Mexican Wolf

November 20, 2024

Toward the back of the front section of my local newspaper was a USA Today article on a reward being offered for information on a dead wolf. The female is protected under the Endangered Species Act and was found northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona, on November 7th. The US Fish and Wildlife Service did not provide a cause of death, but the “mortality was not attributed to agency management actions”. Officials are offering a reward of US$103,500 for information that leads to “the successful prosecution” of the case. The wolf, known officially as F2979 and colloquially as “Hope”, was first GPS collared back in July. The Western Watersheds Project, a non-profit dedicated to protecting western watersheds and wildlife, shared a photo of the wolf in July during a wellness check clearly showing the collar. Cyndi Tuell, director of the project, said,” the shooter had to know she wasn’t a coyote.” The Mexican wolf is one of the most endangered mammals in North America, being driven almost to extinction in the mid-1980’s by hunting, trapping, and poisoning practices.

When I looked online, the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), also known as the lobo mexicano or lobo, is a subspecies of gray wolf (Canis lupus) native to eastern and southeastern Arizona and western and southern New Mexico in the US and in fragmented areas of northern Mexico. The wolf originally ranged from eastern Southern California south into Baja California, east through the Sonora and Chihuahua Deserts, and into West Texas. The Mexican wolf is the smallest of North America’s gray wolf subspecies, weighing 50 to 80 pounds (23 to 36 kg) with an average height of 28 to 32 inches (71 to 81 cm) and an average length of 5.5 feet (1.7 m). It is similar to the Great Plains wolf (Canis lupus nubilus), but with a smaller, narrower skull and darker, more variable fur (pelage), which ranges from sandy to yellowish gray with black, brown, and some white highlights. The snout, inner legs, neck and undersides are white, while golden-yellow and beige hues dominate the top of the head and much of the rest of the body. The fur around the chest and neck forms a grayish black collar which flows onto the back where it is generally black all the way to the tail tip. As of 2024, there are at least 257 wild Mexican wolves in the US and 45 in Mexico. Another 380 wolves are in captive breeding programs.

There have been 92 Mexican wolf deaths recorded since 1998. Four occurred in 2012 as a result of illegal shootings. In 2015, a court ordered the US Fish and Wildlife revise the management rules after a survey done on the wolf population of the Mexican wolf in Alpine, Arizona, indicated the recovery of the species is being negatively impacted by poaching. Poaching accounted for 50% of all Mexican wolf mortalities from 2008 to 2019. In an effort to fight the slow recovery, GPS monitoring devices are being used to monitor the wolves. In 2016, 14 Mexican wolves were killed, making it the highest death count of any year since they were reintroduced into the wild in 1998. While two of the deaths were caused by officials trying to collar the animals the rest of the deaths remain under investigation.

THOUGHTS: The Mexican wolf was held in high regard in Pre-Columbian Mexico, considered a symbol of war and the Sun and referred to as Cuetzlachcojotl. The Apache call the Mexican wolf “ba’cho” or “ma’cho”, and there is a “wolf song” passed through oral tradition where the tribe used to summon the wolf’s power before battle. It is estimated up to 16% of the Mexican wolf diet may now include domestic cattle (Bos taurus), especially in locations where the cattle graze and calve year-round as opposed to seasonally. Studies suggest reports of wolf depredation on livestock are sometimes exaggerated or fabricated. That reflects the contrasting attitude as an invasive species (cattle) was introduced by Europeans. Act for all. Change is coming and it starts with you.