said when settlers moved into the area, there were no hunting seasons. People killed whatever and whenever they could.
Eventually, deer and other natural prey of the wolves began to be depleted, and they were forced to turn to other sources of food.
“Anytime you have predators and people, you’re going to have conflict, mainly about livestock,” Law said. “And that’s what happened.”
Woods Houghton, Eddy County extension agent, said he has heard of wolves in the area. He said he mainly heard complaints about livestock loss from sheep ranchers.
“This is part of their historical range. Back when we had a lot of sheep production, this was a common discussion,” Houghton said of the efforts to reintroduce the Mexican wolf back into its natural habitat. Houghton said around eight years ago, the number of sheep being raised in Eddy County began to decline.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s website details the rapid decline in the Mexican wolf’s population between the late 1800’s to the early to mid-1900’s. Settlers used poison, traps, and guns to virtually eliminate the Mexican wolf population in the United States.
“The government actually had a bounty system out for the extermination of the wolves,” Law said.
Northern Mexico still provided habitat for the wolves. Otherwise, they may have been completely wiped out.
In 1981, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a captive breeding program, with the goal of getting the population back up to 100 in their native range, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas.
Currently, the population in the wild is numbered at around 50, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park’s wolves were a part of that program, Law said.
“A couple of the wolves were found to be genetically pure and were a part of the original recovery effort in 1978,” she said.
She said there were six wolves in the beginning, but the other five have since been sent off to other facilities for breeding purposes.
Law will give a presentation on Mexican wolves, the recovery effort and the role the zoo has played at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Visitor’s Center.
Arts and crafts for children will be available and there will be a docent at the wolf exhibit to answer questions, both from noon to 2 p.m.
A documentary about the importance of large predators in ecosystems, called “Lords of Nature,” will be screened at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Visitor’s Center.
It features other stories of reintroduction of predators into natural habitats, like the release of gray wolves back into Yellowstone National Park, Law said.
“Large predators have a large effect on ecosystems and have an important role in keeping ecosystems healthy,” she said.