There are more Mexican gray wolves in the southwestern United States today than when they became an endangered species, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officials are concerned about New Mexico's wolf pup population.
A persistent drought caused by low precipitation and snowmelt were difficult conditions for pups to survive in. A KRQE report cited the FWS’s report that more than 60% of the pups perished before reaching maturity.
The latest annual survey showed that there are at least 196 wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. This is the sixth straight year the wolf population has increased, according to KRQE.
There are currently approximately 380 Mexican wolves in more than 60 zoos and other facilities in the United States and Mexico, where the wild population numbers around 40, officials said.
“We are happy to see the wild population of Mexican wolves continue to grow year after year,” Brady McGee, coordinator of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program, told KRQE. “The service and our partners remain focused on recovery through improving the genetic health of the wild population and reducing threats, while also working to minimize conflicts with livestock.”
While the increase in the wolf population is tempered by the high rate of pups that perished, ranchers remain concerned about the livestock killed by wolves. Ranchers say efforts to scare the predators away from the livestock, including nonlethal shots fired from guns, flags on fences, and feeding the wolves away from livestock, have not had a positive result, KRQE noted.
State Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Grant) sent a letter to McGee earlier this month regarding two separate livestock kills in her district, according to KRQE. Dow said some ranchers are forced to camp out on their property to protect their herds.
“Ranching is a way of life in our district, and the release of these wolves without proper management is taking away from our community’s right to earn a living,” Dow said.
The Mexican gray wolf is the rarest subspecies of the gray wolves in North America. It was listed as endangered in the 1970s when a U.S.-Mexico captive breeding program began with the seven wolves in existence, KRQE reported.
Environmentalists hoped the U.S. population would surpass 200 by 2021. They are lobbying the FWS to release more captive wolf packs and allow the predators to establish new packs in areas beyond the current recovery zone in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, according to KRQE.
Wolves “need better protection and more room to roam and re-establish themselves," Chris Smith, an author with the WildEarth Guardians, said to KRQE.
“U.S. Fish and Wildlife continues to flout the science and bow to political pressure,” Smith said.
A new federal rule that will govern the management of Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. is expected to be finalized this summer.
