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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Mexican Wolf Numbers Precariously Low; Ranch Hand Admits to Baiting
The Mexican wolf population in Arizona and New Mexico—the only wild population in the world—is dangerously low, according to the recent 2007 year-end count that found just 52 individual wolves and only 4 breeding pairs in the wild. These numbers fall far short of federal recovery goals and provide another example of how the Bush administration is failing in its obligation to recover endangered species.
"We have the unique opportunity to revive an important part of the 'Old West,' but we are letting this chance slip away," says Eva Sargent, director of Defenders' Southwest program. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service places more emphasis on removing 'problem' wolves than it does on solving problems and recovering the wolf. It is failing in its duty to bring these wolves back from the brink of extinction."
Given the perilously low numbers of Mexican wolves, Defenders of Wildlife believes that the killing or permanent removal of wolves should be a last resort. This is particularly true in light of the news that a ranch hand in New Mexico branded cows and abandoned a pregnant cow near a wolf den, luring wolves into livestock attacks that would force the predators' removal, according to a December article in High Country News.
The ranch hand located the wolves by using radio-tracking data provided by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the publication reported. The result: Federal officials killed the Durango pack's alpha female. "It appears that ranch hand Mike Miller abused that trust and deliberately sacrificed livestock under his care to force the removal of endangered wolves," says Sargent. "It is deeply disturbing that someone would use the very tools offered to help them avoid conflict with wolves as a means to derail the recovery of the Mexican wolf."
Defenders of Wildlife has worked hard to help ranchers coexist with wolves through compensation, cooperation and trust, notes Sargent, and recently hired a full-time field staffer whose sole responsibility is to work proactively with ranchers and communities to prevent conflicts with wolves through projects like fencing, guard dogs, herders and livestock relocation. "We're putting our money where our mouth is," said Sargent, "Now the Fish and Wildlife Service needs to join us in being creative instead of reactive."
Defenders is calling upon the Fish and Wildlife Service to increase its use of alternative approaches to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock. "If we don't change course, the Fish and Wildlife Service will find itself presiding over the second extinction of the lobo in the wild," said Sargent.
For more information, see www.defenders.org/mexicanwolf.
