27
Jul
In the News: Call to the wild – Mexican gray wolf recovery program faces challenges
A Mexican gray wolf faces a 28 percent chance of survival during the first year it is released in the wild.
“That first year is extremely difficult,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official Tracy Melbihess said at the Mexican wolf draft recovery plan meeting last Thursday in Truth or Consequences.
That is one of the challenges facing federal wildlife officials in their effort to get the sub-species of the gray wolf off the endangered species list.
“We want the population to be self-sustaining, healthy and robust,” Melbihess said.
That may be easier said than done.
If the Mexican gray wolf population averages 320 in the wild in the United States over an eight-year period, the animal could be removed from the endangered species list.
That is one of the goals of the Mexican Wolf draft recovery plan, Melbihess said. Another goal is to release enough wolves into the wild so that the population will be genetically diverse.
Melbihess said wolves in the U.S. region of the recovery area “are very related to one another.”
“That is not a good thing,” Melbihess said. “We have to do more.”
That includes a goal of having 22 wolves released from captive facilities surviving to breeding age in the time it takes for the Mexican wolf to reach the point where it is removed from the endangered species list.
Because of the low survival rate in that first year, Melbihess said as many as 70 wolves may have to be released into the wild during the next 25-to-35 years the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects it will take to reach that goal.
“That is not set in stone,” Melbihess said. “If the survival rate goes up fewer wolves could be released.”
There are currently 270 captive wolves in 50 facilities around the country, many of them zoos. The Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in north Socorro County has a captive wolf facility that is playing a key role in the recovery program.
Mexican Wolf Recovery Program Assistant Coordinator Maggie Dwire told El Defensor Chieftain in a previous interview that one of the goals of the facility was to help wolves adapt to living in the wild. That includes teaching them to catch and eat their own prey, which includes deer, elk and smaller mammals.
Dwire said wolf-human interaction is reduced at the facility. Dwire oversees the facility.
Dwire also said wolves are monitored once they are released in the wild. If it appears a wolf is having trouble surviving into the wild, it could be removed.
One of the ways wolves are released into the wild is through cross-fostering where pups are placed into wild dens, Melbihess said.
That was the case recently when two pups were placed in a den in Catron County, which is located in a zone that includes the Apache National Forest in Arizona and the Cibola and Gila national forests in New Mexico where wolves have been released since 1998.
The entire release area is south of Interstate 40 in Arizona and New Mexico.
Melbihess said wolves are released in areas where they historically lived and have a habitat suitable for survival. She said they are also released where human contact is minimal, and as far away from roads as possible.
Human contact is considered one of the biggest threats to survival with wolves being poisoned, shot or hit by vehicles.
The count at the end of 2016 had the U.S. population at 113.
The population in Mexico is 28, with the releases starting much later across the border. In Mexico, federal agencies are focusing on the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in Sonora, Durango and Chihuahua.
The goal for the population in Mexico is 170 over an eight-year period. The Mexican wolf population is considered much more genetically diverse than the population in the U.S.
This article was published in the El Defensor Chieftain
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Show your support for Mexican wolves with a Letter to the Editor today!
The letters to the editor page is one of the most widely read, influential parts of the newspaper. One letter from you can reach thousands of people and will also likely be read by decision-makers. Tips for writing your letter are below, but please write in your own words, from your own experience. Don’t try to include all the talking points in your letter.
Letter Writing Tips & Talking Points
“¢ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required, by law, to incorporate the best available science into its Mexican gray wolf recovery plan. Unfortunately, they have scrapped this duty in order to attain the best political deal they could find. They have chosen to make hostile state agencies happy rather than uphold their duty to consider the best available science. The previous recovery planning science team clearly identified what these wolves need, yet those findings are being ignored.
“¢ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to hand the management of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program to the states who have done everything in their power to sabotage the species’ recovery. Arizona game and fish ran the program for six years previously, and in that time they managed to reduce the number of wolves in the wild. The serious genetic problems the wild population is in is a direct result of the mismanagement by Arizona. If this plan is not dramatically changed, it will very likely drive the lobo to extinction.
“¢ The Mexican gray wolf draft recovery plan includes reckless delisting criteria for the critically endangered wolf. The plan allows for delisting the wolf after twenty-two wolves released from captivity reach reproductive age. But just reaching reproductive age does not ensure their genes will be contributed to the wild population. We have seen that poaching is a major threat to individual wild wolves and if these wolves are killed before they breed, the species will still be removed from the endangered species list.
“¢ Mexican gray wolves will need connectivity between wild populations in order to recover. Connectivity would be easy were they allowed to establish in the two additional suitable habitats in the U.S., the Grand Canyon area and the Southern Rockies. Instead, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to restrict the wolves to south of Interstate 40 and to establish a second population in Mexico. There is a barrier along large sections of the international border, talk of extending that barrier to an impenetrable wall, and the last wolf who crossed that border was removed from the wild.
“¢ The federal agency charged with recovery of the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf has decided to put the onus of recovery on Mexico, despite the fact that this could wipe the species out. Mexico does not have nearly as much public land for the wolf, they have very little enforcement to deal with poaching, and as species shift north in response to climate change Mexican habitat will become even less suitable for wolves.
Make sure you:
“¢ Thank the paper for publishing the article
“¢ Submit your letter as soon as possible. The chance of your letter being published declines after a day or two since the article was published
“¢ Do not repeat any negative messages from the article, such as “so and so said that wolves kill too many cows, but”¦” Remember that those reading your letter will not be looking at the article it responds to, so this is an opportunity to get out positive messages about wolf recovery rather than to argue with the original article
“¢ Keep your letter brief, under 250 words
“¢ Include something about who you are and why you care: E.g. “I am a mother, outdoors person, teacher, business owner, scientific, religious, etc.”
“¢ Provide your name, address, phone number, and address. The paper won’t publish these, but they want to know you are who you say you are.
Submit your letter to the editor of the El Defensor Chieftain
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DO EVEN MORE FOR LOBOS!
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Submit comments to the Fish and Wildlife Service before August 29
Electronically: Go to www.regulations.gov and enter FWS—R2—ES—2017—0036
Hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to:
Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS-R2-ES-2017-0036
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: BPHC
5275 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22041-3803
Additional Documentation Referenced in Draft Plan:
Draft Biological Report for the Mexican Wolf, May 1, 2017 version
Mexican Wolf Habitat Suitability Analysis in Historical Range in Southwestern US and Mexico, April 2017 version
5 peer reviews received on the above documents (Peer reviews are anonymous at this time but FWS will provide peer reviewers names and affiliations when the recovery plan and biological report have been finalized.)
READ MORE: New Lobo ‘Recovery’ Plan Puts Politics Before Science Risks Recovery of Highly Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves
