There has been a 23% increase in the Mexican gray wolf population over the last year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Mexican gray wolf had been on the brink of extinction for most of the 20th Century, but U.S. officials reintroduced the endangered species back to the Southwest in the late 1990s.
“Wolves were completely extirpated from the wild and the southwestern United States,” Brady McGee, Mexican wolf recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told KOB. “We started establishing wolves in the wild in 1998.”
In a new survey, officials reported the population of Mexican gray wolves has doubled since 2017.
“At the end of 2022, we documented a minimum of 241 wolves surviving in the wild throughout southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona,” McGee said.
This is the seventh consecutive year that the population has grown, according to KOB. Conservation and recovery efforts played a major part in protecting the wolves, who create their own challenges by eating livestock.
“There will be conflicts when wolves are around livestock,” McGee said. “But we have a number of tools in our toolbox to reduce those conflicts. We’re trying to recover the Mexican wolf with a really balanced approach when it comes to offsetting impacts to the livestock industry.”
The report, based on 2022 numbers, also documented a minimum of 59 packs with 40 in New Mexico and 19 in Arizona. A wolf pack is defined as two or more wolves that maintain an established home range.
The report also documented a minimum of 121 pups were born in 2022, with at least 81 surviving until the end of the year. That’s a 67% survival rate. The average survival of Mexican wolf pups, in their first year, is around 50%.
The report also documented a minimum of 31 breeding pairs (20 in New Mexico, 11 in Arizona). A breeding pair is defined as a pack that consists of an adult male and female and at least one pup of the year surviving through Dec. 31.
There were also 109 collared wolves in the wild at the end of the year, 45% of the wild population.
