Mexican Gray Wolves fight on with help from the government recovery program.
By Joanna M. Foster
The most endangered mammal in North America, the Mexican gray wolf, just got some good news. Four more of its kind, from the 250 kept in breeding programs, have been released into the wild to join about 70 that are already free. What makes the release all the more special is that at the beginning of 2013 there were only three breeding pairs in the wild, but now there are five.
In 2007, scientists studying Mexican gray wolf genetics reported that they were detecting the first signs of inbreeding depression in the population. Because the wolf species was recovered from such a tiny population, the recent result has been smaller litter sizes and lower pup survival rates. While this is a problem the entire population faces, the smaller number of Mexican gray wolves in the wild means they are at particular risk.
Historically, all wolves in North America were aggressively hunted to the point where reintroduction programs were necessary to save them. But Mexican gray wolves, in particular, which used to call Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Northern Mexico home, were methodically exterminated from 1915 to 1973. The Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) of the day, went so far as to send its own, custom-concocted poison bait over the border into Mexico, after all the wolves on the US side of the had been killed.
It was only the Endangered Species Act of 1973 that saved the wolves from certain extinction. Service workers once paid to kill wolves, were suddenly given a mandate to undo all their extermination work. From just five surviving Mexican gray wolves, a captive breeding program was started.
“When people hear of wolf reintroduction programs, they think, didn’t we already do that?” says Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “But the Mexican wolf is far from successfully reintroduced. Despite our best efforts, not many people seem to know about these wolves and those that do, are working tirelessly to keep them off their land.”
Robinson fears that old habits die hard and that the USFWS has remained, in large part, an agricultural service agency which helps to rid livestock owners of wildlife they find onerous.
“So far, during this reintroduction program, USFWS has shot thirteen wolves, killed eighteen others accidentally, and captured and not re-released at least thirty-four individuals,” says Robinson. “What was once such a hopeful program is falling apart. I commend livestock owners for their strong political engagement and exercise of their rights, but their influence doesn’t bode well for the wolves of the Southwest.”
After the release of the four Mexican grays, the USFWS sent out a statement of solidarity from Benjamin Tuggle, the Southwest Regional Director. He said, “We continue to be committed to strategic releases that improve genetic diversity, increase the number of breeding wolves, and offset illegal mortalities in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area.”
As the newly freed Mexican gray wolves become adjusted to the true outdoors, Robinson says, “We are literally racing against the clock here. Four more wolves in the wild is a great thing, but those sorts of numbers are just keeping the wild population on life support.”