Wolves to be released into wilderness
Another pack of Mexican gray wolves is scheduled for release in the Gila Wilderness in late June, according to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
The release will be the second reintroduction of wolves on the Gila this year. The first pack was turned loose April 8. (The department previously reported incorrectly that a pair of wolves would be released April 17.)
The pack to be reintroduced this month will more than double the population of eight wolves in the wild in New Mexico. It will be the fourth pack in the state.
Included in the release will be a pair of 6-year-old alpha wolves (a male and a female), and four of their wild-born offspring. Also making the trip into the wilderness, via mule, will be 5- and 7-week-old pups born to the alpha female while in captivity at the Ladder Ranch.
“The wolf specialists feel comfortable moving pups once they are 6 weeks old because they are almost weaned at that age,” said Chuck Hayes, assistant chief of Conservation Services for the department.
The wolves will be placed in a rope-net pen, and are expected to chew their way out of it — possibly within hours.
Known as the Francisco Pack, the wolves were previously released and recaptured on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona.
“This is not the whole pack, but a group of wolves that learned to survive in the wild away from human habitation and urban areas,” Hayes said.
The two adults were among the original wolves released when recovery efforts began in April 1998. They are reportedly from the McBride lineage, descendants of wolves captured in Mexico more than 30 years ago by predator specialist Roy McBride.