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MEXICAN GRAY WOLF
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The Story of the Mexican Gray Wolf

 

Thousands of Mexican gray wolves roamed the Southwest prior to the arrival of European settlers. Two events set the stage for the eventual eradication of Mexican wolves. First, increasing numbers of market and sport hunters shot the native prey of wolves, such as deer and elk, to near extinction. Second, cattle and sheep were moved into the Southwest in large numbers, damaging habitats and further reducing wild ungulate (hoofed mammal) populations. Faced with almost no natural prey, wolves preyed on domestic stock to survive.

After the decades-long failure of bounties, the livestock industry pressured the U.S. Biological Survey (later to become the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to exterminate wolves. The agency reported killing more than 900 wolves in Arizona and New Mexico from 1915 – 1925; many more may have been poisoned and not found.

The effort was so effective that breeding packs were wiped out across the southwestern United States by the early 1940s, leaving a ragged and perpetually harassed population of lobos in northern Mexico. Over the next 30 years, Mexican wolves made repeated efforts to recolonize U.S. habitats, but were always hunted down. The last three Mexican wolves were killed in the U.S. in 1970.

Having finished the job in the U.S., the government exported its wolf eradication expertise to Mexico and exterminated wolves there, too. No wild wolves have been documented in Mexico since 1980.

Mexican gray wolves faced almost certain extinction in the early 1970s. But in 1973, an enlightened Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Almost too late, the Mexican wolf was listed as an endangered species in 1976, requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recover the Mexican wolf to self-sustaining population levels within its historic range in the Southwest.

From just seven survivors, Mexican wolves are trying to claw their way toward recovery. Ironically, their most formidable obstacle remains the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which continues to carry out policies that cause wolves to be shot or trapped and removed from their wild homes. Thirty-three years after receiving protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Mexican gray wolf remains the most endangered mammal in North America and the most endangered subspecies of gray wolf in the world.

About Mexican Gray Wolves

The Mexican gray wolf is a critically endangered, native species that once numbered in the thousands of animals throughout southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Texas and northern Mexico. Its restoration is an opportunity to bring a natural balance and fully functioning ecosystem back to the wild lands of the Southwest. Read on to learn more about the lives of Mexican gray wolves, their tragic history and near-extinction, their role as a top-of-the-food-chain carnivore and their present constricted range.

The Lobo Life

The Mexican gray wolf, or "lobo," roamed throughout southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas through the early 1900s, and south into northern Mexico until the 1980s. Today, around 50 wild wolves roam the headwaters of the Gila River in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

Mexican gray wolves are smaller than their relatives to the north—the gray wolves that roam the northern Rocky Mountains and Midwest. Weighing in at 50 to 85 pounds, Mexican wolves are about the size of a German shepherd and are the smallest subspecies of the gray wolf in North America.

Lobos have a keen sense of smell, excellent hearing and highly sensitive vision. They are intelligent, family-oriented animals who live in family packs and maintain home ranges-or territories. They communicate through howling, body language and scent marking.

Lobos kill and eat a variety of prey, including elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and javelina. Mexican wolves are opportunistic, and will scavenge dead elk and deer, cattle carcasses and hunter gut piles during hunting season. They occasionally prey on livestock, and wildlife biologists believe this behavior could be exacerbated by scavenging on livestock carcasses that die from various causes.

Mexican wolf packs are generally fairly small, consisting of an adult alpha pair, a yearling or two, and pups of the year. Social cohesion in the pack is strong. Adults are very tolerant of the growing pups, feeding them meat brought back from kills. Pups establish a dominance hierarchy and learn hunting behavior through play.

About 8 to 10 weeks after birth, pups are moved from the den site to a rendezvous site, where they remain while the adults hunt. A pack member often stays behind to "babysit" the pups.

Prehistorically, wolf populations were likely stable and limited by the numbers of vulnerable prey animals. Human-caused mortality caused the near extinction of Mexican wolves and remains the primary reason they are still critically endangered today.