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Once down to 7 captive individuals, the Mexican wolf has a stunning recovery in the wild in the U.S. [1]

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Date: 2023-03-05

A Mexican wolf is released back into the wild in New Mexico after being captured and collared during the 2022 Mexican wolf count. In bearing the burden of this collar, this wolf will be one of the original founders that saves his species

Here in the midst of the Sixth (Or Possibly Seventh ) Mass Extinction, we don’t get too many reasons to celebrate, but we do get that chance here.

The Mexican wolf, also known as the lobo, indigenous to the southwestern U.S. and to northern Mexico, came very, very close to extinction in the 1970s. It was down to only seven known individuals, all in captivity, garnering the infamous “extinct in the wild” designation.

But in late February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the very pleasant and not-entirely-expected announcement that over 2021 and 2022, the lobo experienced a surge in the wild, showing robust breeding and cub survival rates of two-thirds. Normal lobo pup survival rates in the wild have historically been around one-half, so this is an extremely good indicator. Last year, the wild population broke through the 200 mark for the first time, reaching 241. Plus we have a captive population of about 380. The lobo, by all current indications, despite its very close shave with extinction, WILL NOT BE LOST!

The lobo has been honored by the University of New Mexico as its team mascot since 1920, so it’s clear that at that time the lobo was a prominent species in the southwestern United states.

Christian Washington totes the rock for the UNM Lobos

Unfortunately, by the early 1930s, Mexican wolves had been eliminated from the United States by a very deliberate effort. Border patrol agents would kill any lobos that tried to get into the U.S., and starting in 1950, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) even sent poison and salaried hunters into Mexico in an attempt to eradicate the species entirely, fearing its ability to hunt commercial livestock.

Fortunately, since then, the agency’s attitude has adjusted significantly. In 1976, the lobo was listed as endangered (and in the absolute nick of time). In 1977, the FWS partnered with its Mexican counterpart to develop a bi-national captive breeding program. There were literally only seven Mexican wolves remaining in existence at that time, caught between 1977 and 1980. After 1980, none were known to exist in the wild.

It would not be until 1998, after about 20 years of breeding efforts in captivity by unnamed zoologists, that a reintroduction program became possible. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt gave the approval, and with that, for the first time in 30 years, lobos roamed free in the United States. But it was very rough going at first:

In late January [1998], Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt traveled to a remote area on the New Mexico-Arizona border on what he called a mission to "erase the sins of the past." Accompanied by officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Babbitt brought three captive-bred Mexican wolves to a holding facility in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, the advance guard of what biologists hoped would become a thriving wild population of a predator exterminated from this region earlier this century. Today, Babbitt returned to the Blue Mountains of eastern Arizona, to a lonely spot 20 miles south of Alpine, to help introduce more Mexican wolves to the wild. But the ebullience of last January was replaced with the somber realization that yesterday's sins have not been erased. Of the 11 wolves set loose in this rugged country since last winter, only three remain, and the program is jeopardized by what appears to be a concerted, clandestine effort to wipe out the first population of Mexican wolves to live outside of zoos in the United States since 1970. Since August, three of the Mexican wolves in this area have been shot and killed, and one of their pups -- the first born in the wild -- is also presumed dead. A fourth adult has been missing since late September and is thought to have been killed as well. A fifth was shot dead by a camper last April, and three others have had to be recaptured and returned to captivity -- one pregnant female because her mate was killed, two others because they migrated out of the recovery zone. Babbitt, who met in Albuquerque this morning with a federal and state law enforcement task force investigating the wolf killings, acknowledged that the reintroduction program has suffered a serious setback, but he said officials are determined to press ahead.

This was never a given, and the next two decades would be met with fits and starts. By 2016, the wild population was hovering around 100, and continued to build slowly.

But over 2021-2022 especially, the lobo seemed to have suddenly found its mojo. The 2022 population increased an amazing 23% from 2021! Other findings by the U.S. FWS for 2022:

A minimum of 59 packs were documented at the end of 2022: 40 in New Mexico and 19 in Arizona. A wolf pack is defined as two or more wolves that maintain an established home range.

A minimum of 121 pups were born in 2022, with at least 81 surviving until the end of the year (a 67 percent survival rate). The average survival of Mexican wolf pups in their first year is around 50 percent.

A minimum of 31 breeding pairs (20 in New Mexico, 11 in Arizona) was recorded in 2022. A breeding pair is defined as a pack that consists of an adult male and female and at least one pup of the year surviving through December 31.

There were 109 collared wolves in the wild at the end of the year, which is 45 percent of the wild population.

Yes, the U.S. FWS committed sins, tried to atone, and almost didn’t succeed, but in the end they caught their errors in time. Just barely in time .

“This milestone has been 25 years in the making,” said Brady McGee, US Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, in the release. “To go from zero wild Mexican wolves at the start to 241 today is truly remarkable. In 2022, we recorded more packs, more breeding pairs, and a growing occupied range, proving we are on the path to recovery. These achievements are a testament to partner-driven conservation in the west.”

El Lobo, the Mexican gray wolf

An icon of the American Southwest has had a very tough century, but seven individuals (and by some accounts, five) have the apocalyptic distinction of having saved their species. We almost annihilated you, Los Lobos, and for that we’re very sorry. But we got “woke” just in time. We humans sometimes have lapses of reason, but at our best, in the end, we are capable of coming to our senses.

Go Lobos!!

Here’s to a future where we respect each other and thrive together.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/5/2156468/-Once-down-to-7-captive-individuals-the-Mexican-wolf-has-a-stunning-recovery-in-the-wild-in-the-U-S

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