Mexican Wolf

Mexican Wolf (Canis Lupus Baileyi)

By: Dylan Stabler-Jara

Description and Ecology

The Mexican Wolf is the most compact and scarce wolf located in North America. They usually weigh 50-80 pounds and are about 5 feet in length with a lifespan of 5-6 years in the wild and up to 15 years in captivity. Their fur colors consist of black, grey, and brown. Like many wolves, the Mexican wolf tends to live in large packs with a lead mated pair. Their packs consist of 4-8 wolves, usually generations of the mated pair. Mexican wolves hunt in packs and work together in order to survive.

Geographic and Population Changes

Mexican wolves' main habitat is located mostly in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. Their natural habitat is usually grasslands and mountain forests. The Mexican wolf saw a population decline in the mid 1900s due to an increase of livestock death which resulted in eradication. This decline almost pushed them to extinction. Currently, there are only 97 Mexican wolves in the wild and 300 Mexican wolves in captivity. The goal of having so few in the wild is to have them form packs and repopulate.

Listing Date and Type of Listing

In the late 1970s the Mexican wolf was coming close to extinction and was officially listed as endangered in 1976 under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Due to the low-density population in the southwest, many people in the United States assumed that the wolves had gone entirely extinct. Luckily, there were sightings of the Mexican wolf in Mexico which meant a small percentage of their population managed to survive. This led to the US Wildlife Service to attempt to bring back the Mexican wolf to the United States. They strove to help the wolf populations quickly before the population dropped to a rate that was not recoverable.

Cause of Listing and Main Threats

https://mexicanwolves.org/index.php/news
/232/51/Mexican-Wolf-Reward---Up-to-60-000

In the 1900's, Mexican wolves wandered all around the Southwest states of North America such as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. When people started to settle in those states, conflict began between humans and the Mexican wolves.The Mexican wolf is a carnivorous species so it would not be uncommon for them to eat the livestock of farmers. Farmers livestock was very important to them because it provided food for their families so they were forced to kill any wolves that would interfere. It became so bad between 1910-1920,  people began to kill off any Mexican wolves they saw, no matter if they were not close to livestock. The population of Mexican wolves declined so much, it took a captive breeding program just to save the remaining few in attempt to save the species from extinction.

Today, the Mexican wolves' main threats to extinction is humans; hunting them due to myths about wolves killing people and all the livestock when they actually only kill less than one percent of livestock per year and have never attacked a person. Another threat to their extinction is their low genetic diversity. This is caused by the wolves being held in captivity so their ancestors could not have adaptive genes which would help them in the wild. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is very cautious to release more wolves into the wild (which would finish the Mexican wolf recovery plan), due to their low genetic diversity which could result in a decline in population rather than incline.

Description of Recovery Plan

http://www.hthouses.com/road-to-recovery.html

The recovery plan for the Mexican Wolf is primarily focusing on the three R's which will achieve the goal of taking them off the endangered species list: resiliency, redundancy and representation. First, they would like to place two populations of Mexican wolves, one in the States and the other in Mexico. The US Fish and Wildlife service will place around 10-20 wolves in each population, with hopes of repopulation. They will leave the wolves alone for a couple years. In the United States, where there was practically no wolves, there would have to be about 320 wolves in order for them to delist them from the endangered species list. While in Mexico, it will only take about 170 wolves for them to be delisted. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping that this will take another 5-15 years for the wolves to be fully off the endangered species list. 

What Can You Do?

At the moment, there are not many things that people can do directly to help the Mexican wolf. But for the things that people can do to help, but a big way they can help is by sending messages to government leaders regarding Mexican wolves. Let the government know that the this is a problem the people are concerned about. Also, people could adopt a Mexican wolf which can lead to the preservation of the species. People can donate money to places that are attempting to help the Mexican wolves. Lastly, you could spread the word about the wolves; get educated on the subject and be an advocate for them.

Other Resources

Check out these links for more information!

http://www.defenders.org/mexican-gray-wolf/basic-facts

https://nywolf.org/support-us/support-us-adopt-a-wolf


Check here out to read the official U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services recovery plan:

https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=A00E

Bibliography

N/A. “Mexican Gray Wolf.” Defenders of Wildlife. N/A. http://www.defenders.org/mexican-gray-wolf/basic-facts. Accessed November 2017.

United States Fish and Wildlife Services. “Mexican Wolves.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Department of the Interior. N/A.

https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/BRWRP_home.cfm. Accessed November 2017.

United States Fish and Wildlife Services. “Mexican Wolves in the Wild The Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Department of the Interior. Last updated October 31, 2017. https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=A00E. Accessed November 2017.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2017 Draft Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, First Revision. Region 2, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.