Mexican Grey Wolf Essay, Research Paper

The Mexican Grey Wolf by

Until recently, the Mexican Grey Wolf roamed the Chihuahan and Sonaran deserts from central Mexico to western Texas, central Arizona and New Mexico. By 1900 the decrease in prey the wolves hunted and fed on, such as deer and elk, reduced greatly. So they began to attack and kill domesticated animals on farms and in other places. This led to great efforts by government agencies and individuals to kill off and eradicate the Mexican Grey Wolf.

There intense efforts to get rid of the Mexican Grey Wolves in the United States were very successful. The Mexican Grey Wolf had been eradicated from the wild by the 1950s. Then in 1976 the Mexican Grey Wolf was declared an endangered species and is still endangered from extinction. During 1976-1980 five wolves were caught, four males and one pregnant female, and transferred to Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Due to the successful captive breeding programs 200 Mexican Grey Wolves are still alive and are kept in zoos and museums.

The San Andres Mountains to the west of White Sands National Monument have been chosen as one of the sites for the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf. These mountains are surrounded by White Sands Missile Range, are closed to public access, and have little or no domesticated livestock raised in the immediate area. These conditioned make this area one of the most ideal sites in North America for the reestablishment of the Mexican wolf.

There are several reasons reintroducing wolves is a hard thing to establish. The reasons the Mexican Grey Wolves are unable to be reintroduced are not because they will not be able to readapt to the wild, it is because of the people in the United States who do not want the wolves. Hunters do not want the Mexican Grey Wolves to be reintroduced because they consider the Mexican Grey Wolf competition. They believe that if they are reintroduced that they will kill all of the elk and deer and they will be unable to kill anything themselves. Farmers do not want the wolves reintroduced because the wolves kill their livestock and they lose money when they do this, it also cost them more money if they have to protect themselves. Farmers can prove that a wolf ate their livestock and get paid money for it, but it is not always easy to prove.

In March 1997 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service were authorized by the United States Secretary of the Interior to begin reintroducing Mexican Grey Wolves into an area of Arizona called the Blue Range. The purpose of this program is to reestablish at least 100 Mexican Grey Wolves in the Gila and Apache National Forests of Arizona and New Mexico by the year 2005.