Mexican gray wolf captured near Angel Fire

‘Asha’ to be paired with mate, released in Mexico

A Mexican gray wolf that migrated a historic distance northward has been captured and will likely be released south of the U.S.-Mexico border in April, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency, which oversees the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program in southern New Mexico, made the announcement in a press release Monday morning (Jan. 23). The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish used a helicopter to locate and capture the wolf about 12 miles east of Angel Fire the day before.

“The wolf will be held temporarily at the Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility, and plans are in place to pair f2754 with a male Mexican wolf for transfer as a pair to Mexico later this year,” the release said. “The two wolves are genetically redundant in the Experimental Population Area, and provide more value to the Mexico population.”

In a contest, schoolchildren elected to name the wolf Asha, which means “hope” in Sanskrit, said Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, which was among 18 signatories of a letter last week urging the state and federal wildlife agencies to “let Mexican gray wolf f2754, ‘Asha,’ continue to roam free in Northern New Mexico or wherever she chooses to go.”

I-40 serves as the northern boundary for the Experimental Population Area, above which the species is not authorized to live. Multiple environmental groups are in litigation against Fish and Wildlife over the boundary and other aspects of a recently-revised rule that guides the reintroduction program.

“In accordance with current policy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized the capture and transfer of f2754, a Mexican wolf who had left the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Recovery Area earlier this month,” an agency spokesperson said in Monday’s release.

The reintroduction program extends south of the U.S.-Mexico border, where several dozen Mexican gray wolves now exist. Despite the border wall, wolves occasionally find passage across the international boundary; wolves captured on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona have previously been released in Mexico.

A Fish and Wildlife spokesperson told the Taos News that “each situation is different,” when it comes to capture and release, but emphasized that f2754 had no breeding prospects in Northern New Mexico.

“In this case, we’re evaluating f2754’s future potential contributions to recovery,” the spokesperson said. “Breeding season for Mexican wolves begins in February; f2754 is currently being housed with a male Mexican wolf with the intent to allow them to breed. We are planning on releasing this wolf back out into the wild. Decisions are in the works but not confirmed.”

The decision to capture and transfer f2754 was made in accordance with the agency’s current recovery permit, under which “authorized permittees may capture and, at the direction and discretion of the USFWS Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, return to the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, or transfer to captivity or Mexico, any Mexican wolves that have dispersed from the experimental population and that establish wholly outside of the MWEPA in Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas.”

The permit authorizes, among other things, “all actions related to: capture including, but not limited to, leg-hold traps, helicopter or ground darting and net-gunning, and captive capture methods.”

A Fish and Wildlife spokesperson told the Taos News that Game and Fish captured f2754 by shooting it with a tranquilizer dart fired from a helicopter.

“f2754 first moved north of I-40 in New Mexico on January 2, and since January 9, showed no signs of returning to the Experimental Population Area,” the Fish and Wildlife release said. “As it is breeding season and there are no other known wolves in the area, there was a high likelihood of a negative interaction or breeding with domestic dogs.”

Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, noted that there had been no reports of conflict between the wolf and domestic animals or humans.

“She hadn’t been causing any problems,” Anderson said. “There were no reports of conflict. It’s a waste of time and resources to use a helicopter to find her and pick her up.”

Environmental groups have argued for years — and are currently litigating the issue in federal court — that the I-40 boundary is “arbitrary” and flies in the face of vetted scientific research on Mexican gray wolf habitat. They point to studies that show the species could exist in three distinct habitats and benefit from migration and intermingling among those populations — to the benefit of very limited genetic diversity among the 196 existing members of the subspecies in the United States.

“The decision to capture her seems to be just as arbitrary as the I-40 boundary,” said Anderson. “If the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has resources to help with wolf management, they should be helping to release bonded wolf families to improve the population’s genetic diversity instead of chasing a young wolf through deep snow with a helicopter. It doesn’t make any sense that they prioritized her capture.

“This wolf was showing us the way for habitat connectivity from southern New Mexico to Northern New Mexico, where there is great habitat,” Anderson continued. “The Southern Rockies are a great place for wolves; there’s lots of elk and lots of rugged terrain. Fish and wildlife identified sufficient habitat in that area, but won’t let them go there. It’s a political compromise to keep them south of I-40, even though science has said we need three populations in order to have genetic diversity: southern New Mexico, the Southern Rockies and the Grand Canyon region. For some reason, we’re not following science.”

In cooperation with Fish and Wildlife, Colorado Parks and Wildlife will begin implementing a northern gray wolf reintroduction program before the end of this year, with releases mandated to take place west of the Continental Divide and at least 60 miles from neighboring states. Conservationists believe the larger northern species will eventually intermingle with its smaller Mexican gray wolf cousins.

“Someday, Mexican wolves and northern Rockies wolves will meet; hopefully they’ll have taken enough proactive steps for Mexican gray wolves by that time that northern gray wolves won’t swamp them genetically,” Anderson said. “They’re worried about swamping their genes with the northern species, but at the same time they’re not doing enough for the genetics down here to ensure the health and viability of the current population.”