Wolves in the News

Officials: Wolf recovery needs revamping

ALBUQUERQUE - Federal wildlife officials admit in a new assessment that the plan guiding their efforts to return the endangered Mexican gray wolf to its former glory in the Southwest is nearly three decades old and in need of an update.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a conservation assessment of the Mexican wolf Friday. The public has until March 10 to review the draft document and submit comments.

The agency said litigation over the status of gray wolves in other parts of the country have prevented it from creating a new recovery plan for the Mexican wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf.

However, Fish and Wildlife Service regional director Benjamin Tuggle said the assessment will provide the most up-to-date scientific information on the beleagured wolf. "It will help to inform the many other components of our conservation efforts for the Mexcian wolf, including captive management, reintroduction and recovery planning and implementation," Tuggle said in a statement.

Environmentalists are calling the assessment "a substitute for action."

Michael Robinson of the Center for biological Diversity, which has been pushing for reforms in wolf management for years, said Tuesday the report contains valuable information about the Mexican wolf but fails to set new policies.

"To think that the effort could have gone to something that helped the wolves, it's very frustrating," he said. "Frankly, I think it's one more step by the Fish and Wildlife Service that will continue to increase cynicism about the agency and its ability to rise above dysfunction and actually recover the Mexican wolf."

The Mexican wolf was exterminated in the wild in the Southwest by the 1930's. In 1998, the government began reintroducing wolves along the Arizona-New Mexico border in a 4 million acre-plus territory interspersed with forests, private land and towns.

Biologists had hoped to have at least 100 wolves in the wild by now; the population is estimated around 50.

The current recovery plan was completed in 1982 - 16 years before any wolves were released in the Southwest.

In the assessment, federal officials sya that although the recovery plan was instrumental in guiding the inception of the wolf reintroduction, it does no provide any long-range guidance.

Environmentalists have petitioned the agency to revise the plan, saying it hampers recovery efforts by saying little about how to manage wolves in the wild.

Susan Montoya Bryan The Associated Press - January 14, 2009

Back to top.

Prosecution Planned in Wolf Killing

LAS CRUCES - The U.S. Attorney's Office plant to prosectue a Gila Hot Springs-area ranch caretaker for the illegal shooting in August of an endangered Mexican gray wolf, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday.

Bu the ranch owner said the caretaker, who also leases fields on the ranch, is a supporter of the controversial wolf reintroduction project who thought he was shooting a German shepherd, not a wolf, that had cornered one of his calves.

"He was defending his livestock on private property, and is a reputable individual who happens to support the wolf reintroduction program as well as regrets panicking and making a bad decision and trying to hide it," said Sam Holdsworth, the owner of the 150 acres of the XSX Ranch. A six- acre portion of the ranch is separtely owned.

Neither the Fish and Wildlife Service nor the U.S. Attorney's Office identified the suspect, who will be asked to present himself later this month to answer to the charges. Holsworth, who was contacted by the Journal, said the caretaker was traveling in Mexico with his mother this week.

"Until someon's formally charged, we don't have anything to say," said Norm Cairns, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney Gregory Fouratt.

Using a search warrant, federal agents Aug. 15 recovered the body of the Laredo Pack alpha male, a wolf designated as AM 1008, that had been buried on the XSX Ranch on the east fork of the Gila River. The wolf's radio collar began emitting a mortality signal on Aug. 6, less than two months after the wolf was released in the Gila Wilderness with its mate.

The case will be the first brought against someone in New Mexico for the illegal killing of a wolf. Wolf poaching is a violation of the Endangered Species Act punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $25,000. Failing to report the killing of a wolf within 24 hours is also an ESA violation.

Thirty-one wolves have been illegally killed in the Southwest since they were released in early 1998, but only one poaching case has been successfully prosecuted in the recovery program's history.

Bengamin Tuggle, the FWS Southwest regional director, said the agency "will continue to aggressively investigate illegal wolf killings to help ensure that anyone responsible is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Back to top.

Agents have suspect in Wolf Killing - Animal's Corpse Recovered in August

LAS CRUCES - Law enforcement agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have wrapped up their investigation of the Aug. 6 illegal killing of an endangered Mexican gray wolf and presented the results to teh U.S. Attorney's Office.

Nick Chavez, Albuquerque-based special agent in charge of the FWS Southwest Region law enforcement office, said Wednesday that federal agents have a suspect in the killing of the wolf.

The animal's corpse was recovered Aug. 15 on private land in the Gila Hot Springs area near the Gila Cliff Dwellings after a mortality signal was emitted Aug. 6 from it's radio collar, according the a federal search warrant obtained this week by the Journal.

The wolf, the alpha male of the Laredo Pack, was one of seven lobos killed under suspicious circumstances in 2008 and under investigation by the Fish and Wildlife.

If charges are filed, the case would be the first brought against someone in New Mexico for the illegal killing of a wolf - a violation of the Endangered Species Act punishable by up to a year in jail and fines up to $50,000 or a civil penalty of up to $25,000.

Only one poaching case has been successfully prosecuted in the 11-year history of the wolf reintroduction project.

A 21-year-old Arizona man was sentenced in 2000 to four months in prison in that case.

About 31 wolves have been illegally killed since lobos were first released in southeast Arizona in early 1998.

Chavez declined to name the suspect, state how the wolf was killed, or detail where on the ranch the wolf was located. Norm Cairns, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque, declined to comment on the case.

According to the search warrant, the wolf, designated AM 1008, and its mate were released in the McKenna Park area of the Gila Wilderness on June 24. By early july, the pair had traveled about 15 miles south to the Gila Hot Springs area, and wildlife technicians were dispatched to monitor the wolves and haze them away from residential areas.

Back to top.