Action Alert: Tell Arizona Game and Fish to Support the Release of Nagual’s Pack

Today, fewer than 55 lobos roam free; yet the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not released any new wolf packs from captivity since November 2008.  

This Monday, Arizona Game and Fish Department is hosting a meeting in Alpine to discuss the potential release of Nagual’s Pack.

Nagual’s pack was scheduled for release last summer. However, the release never occurred. Since they were first paired up in November of 2009, male Mexican wolf M968, known as Nagual, and female wolf F1064 have borne a litter of five pups with another five pups born this spring. Nearly a year later, this wolf family is still waiting to be released. They shouldn’t be forced to wait much longer. Releases of pairs with young pups usually take place in mid-June to mid-July.

The AZ Game and Fish Department is hosting a public meeting at 6:00 pm, on May 23, at the Alpine Community Center.  Please attend the meeting in Alpine to show support for the release of these wolves into the wild.  We need releases to ensure survival of the species as well as to improve the genetic diversity of the population. 

The Mexican wolf, or lobo, has been relentlessly persecuted, making it one of the world’s rarest land mammals. Before 1970, they disappeared from the Southwestern U.S., eliminated by predator control campaigns.

Restoration of the wild population began in 1998 with releases from a captive breeding program. The program began with only five wolves captured in Mexico — likely the last of the remaining wild lobos. 

But since the lobos’ return to the Southwest in 1998, over 30 wolves have been illegally shot, while 11 more have been legally killed over livestock conflicts, and a further 39 have been removed from the wild and not yet re-released. Eighteen wolves died as a consequence of capture.

If you can’t attend the meeting, you can send an email to AZGFD Director, Larry Voyles, or post a comment on the AZGFD Facebook page. (In order to post on the page, you’ll need to click the Like button. You can Unlike if you want to, after you post your comment.)

Tell AZ Game and Fish that Mexican wolves are needed in our wildlands and Nagual’s pack needs to live free and wild.
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Note: We would have liked to give you more notice on this meeting. Unfortunately, we did not receive advance notification.

Thanks go to the White Mountain Conservation League for the alert above.

Photo credit: Mexican wolf family courtesy of the Endangered Wolf Center