Second suit filed over wolf

by Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For the second time in about a week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued over an effort that seeks to list the Mexican gray wolf on the federal endangered species list separate from other gray wolves in North America.

Conservationists submitted petitions to the agency in August, arguing a separate listing was biologically warranted and legally required.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Wednesday to force the agency to issue a finding on its petition. The lawsuit follows a similar complaint filed last week by WildEarth Guardians.

The Mexican wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf. It was exterminated in the wild by the 1930s, but the government began reintroducing wolves in 1998 along the Arizona-New Mexico line.

This story appeared on January 27, 2010