Courtesy of Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center
The mission of Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center includes education, and there are few subjects that can benefit more from education than wolves. So, let’s see if we can simplify a very complicated topic: wolves, and more particularly, the Mexican gray wolf. The animal featured on the cover is Mexican wolf F435, Chuska, one of the first Mexican wolves cared for by Southwest Wildlife. Chuska passed away at the age of 14 in 2008.
What is a Mexican gray wolf? Sometimes called the Lobo, or simply the Mexican wolf, Canis lupus baileyi is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Ranging from 50 to 90 lbs., it’s the smallest subspecies. The historic range for this wolf was the southernmost of all the North American wolves, and included Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. Today, the Lobo is the most endangered mammal in North America and is included on the Endangered Species List.
To understand the plight of wolves in our country today, it’s helpful to look at the past.
Europeans who came to America brought with them a fear and hatred of wolves, rooted mostly in myth and folklore. In the late 1800’s, as settlement expanded westward, native wildlife such as deer and elk were hunted for subsistence and sold to meat markets, until few remained. At the same time cattle were introduced to the open range in the West. Livestock grazed across vast expanses of open land, before being rounded up and shipped off to markets in the East. With wild prey scarce, large predators like wolves survived by killing livestock, creating conflict with ranchers. While wolves were common in the Southwest, they were not abundant, so when bounties were offered for every wolf killed, their populations declined rapidly.
Wolf Print Courtesy of Southwest Conservation Center
When livestock was introduced to the fragile Western landscape, overgrazing and drought quickly degraded the land. Preservation was proposed through federal ownership and the creation of national forests. To accomplish this, support was needed from the powerful ranchers who used the land and a system of grazing fees and leases was established. These forest preserves were favored hideouts for the last of the Mexican wolves in the Southwest. Livestock producers argued that the fees paid for grazing rights on national forest lands entitled them to ask for federal protection of their stock from predation by wolves. Federal predator control programs were born. Tasked with eliminating every last wolf, the programs were very successful.
By the early part of the 20th century only occasional Mexican wolves, disbursing from packs in Mexico, found their way up along the old wolf runways and into their former habitat in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Government trappers were sent to kill these wolves to prevent livestock losses.
As public concern for our natural world evolved, conservation groups, researchers and the public argued for preservation of the environment, wildlife and, the wolf.
The gray wolf was listed through the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1974. The Mexican gray wolf subspecies, because of its distinct and separate population, was given its own guidelines for recovery in 1976. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service planned to capture Mexican wolves to preserve them from extinction, but no wild Mexican wolves were found in the United States. Through a bi-national agreement with Mexico, the last 5 wild wolves were trapped there between 1977 and 1980, to begin a captive-breeding program.
It was 1998 before captive-raised Mexican wolves were reintroduced. The designated recovery area includes more than 4 million acres of publically owned, mostly national forest land in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico. Much of this public land is still leased to cattle and sheep ranchers for grazing. It’s probably not surprising, then, that recovery of the Mexican wolf has had a rocky start, with the majority of wolf mortalities being human-caused, most by illegal shooting.
Today, sixteen years after their reintroduction to the Southwest, there are around 83 Mexican wolves living the wild. In total, counting those wild 83, there are fewer than 350 Lobos alive, making the Mexican gray wolf the rarest wolf in the world. Across the country, and in Mexico, more than 50 zoos and sanctuaries house Mexican wolves for the recovery effort. None of these facilities receive federal or state money for doing so. Southwest Wildlife, a long-standing member of the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for the Mexican wolf, is proud to be one of those sanctuaries, currently providing space for 17 Mexican wolves. Learn more about these remarkable animals and other wildlife native to our area by visiting our website www.southwestwildlife.org and scheduling a tour.
Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which is run by a handful of staff and many dedicated volunteers. We are funded solely through private donations, fundraising and grants.
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