22
Feb
In the News: Mexican gray wolves count raises fears of inbreeding
A new count of wild Mexican gray wolves released Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has heightened wolf advocates’ concerns that inbreeding among the species’ population in Arizona and New Mexico has led to a decline in growth.
The federal agency reported 114 wild Mexican wolves in 2017, just one more than in 2016.
“Our goal is to have at least a 10 percent growth in the population each year,” said John Bradley, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency is tasked with managing a 20-year-old reintroduction program for the endangered subspecies — an effort that pits conservationists against ranchers.
In the last three years combined, however, the agency has seen an increase of less than 5 percent, following at least two years of strong growth. In its report on the new wolf count, the agency cited a steep decline in pup survival numbers.
While 50 wolf pups born in 2016 survived the year, just 26 survived last year, the agency said.
It cited 12 documented wolf deaths in 2017 and 10 wolves that were removed from the wild packs.
Asked if the mild, dry winter had an affect on the number of wild wolves, Bradley said the agency didn’t have data on the impact of climate factors, “but it’s something we’ll take a look at over time.”
Michael Robinson of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity and members of other advocacy groups blamed the stagnating population on poor management of the packs, lax oversight of wolf poaching and inbreeding — a problem they say could be solved by releasing breeding-age adult wolves that are now in captivity.
Robinson described the Mexican wolves’ situation as a “genetic crisis,” saying nearly every Mexican wolf in the wild is so genetically similar to every other Mexican wolf that they are related “as if they were full siblings.”
Bradley agreed that inbreeding is a concern.
In one of the 22 Mexican wolf packs roaming in the southern reaches of the two states, he said, is a young wolf that was cross-fostered in 2017 — which means it was born in captivity and released as a newborn into a wild wolf den. The radio-collared pup is one four the federal agency attempted to cross-foster last year, Bradley said.
The process, which involves swapping pups from a wild den with captive-born pups, is intended to help diversify the wolves’ gene pool. The Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed releasing 12 newborn pups this year through the cross-fostering program.
But Robinson said it is an imperfect and experimental solution “that is not fitting the genetic emergency.”
The process is labor-intensive, he said, requiring staff to find a wolf den in which the timing of a litter’s birth closely matches that of a captive-born litter, and coordinating a quick swap of pups in the wilderness shortly after the births occur.
A wild wolf mother could reject pups that aren’t her own.
And even if all goes as smoothly as possible, Robinson said, it takes at least two years for a pup released into the wild to begin breeding. “These newborn pups should be released with their parents,” he argued. “”¦ The Mexican wolf really can’t afford too much tinkering.”
But the state of New Mexico has rejected Fish and Wildlife’s requests for a permit to release Mexican wolves here since 2015. The federal agency’s first attempt to cross-foster captive pups into a wild den, without a permit, sparked a legal battle between the state and the federal government.
The state now allows the agency to cross-foster as long as it removes one wild pup for each captive-born pup it releases. Still, the state hasn’t approved releases of adult wolves.
One of the state’s complaints in recent years was that Fish and Wildlife hadn’t updated its management plan for the species.
That process was completed in November. The new Mexican wolf management plan calls for up to 320 wolves in New Mexico and Arizona — a number that advocates say is far too low. They also complain that the plan is too restrictive about where the wolves may roam — limiting the species’ range to south of Interstate 40.
“Population growth is being undermined by state agencies in New Mexico and Arizona and a ‘recovery plan’ driven by politics and special interests rather than science,” said Christopher Smith, with Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, in a statement Wednesday.
Several groups filed lawsuits last month over the management plan.
Meanwhile, Bradley said the breeding season for Mexican wolves is underway.
“We’re hopeful that this spring will be a successful season,” he said.
This article was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Silver City Sun-News
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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
- Cross-fostering wolves is only one tool in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s toolbox and cannot be relied upon solely to save the Mexican gray wolf from extinction. Releases of captive adult wolves are desperately needed this year to save the species.
- The genetic crisis Mexican gray wolves are in is expected to result in lower pup survival rates, which we are now seeing. The only way to prevent the species from going extinct is to rapidly improve the genetics of the wild population by releasing adult wolves from captivity. Without releasing adults, the wild population could crash very quickly due to its small size and inbreeding.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not see the 10% annual population growth of Mexican gray wolves they claim they want to achieve with the methods they are employing. Their plan to recover the species without ever releasing an adult wolf to the wild again is preposterous and in bad faith.
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must get serious about curbing illegal killings of endangered Mexican gray wolves by increasing public acceptance of wolves, increasing penalties to dissuade wolf killers, and by accepting contemporary research on negative impacts of removing wolves who depredate.
- It has now been 40 years since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first listed the Mexican gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act, yet the species is still struggling to remain viable.
- We have a moral, economic and scientific responsibility to restore endangered species like the Mexican gray wolf.
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 150 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 Santa Fe New Mexican and the Silver City Sun-News
