Reward offered for wolf deaths
By Tom Jackson King, Managing Editor
Another wolf has been shot to death, a wolf not involved in cattle attacks, and a reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to the apprehension of whoever caused the wolf’s death.
Vicki Fox, a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency is offering a $10,000 reward, while private environmental group Defenders of Wildlife is offering $5,000 and the Center for Biological Diversity is offering an additional $10,000.
She identified the wolf killed as the alpha male from the Cerro Pack.
“On Sunday, March 9, during a routine aerial surveillance and monitoring flight, wolf recovery team members picked up a mortality signal from the Cerro Pack alpha male’s radio collar. The mortality signal emitted from the animal’s radio collar pinpointed the exact location of the body along Forest Road 117 in the Green Peaks Area of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, south of highway 60, southeast of Vernon and northwest of Springerville,” Fox said.
The National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., “verbally confirmed” the shooting death of the two-year-old male Mexican gray wolf.
“The former Bluestem Pack member had only recently paired with Francisco Pack female 644 — the third natural pairing to occur since the reintroduction program began,” Fox said.
“Both of these wolves were not involved in cattle depredation,” she said.
The controversial program to reintroduce up to 100 endangered Mexican gray wolves into federal Forest Service public lands in Arizona and New Mexico is about four years old and has involved the spending of at least $6 million to date. More than a half dozen wolves have been shot to death in unsolved killings.
The killing of a Mexican gray wolf is a violation of both federal and state game laws. Violations of the federal Endangered Species Act can invoke criminal penalties of up to $25,000 and/or six months in jail, or a civil penalty of up to $35,000, Fox said.
She said the current count of Mexican gray wolves in the two-state area includes 21 that are radio-collared and an additional 15 survivors based on field observations by federal and state personnel. The total of at least 36 wolves does not include wolf pups born in the wild that have not yet been captured and radio-collared.
The next public meeting of state and federal agency members is April 30, when the Interagency Management Advisory Group (IMAG) will meet at Hon Dah Casino in the White Mountains, about 10 miles east of Pinetop-Lakeside on the White Mountain Apache Tribe reservation. The WMAT is a partner in the wolf reintroduction program. The meeting is open to the public. Among the subjects to be discussed is an updated report on total spending on the wolf program by all state, federal and private groups.