Aerial operations by USFWS Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team completed the annual year-end population survey in Arizona and New Mexico at the end of 2017, concluding that there are only 114 Mexican Gray wolves left in the wild. This number includes 26 pups that survived to the end of 2017, only one more over the estimated 113 wild wolves in 2016.
From January 1 to December 31, 2017, there were 12 wolf mortalities/poaching incidents still under investigation and one lethal removal (F1557). The latest wolf poaching was a female yearling from the Bluestream pack in December 2017.
The Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team found at least 63 wolves in Arizona and 51 wolves in New Mexico. The population is divided into 22 known packs along with a number of solo wolves. That there is essentially no change in population of critically imperiled wolves is bad news, and comes in the context of intentional roadblocks set up by state agencies and a deeply flawed “recovery” plan released by the Trump administration in November 2017. Lobos face a genetic bottleneck, frequent human-caused-mortalities, inbreeding and arbitrary limits to their range and population.
The Mexican wolf is one of the most endangered subspecies of wolves in the world. Entirely extirpated from the wild in the U.S. by the 1970s, the Mexican wolf is an iconic and ecologically important species in the Southwest. Lobos received federal Endangered Species Act protection in 1976 and since then have faced a slow and tumultuous road to recovery. The entire wild population in New Mexico and Arizona descends from only seven wolves, which were captured in Mexico. From there—the Species Survival Plan (SSP), a breeding and management program, was designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of captive-based animal populations. It’s a coordinated effort among zoos, organizations like the Wolf Conservation Center, USFWS, Mexico’s Fish & Wildlife Agencies, whose primary purpose is to raise wolves for reintroduction into both the U.S and Mexico. The wild is calling but what will be their fate?
So now– as they struggle for recovery, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has reintroduced the deceptively named “Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Plan Act” (S. 368), a bill that could lead to the extinction of the Mexican gray wolf, the world’s most endangered gray wolf. Plus, McCaine, John [R] is now a cosponsor.
The legislation aims to strip federal protections for Mexican gray wolves by empowering special interests and Arizona and New Mexico (states that have repeatedly obstructed Lobo recovery efforts) to intervene in recovery planning.
Hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of Mexican gray wolves in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. Now the species is facing extinction a second time, but at the hands of politicians.
PLUS– Flake introduced– S. 2277: A bill to require the delisting of Mexican gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES! Please tell your senators to oppose S. 368 and S.2277 the Mexican Wolf Extinction Bills and ALL damaging policy riders which undermine the Endangered Species Act and its scientific process. Anything and everything that delists wolves. There are many!!
Source: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/pdf/Mexican_Wolf_Annual_Count_NR_FINAL.pdf
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