Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Eva Sargent, Southwest Program Director

A member of the first pack of wolves released into the Apache National Forest. (c) ADFG

This Friday will be the 15th anniversary of the day U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staffers braved a blizzard to release the first group of captive bred Mexican gray wolves – also called “lobos” – into the wild. The wolves had been waiting in pens in the Apache National Forest in Arizona, the first of their kind in the wilds of the Southwest in decades. Now, 15 years later, there are 75 wild Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico, and a handful in Mexico. That’s something to celebrate – part miracle, part Endangered Species Act triumph. An animal that was completely extinct in the wild, with only seven “founder” wolves as breeding stock to save it, is back and howling and having pups and strengthening the natural systems that sustain everything, humans included.

If you live in the Southwest, we have opportunities to celebrate in Flagstaff and Pinetop, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Of course, some people will prefer to sob: there are not enough lobos in the wild; they need to overcome genetic problems; and they are confined to one population in one area of the Southwest. The slow turn of the Mexican gray wolf as it tries to step back from edge of extinction is agonizing to watch. Will the rarest wolf in the world teeter and fall? As someone who lives lobo recovery and politics every day, I can’t just sit around and sob. I need to act, and I need you with me.

Captive Mexican gray wolf (c) Don Burkett

Saving the Mexican gray wolf is all about dedication and political will. There’s not much mystery left about what needs to be done. It has been spelled out in various published scientific papers, in the Service’s own program reviews and their Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment, and during previous attempts to update the recovery plan. The current recovery team’s scientists have worked it out again, and more rigorously than ever.

In honor of this 15th anniversary of lobos returning to the Southwest, Defenders is calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to do what needs to be done. In order to back the wolves away from the precipice of extinction and get them headed toward recovery, the Service must:

1. Release more wolves from captivity as the first step in a science-based genetic rescue plan;
2. Complete the recovery plan, and implement it; and
3. Move ahead as quickly as possible to establish at least two additional populations of Mexican gray wolves.

Some of these steps are long and complex, and some are relatively easy. The Service has been promising and trying for years to release more wolves. They are stymied by their own out-of-date rule that prohibits wolves straight from captivity from being released in New Mexico, and by their continued deference to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, which has appointed itself gatekeeper over wolf releases while supporting removing all wolves, including our 75 Mexican gray wolves, from the Endangered Species List.

(c) Jim Clark, USFWS

The Service needs to wait for no one to finish the recovery plan; not only is it entirely under their direction, it is also required by the Endangered Species Act. They are currently engaged in their third attempt to update the 1982 plan; the last two attempts were abandoned at about the point when it became clear that the best science said that Mexican wolves will not survive without many more wolves in several populations. The current recovery team has not met in over a year, although the scientists keep compiling ever stronger evidence that Mexican wolves need many more wolves in several populations in order to survive.

These new populations will take years to establish. Once the recovery plan is completed, the Service will need to consult with the state agencies (which are already represented on the recovery team), and the public, and there will be plenty of discussion about where exactly to reintroduce wolves, and where they might wander from there. There will be ample time for public input and fine tuning, but the time to start all of this is now. The Service must realize that those who are afraid of wolves are already mounting an opposition to the expansion of Mexican wolves anywhere, despite strong public support for wolf recovery in the region.

Mexican gray wolves have no time to waste. They need their stewards to overcome obstacles, ignore those whose entrenched opposition they will never overcome and do what needs to be done to assure their recovery. What the Service does or doesn’t do now will determine whether it is possible for the Mexican gray wolf to recover. That’s what makes this anniversary a cause for both celebration and action.

Help us tell the USFWS that now, as we come up on 15 years of lobos back in the wild, is the time to take action to ensure their future.  If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, sign up for our Thunderclap and you’ll be able to help us spread the word in a big way! Through the Thunderclap, we’ll all be able to send the exact same message at the exact same time: at noon on March 29th. Together, we’ll cut through all the noise and take a stand for Mexican gray wolves – before it’s too late.

Eva Sargent, Southwest Program Director

Mexican Wolf (Credit: USFWS/Jim Clark)

The official annual count of Mexican gray wolves – also called lobos – is in!  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finished counting the wolves, but the wolves are still counting on the Service to save them from extinction.

First, the good news:  The population of wild Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico increased from 58 last year to 75 now.   But there are still only three breeding pairs.  The lobos are doing their best to survive – finding each other, chasing elk, avoiding lawbreakers who would kill them just for being wolves, and having pups.   They are inching, year by year, closer to their rightful place in the landscape and culture of the Southwest.  But the truth is, they may not make it.  They came through a tremendous genetic crisis in the past, when the last wild female Mexican wolf in the entire world was brought into captivity to literally save her kind.  This limited genetic heritage, which I wrote about a few weeks ago, continues to haunt the lobos today.  Because they are all closely related, they don’t have a large number of different traits carried in their genes. A high amount of genetic diversity is key to survival – it allows populations to change their biology when conditions change.

So although more wolves is cause for celebration, more pups from the same few breeding pairs won’t be enough to solve the genetic crisis.  In order to express every bit of their genetic potential, the wolves needed to expand their population in the wild years ago.  This opportunity was missed, over and over, when genetically valuable animals were sent back to captivity or killed, when packs were disrupted by being captured and moved, and when too few animals were released.  Now, it will take heroic efforts, probably including extreme steps like in vitro fertilization using stored semen or eggs from wolves that died years ago, to try to improve the genetic future for Mexican gray wolves. The Service needs to get moving on this genetic emergency immediately.  The first step is to release more wolves.

Releasing more wolves is a little more difficult than it sounds, but the Service has the authority, means, and responsibility to get this done in a hurry. Only two wolves have been released from captivity since 2006. One of these was illegally shot, and the other was returned to captivity the other day to give him a better chance at pairing with a female.  The Service needs to get this new pair out in the wild as quickly as possible, and immediately get many more wolves warming up in the bullpen, ready to go, because the current slow dribble of new genes into the wild isn’t enough. The Service must assert its authority and do what needs to be done for the wolves’ sake. What the Service does now will determine whether or not our lobos can survive and recover.

When Mexican wolves need help, Defenders turns up the heat on decision makers. We count on you – who understand the importance of lobos in the big scheme of Nature – to help us pressure those in power to do the right thing.  Please make sure you are getting Defenders e-alerts!  That way I can let you know quickly when your emails, meeting attendance, phone calls, petition signing or letter writing can really make a difference.  In March, we will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the first release of captive-born Mexican gray wolves into the wild.  There will be plenty to do to make sure the lobos are not just surviving, but thriving.  I hope you will join me in this fight.

Eva Sargent, Southwest Program Director

Mexican gray wolves, according to science and common sense, are the most endangered wolf in the world.  We should have a new count in a couple of weeks, but last year there were fewer than 60 wild Mexican wolves in the entire world.  They are all offspring of the emergency captive breeding effort that saved the species from extinction – an Endangered Species Act miracle, really.  But what’s happened since then, since the first captive-bred Mexican gray wolves put their paws on the wild ground in 1998, is more frustrating.

Mexican gray wolf

Because the entire population is derived from only seven wolves (a brush with extinction that no critters should come close to), they didn’t have a great deal of genetic diversity. That is, they didn’t have a large number of different traits carried in their genes. A high amount of genetic diversity is the engine of adaptability – it allows populations to change their biology when conditions change, and that’s key to survival. The captive population has been carefully managed to preserve genetic diversity, but this only goes so far. From the beginning, geneticists knew that in order to overcome their limited genetic heritage, the Mexican gray wolves would need to rapidly expand their numbers beyond what was possible in captivity. They needed to get out of the zoos that had taken such care to save them and really take off in the wild.  By reproducing quickly in the wild, they would express every ounce of genetic diversity they had in their genes.  The wolves did their part immediately – pairing up, denning up, eating elk and having puppies.

Unfortunately, humans haven’t held up their part of the deal, and the population has never expanded fast enough to preserve their genetic diversity.  Overzealous management and a lack of political will have kept the numbers low. Now, nearly 15 years after the first wolves were released, the Mexican gray wolf is facing a genetic emergency that could keep them from ever recovering. Already, it  seems that a lack of genetic diversity is causing lower litter sizes. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t act soon to release more wolves, this and other effects of a small gene pool could doom the species, no matter how hard we try in the future to recover them.

Many opportunities to improve the genetics of Mexican gray wolves have been squandered.  Instead of supporting stable, reproducing packs, wolves are captured and moved around because they get into trouble, or cross the invisible boundaries of their small recovery area in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.  Until recently, many were sent back to captivity, and some were killed, for eating livestock.  These removals were indiscriminate – it didn’t matter if the suspected cattle-eater was a mom with pups, or a genetically valuable dad. With the future of the species relying on so few individuals in the wild, we – joined by several other conservation groups – went to court over this issue, and as part of the settlement, this disastrous removal policy was ended. But its effects linger – there are still too few wolves, and too few with the best genes to keep the species on the road to recovery.

There are other pressures too; despite their protected status, illegal killing is the largest source of dead wolves.  But the window is closing on fixing the genetic issue, and one solution is amazingly simple: Release more wolves from captivity, and do it now.

Mexican gray wolf

The last time a wolf from captivity was released was in 2008.  Since then, there have been roadblocks and reasons and excuses, but no one has demonstrated the gumption necessary to get the job done. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for recovering Mexican gray wolves, has waited with an absurd amount of patience for agreement from the states before acting, and all at the wolves’ expense.  Opportunities have been lost, and they won’t be regained.  Finally, last week, they decided to release a single male wolf in hopes that he will pair with a female of the Bluestem pack, whose mate was illegally shot and killed last year.

Of course all of us who work on Mexican gray wolf recovery are grateful for this small step in the right direction, and we hope this new male gets right down to business saving the species. But much more needs to be done, and soon, or it will be too late.  The geneticists who have spent years sounding the alarm haven’t stopped, and Defenders won’t stop, until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements an emergency genetic rescue plan for the Mexican gray wolf. Such a plan would entail selective breeding in captivity, perhaps even using in vitro fertilization, to recreate the genetic makeup of the founding wolves. Still, one of the easiest steps this plan would include is to release more wolves into the wild. We’ll keep you posted on our progress with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Meanwhile, stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for an increase in the 2012 count, due in a few weeks.  More wolves from the same old breeding pairs won’t solve the genetic issue, but it will improve the outlook for the most endangered wolf on the planet.

Smaller and lighter than their cousins in the Northern Rockies, only 50 Mexican gray wolves survive in the Southwest.

I’m an optimistic person. One has to be when trying to help Mexican gray wolves win their fight to survive.

Despite absurdly high rates of illegal killing and only 50 Mexican gray wolves, or lobos, living in the wild in the entire world, I still believe we can help bring them back from the brink extinction and put them on the road to recovery.

Many of us at Defenders, with the help of our members and supporters, have worked for years to improve the lobos’ chance at survival — helping ranchers live with wolves, serving as a watchdog over government policies that affect lobos, building public awareness and support for Mexican gray wolves, and going to court or to Congress when we need to.

One thing that’s been missing, however, is a valid recovery plan, the road map leading lobos to a full recovery and off of the Endangered Species List.

An Antique Recovery Plan

The existing recovery plan was written way back in 1982.  It was supposed to be a placeholder for a more comprehensive, science-based document to be developed later. At the time, the plan’s authors couldn’t envision the future for a species with, at best, a handful of survivors in the wild.

I’m an optimistic person. One has to be when trying to help Mexican gray wolves win their fight to survive.

So instead of a full plan for recovery, they prescribed only the first step — a captive breeding program with the aim of eventually releasing the Mexican gray wolf back to its former haunts. In March 1998, the first 11 lobos were released into the wild in Arizona and New Mexico. But for almost 30 years, since 1982, the entire effort has limped along without a map to keep recovery on track.

Reason for Hope

Eva Sargent, Ph.D, Southwest program director

Last week, a new recovery team met for the first time. Divided into sub-groups — scientists, agency liaisons, tribal liaisons and stakeholder liaisons — we’re charged with plotting a new course for Mexican gray wolves.

The scientists are absolutely first rate: thoughtful, smart and leaders in their fields. These experts in wolf biology, conservation biology, predator and prey dynamics, human dimensions research, genetics, and more will use the best scientific information available today to tell us what Mexican gray wolves need in order to recover. The other teams will provide pragmatic information about how the goals set by the scientists can best be reached.

In my optimistic view, we will argue without spite, support unbiased science and put the lobos safely back on the road to recovery.

I’m representing Defenders on the stakeholder team. We’re a diverse bunch, including ranchers, outfitters, community representatives and other conservation groups, all working side by side to plan the recovery of Mexican gray wolves. Together, we’ll learn about science and policy, ranching and eco-tourism, local businesses, and the Mexican gray wolf’s place in nature.

In my optimistic view, we will argue without spite, support unbiased science and put the lobos safely back on the road to recovery. There may be bumps and detours ahead, but at the very least, we’ll have a map to point the way. It is up to all of us who care about wolves to get this done right.

Take Action

Learn more about how you can help save lobos and other imperiled wildlife at Defenders’ Action Center.