Two packs of Mexican gray wolves to be released in Gila Wilderness
By: Associated Press
(Silver City-AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to
release two packs of Mexican gray wolves in the Gila Wilderness this
summer.
The group includes pups born in
captivity.
It will be the first direct release of wolves that have never been
free into the wild in New Mexico.
Itýs part of a wolf reintroduction
program.
One of the rules governing the program forbids the direct release of
wolves into New Mexico unless theyýve first been released and recaptured in
Arizona. That rule dates back to the beginning of the
program.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has now decided that pups conceived in
the wild but born in captivity can be released in the
Gila.
But a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity says the
agency should completely change its release policy rather than just tweak
it.