Mexican Gray Wolves
WSC is honored once again to be invited to participate in a captive breeding program for an endangered species. In this case that species is the subspecies of gray wolf known as the Mexican gray wolf. WSC received two Mexican wolves September of 2000. The United States and Mexico are teamed up in an effort to reestablish Mexican wolves into a portion of their former range in the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico.
The global population of Mexican wolves is approximately 231, but only 28 of those wolves are in the wild. The remaining wolves are in captivity, 48 in Mexico and 155 in the US. The WSC has accepted the responsibility to house these valuable animals until they either become involved, their offspring become involved, or they perhaps become retired as permanent exhibit animals.
The committee that oversees the captive and wild populations is made up of biologists, experts and caretakers from the public and private sector. The genetic relatedness of each wolf to all of the others is carefully mapped out, and breeding is controlled or prevented based upon the best genetic combinations of animals. Most of the science, techniques and strategies involved in this complicated program are a direct result of the ground breaking work done a decade before by the red wolf recovery team.
Some of the unique challenges facing recovery projects that depend on captive wolves have to do with wolf tolerance for human activity. It is incredibly difficult to avoid some contact with animals that are cared for by humans. Once released, these wolves are not always sufficiently fearful of humans. Some become targets for illegal killing, still others are attracted to human activity and become nuisance animals. Since 1998, 59 Mexican wolves have been released into the wild. Twenty-six out of 59 have been recaptured because of location or behavior issues. The wolves have experienced 30% mortality, most of it human-caused. One wolf was killed by a mountain lion, and some (pups) have died from parvo virus. During this time, there have been 8 cases of wolves attacking domestic animals, 6 of which were fatal to the domestic animal (dogs, livestock). Eighteen wolves were removed in response to these losses.
It is exciting to be involved in both the red wolf and Mexican gray wolf efforts, and we hope you will all come to see these fascinating animals. For more information about the Mexican Wolf reintroduction effort, call us!
