The Haunting Howl of The Mexican Gray Wolf…

One of the most endangered animals in the world, the Mexican gray wolf, demonstrates why the howl of the wolf is so hauntingly beautiful and symbolic of all that is wild and free. This is the sound wolf haters want to silence forever! The Mexican gray wolves fate is tied to their Northern brothers and sisters.  They are all suffering, although the Mexican gray wolf  population increased again this year, it’s nothing even close to the 200 wolves USFWS promised would be roaming free by 2006. Over 66% of the Blue Range wolf recovery area is heavily grazed by cattle and open to mining, forestry and recreational interests. (ghosts of the southwest).  Seven years later there are just 75  Mexican grays living in the wild.

The Mexican gray wolf  stands as a reminder of what can happen to all gray wolves when ignorance and intolerance prevail.

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Uploaded on Jan 21, 2008 by Rick LoBello

“Please help save the Mexican wolf by forwarding message to others.

I transferred to video an old 8mm movie I took during the late 1970s of what I believe was the last or one of the last wild Mexican wolves captured from northern Mexico before the species went extinct in the wild. Thanks to the efforts of people from across then continent with the help of the numerous zoos that have been maintaining a captive population, the US Fish and Wildlife Department and the US Forest Service with the help of the states of Arizona and New Mexico, were able to reintroduce wolves successfully back into the wild in 1998.

As you watch the film keep in mind that this animal, less than a week before I filmed it, was living in the wilds of Mexico. It was one of the last descendants of wild Mexican wolves that had been living in harmony with the land and Native Americans for thousands of years. Their story almost came to a complete end. Fortunately the United States passed the Endangered Species Act. If it wasn’t for that critical piece of legislation I am sure that the Mexican wolf would have gone completely extinct since there were few animals in captivity and virtually none in zoos.

I hope that people who watch this 3 minute video will want to learn more about these beautiful animals and get involved in efforts to help with conservation efforts here in the United States and Mexico.

All Mexican wolves believed to be alive in the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico today, are the descendants of the progeny of this wolf and four others. The wolf in the film was captured by Roy McBride who was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the Mexican government to rescue the last wild Mexican wolves in Durango and Chihuahua. Roy and I were fellow graduate students at Sul Ross State University in Alpine where the film was made.

Most of you know that at the El Paso Zoo where I work we have three Mexican wolves and are trying to help save this critically endangered species in many ways including supporting the ongoing reintroduction program in the Southwest. If you have been following the story of this project you know that the descendants of the wolf in this video need our continued support. Please go on the Internet by starting with the El Paso Zoo website at http://www.elpasozoo.org where you can learn more and get involved. Start with the page we have at http://www.elpasozoo.org/takeaction. The music is from Peter Kater’s soundtrack from the film “How the West Was Lost”, track 2 – Dull Knife and Little Wolf.”… Rick Lobello

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Top Video: Courtesy Endangered Wolf You Tube

Middle Video: Courtesy In Memory Of The Last Wild Mexican Wolf

Bottom video: Courtesy WapiskisiwMahihkan

Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Posted in: Mexican Gray Wolf, Wolf Wars

Tags: wolf song, wolf howl, haunting beauty, protect wolves, stop the persecution and slaughter, Canis Lupus Bailey

US Representative Raul Grijalva Speaks Out For The Fox Mountain Pack….

Mexican gray wolf  (USFWS)

Lets give US Rep. Raul Grijalva D-NM a hand. In a letter addressed to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest Regional Director USFWS,  Rep Grijalva took the USFWS to task for their handling of  Mexican gray wolf recovery or lack thereof and the fate of the Fox Mountain wolf pack.

Click here to read Representative Grijalva’s letter.

He pointed out removing the Fox Mountain alpha female from the wild was the wrong thing to do when there are no new releases of Mexican gray wolves planned. He raises concerns that by attempting to remove this wolf mother serious injury or death could befall her, her pups or other pack members.

In 2006 the Hon Dah Pack was decimated when USFWS intervened.

12-Wolf Pack Is Down to Two

May 25, 2006
By Tania Soussan

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/462778nm05-25-06.htm

Taking a breeding female from the wild, when there have been no new releases of Mexican gray wolves since 2008, is absurd. The Fox Mountain pack is just one of six breeding pairs living wild.

Mexican gray wolves are the most critically endangered land mammals in North America. Their present day genetics descend from just seven wolves who were saved from poisoning and death during the tragic gray wolf extermination of the 1900′s. The wolves are in-bred because of this.

Remember the Mexican gray wolf female who was shot when she bred with a dog. The poor little wolf probably couldn’t find another male wolf to mate with. Wolves are social animals, so she was seeking out the company of other canines. She lost her life because of it and her pups were also killed.

From the LA Times:

Rare Mexican Wolf shot for mating with dog

Posted by Graham_Land in Conservation, Wildlife & Flora, 20 Dec 2011

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week ordered the death of a female Mexican gray wolf after the animal was discovered hanging around a group of domestic dogs.

The lone 4-year-old female was shot and killed in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest on Wednesday after she was apparently attracted to domestic dogs at a private residence. The female had earlier this year mated with a dog and given birth to a litter of five hybrid pups. Four of the pups were euthanized and the fifth has not been found.

 The five-year Mexican wolf reintroduction program has so far failed to recover the animals, and more wolves are being held in captive facilities than are free in the wild. Wildlife biologists say that when female wolves fail to find a male wolf as a mate, they pair with domestic dogs, producing wolf-dog hybrids that are usually put down by wildlife authorities.”

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There are so few Mexican grays in the wild, last count just 58, that it’s a miracle they even find each other to breed. As with all wolves in the lower forty-eight and around the world they suffer from severe persecution, poaching and the heavy hand of state and federal controls.

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Visit Lobos of the Southwest for further information.

Congressman Grijalva Sends Letter to Director Tuggle of the Fish and Wildlife Service

Arizona Congressman Speaks Up in Support of Mexican Gray Wolves, August 16, 2012 (posted 08/23/12)

http://www.mexicanwolves.org/index.php/news/754/51/Congressman-Grijalva-Sends-Letter-to-Director-Tuggle-of-the-Fish-and-Wildlife-Service

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Increase Wolves’ Genetic Pool by Releasing More to Wild

By Michael Robinson / Conservation Advocate Center for Biological Diversity

Wed, Aug 22, 2012

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/08/22/opinion/increase-wolves-genetic-pool-by-releasing-more-to-wild.html

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KEEP THE FOX MOUNTAIN ALPHA FEMALE WILD!!

Mexican gray wolf and pup (National Geographic Wallpaper by Joel Sartore)

Continue the pressure to save this alpha female from a life in captivity. It looks like they’re ignoring our pleas and are still trying to catch her.

“Service spokesman Tom Buckley said the agency would not change course and allow the wolf to remain in the wild, despite the ongoing public pressure.”

Taking this mother from the wild is wrong!! Either remove the cattle from the wolf recovery area or  recover these critically endangered wolves in a cow free zone, where they don’t face continual persecution over cattle. This is why after 14 years the wolf program has been a failure. It’s the same story repeating itself, wolves are either poached or get in trouble over cattle.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different result.

The North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park would be perfect for the wolves. No ranchers, no cows and lots of mule deer. Is that too sensible of a solution?? Of course people have been calling for this for years but sadly it’s fallen on deaf ears.

This appeared in the Albuquerque Journal

Wolf Will Live, But Maybe Not In Wild

By Rene Romo / Journal South Reporter on Thu, Aug 16, 2012

LAS CRUCES – Conservationists were thrilled when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week rescinded a two-day-old order to kill a Mexican gray wolf blamed for killing four cattle in recent months, but they continue to press federal officials to let the wolf remain in the wild.

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said removing the Fox Mountain pack’s alpha female, the mother of at least four pups, is bad policy for a recovery project that has only 58 wolves in the wild in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

Fish and Wildlife’s acting regional director rescinded the kill order on Aug. 10 after the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., stepped forward and offered to house the alpha female for the rest of her life.

Service spokesman Tom Buckley said the agency would not change course and allow the wolf to remain in the wild, despite the ongoing public pressure.

Before the first release of wolves in a national forest in Arizona in 1998, federal officials projected there would be 100 wolves in the wild by the end of 2006. However, illegal shootings and strict management of cattle-killing wolves have slowed the population’s growth.

Removal, Robinson said, “will have the same results ecologically on the wolves that are remaining as if they killed her.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office in Albuquerque was inundated by hundreds of phone calls and emails protesting the Aug. 8 kill order, the first such order issued by the Service in four years. Killing the wolf, advocates said, would decrease the wolf pups’ chances for survival.

Federal agents on Wednesday afternoon were continuing the efforts they started last week to capture the Fox Mountain alpha female.

READ MORE:

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/08/16/news/wolf-will-live-but-maybe-not-in-wild-2.html

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KEEP CALLING AND EMAILING.

Don’t give up on her. We need increased pressure on USFWS to do the right thing!!

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US Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Office: 505-761-4748 or 505-363-2797

USFSW Regional Director Tuggle: RDTuggle@fws.gov

White House (202) 456-1111

Senator Tom Udall (202) 224-6621, (505) 988-6511 or (505) 346-6791

Senator Jeff Bingaman (202) 224-5521 or 1-800-443-8658

Congressman Ben Ray Luján (505) 984-8950 or (202) 225-6190

Congressman Martin Heinrich (505) 346-6781 or (202) 225-6316

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Photo: National Geographic Photo by Joel Sartore

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Mexican Gray Wolf

Tags:  Keep her wild, no legholds, retire grazing leases, remove cows near den site, Fox Mountain Alpha Mother, USFWS, Dr. Tuggle

KEEP THE FOX MOUNTAIN WOLF MOTHER WILD!!!

Mexican gray wolf and pup (National Geographic Wallpaper by Joel Sartore)

Continue the pressure to save this alpha female from a life in captivity. It looks like they’re ignoring our pleas and are still trying to catch her.

“Service spokesman Tom Buckley said the agency would not change course and allow the wolf to remain in the wild, despite the ongoing public pressure.”

Taking this mother from the wild is wrong!! Either remove the cattle from the wolf recovery area or  recover these critically endangered wolves in a cow free zone, where they don’t face continual persecution over cattle. This is why after 14 years the wolf program has been a failure. It’s the same story repeating itself, wolves are either poached or get in trouble over cattle.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different result.

The North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park would be perfect for the wolves. No ranchers, no cows and lots of mule deer. Is that too sensible of a solution?? Of course people have been calling for this for years but sadly it’s fallen on deaf ears.

This appeared in the Albuquerque Journal

Wolf Will Live, But Maybe Not In Wild

By Rene Romo / Journal South Reporter on Thu, Aug 16, 2012

LAS CRUCES – Conservationists were thrilled when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week rescinded a two-day-old order to kill a Mexican gray wolf blamed for killing four cattle in recent months, but they continue to press federal officials to let the wolf remain in the wild.

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said removing the Fox Mountain pack’s alpha female, the mother of at least four pups, is bad policy for a recovery project that has only 58 wolves in the wild in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

Fish and Wildlife’s acting regional director rescinded the kill order on Aug. 10 after the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., stepped forward and offered to house the alpha female for the rest of her life.

Service spokesman Tom Buckley said the agency would not change course and allow the wolf to remain in the wild, despite the ongoing public pressure.

Before the first release of wolves in a national forest in Arizona in 1998, federal officials projected there would be 100 wolves in the wild by the end of 2006. However, illegal shootings and strict management of cattle-killing wolves have slowed the population’s growth.

Removal, Robinson said, “will have the same results ecologically on the wolves that are remaining as if they killed her.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office in Albuquerque was inundated by hundreds of phone calls and emails protesting the Aug. 8 kill order, the first such order issued by the Service in four years. Killing the wolf, advocates said, would decrease the wolf pups’ chances for survival.

Federal agents on Wednesday afternoon were continuing the efforts they started last week to capture the Fox Mountain alpha female.

READ MORE:

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/08/16/news/wolf-will-live-but-maybe-not-in-wild-2.html

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KEEP CALLING AND EMAILING.

Don’t give up on her. We need increased pressure on USFWS to do the right thing!!

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US Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Office: 505-761-4748 or 505-363-2797

USFSW Regional Director Tuggle: RDTuggle@fws.gov

White House (202) 456-1111

Senator Tom Udall (202) 224-6621, (505) 988-6511 or (505) 346-6791

Senator Jeff Bingaman (202) 224-5521 or 1-800-443-8658

Congressman Ben Ray Luján (505) 984-8950 or (202) 225-6190

Congressman Martin Heinrich (505) 346-6781 or (202) 225-6316

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Photo: National Geographic Photo by Joel Sartore

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Mexican Gray Wolf

Tags:  Keep her wild, no legholds, retire grazing leases, remove cows near den site, Fox Mountain Alpha Mother, USFWS, Dr. Tuggle

WildEarth Guardians Urges Fox Mountain Alpha Female Remain Wild…

August 14, 2012
Ken Salazar
Secretary of the Interior
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Dr. Benjamin Tuggle
Regional Director
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 1306
Albuquerque, NM 87103

Re: Request to Stay Order to Capture and Remove Mexican Wolf AF1188 from the Wild

Dear Secretary Salazar and Dr. Tuggle:

Thank you for rescinding the August 8, 2012, kill order for Alpha Female 1188 of the Fox Mountain Mexican wolf pack, who has five pups, including four young of the year. We now request that you also stay your subsequent order to capture and remove AF1188 from the wild to a permanent holding facility.

AF1188 is one of six breeding females in a population of less than 60 Mexican wolves. It is essential to preserve breeding females in the wild to support recovery of the species.1

Wolf packs that lose one or more their alpha animals typically disband, which leaves pups and yearlings to strike out on their own and they may likely starve (Creel and Rotella 2010). Wolves, highly sentient beings, suffer emotional trauma from the loss of members of a pack (Mallonee 2011), and in this instance, placing a wild wolf into captivity away from her pack will cause her to suffer as well.

After consultation with a former USDA-Wildlife Services official, we believe the Fish and Wildlife Service will use leg-hold traps to capture AF1188. This creates a crisis for two reasons: wolves captured during the height of summer can die from exposure.

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1 While the Fish and Wildlife Service claims that AF1188 is genetically similar to her mate, it has done nothing to
further genetic diversity within the population; the agency has also not released new lobos into the Blue Range Wolf
Recovery Area in more than 1366 days to diversify the population. Yet, the Service has also not hesitated to remove
multiple wolves from the population in the past.

Second, leghold traps do not discriminate between animals. There is no way to target AF1188 specifically, and her young pups, who are naïve, will most likely will be the subjects caught in traps set out for AF1188 (see e.g., Iossa et al. 2007).

Wolves caught in traps can suffer feet and leg injuries, which can compromise their future ability to course after their swift-moving prey (Iossa et al. 2007). Already, too many Mexican wolves have suffered trapping injuries or death from traps – at the hands of both governmental entities (one mortality in a trap) and non-governmental entities (14 wolves in 15 different trapping incidents with these results: 2 died, 7 sustained injuries, of which 3 had amputation surgeries) (Turnbull et al. 2011).

The Service has ordered the capture and removal of AF1188 because she presumably led her pack to prey upon domestic livestock. But the livestock producer has been compensated for his losses and removing individual wolves from the wild will not resolve future livestock conflicts. Livestock operators should be required to keep livestock away
from the wolf dens and rendezvous sites, and the federal government should retire grazing allotments in Mexican wolf range.

After years of drought in the Southwest, it makes good sense to remove domestic livestock from the range for a myriad of reasons including the fact that cattle consume forage needed by native herbivores – the species preferred by wolves. AF 1188 may have killed four domestic stock animals, but she is only doing what any mother would do in distress: provision for her pups to keep them alive. Through no fault of her own, she has domestic stock in her territory, and those livestock push out native wildlife through forage competition and leave few menu options for hungry wolves.

Please stay your order to remove AF1188 from the wild and immediately implement solutions to prevent future negative wolf-livestock conflicts in the Southwest.

Respectfully requested,

Wendy Keefover, Carnivore Protection Director
WildEarth Guardians

cc:
President Barack Obama
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Tom Udall
Congressman Martin Heinrich
Congressman Ben Ray Luján

Top Photo: Courtesy WildEarth Guardians

Bottom Photo: USFWS

Posted in: Mexican Gray Wolf, Wolf Wars

Tags: Fox Mountain alpha female, keep her wild, no capture, remove cows, WildEarth Guardian

TAKE ACTION: Keep The Fox Mountain Alpha Female Wild…

Mexican Gray Wolf Pups (Lobos of the Southwest)

UPDATE: August 14, 2012

As of today I’m hearing the alpha female of the Fox Mountain Pack is still free.  The concern is are they laying leg hold traps to catch her? This would be a dangerous situation for her  pups or other members of the pack. We don’t need any of the wolves sustaining leg injuries.  I sincerely hope this is not the case and that a solution is being devised to keep this important breeding female wild.  Please keep your phone calls and emails coming.

The following callous statement by “Officials” was reported in the Albuquerque Journal on August 13th, 2012.

‘Calls to Service spokesmen were not returned, but officials have said the wolf is of low genetic value to its species and constitutes a risk to cattle owners.”

That’s the mindset we’re dealing with, pathetic. How about this is a critically endangered wolf mother and CATTLE CONSTITUTE A THREAT TO HER SURVIVAL Get cows out of the wolf recovery area. Retire grazing leases!

Every Mexican gray wolf is important to the recovery of the species!

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We were all relieved to hear the kill order on the Fox Mountain alpha female had been rescinded but disturbed she would be separated from her pups and spend the rest of her life in captivity, never to see her family again.  This is not acceptable. Without this mother present, the Fox Mountain pack could disband leaving the pups orphaned or worse.  It’s not uncommon for this to happen when one of the alphas is lost, either by death or capture. It will put tremendous pressure on the alpha male to keep  his growing family fed.  Wolves are highly social animals so you can imagine how they will react to the loss of their matriarch.

Please keep the phone calls and emails coming. The important contacts  are listed below,  provided by WildEarth Guardians.

Tell them to keep this mother wild and remove the cows from the den site vicinity.  Grazing leases must be retired in the wolves recovery area  to give these animals a fighting chance.

Just a few short years ago wild Mexican gray wolf numbers dropped to dangerous levels due to poaching. Their numbers have climbed back up to an anemic fifty plus but still far below the recovery goal that was  promised by 2006. Here we are six years later still fighting the same forces that want to  stop Mexican gray wolf recovery dead in its tracks. If the pack disbands, the loss will be immeasurable. These wolves are the most endangered animal in North America. Removing a successful breeding female from the wild, over a few cows, is egregious.

FROM WILDEARTH GUARDIANS

Please call the White House, New Mexico Senators Udall and Bingaman, and New Mexico Congressional Representatives Luján and Heinrich now to keep the Fox Mountain mother wolf in the wild, and demand that cattle be restricted from the pack’s den area.

White House (202) 456-1111

Senator Tom Udall (202) 224-6621, (505) 988-6511 or (505) 346-6791

Senator Jeff Bingaman (202) 224-5521 or 1-800-443-8658

Congressman Ben Ray Luján (505) 984-8950 or (202) 225-6190

Congressman Martin Heinrich (505) 346-6781 or (202) 225-6316

Please politely tell them:

• The Fox Mountain pups need their mother and to be left unmolested in the wild of the Apache National Forest. Like any youngster who loses their mother, those pups will suffer, and the mother will suffer in captivity. Removing members from a pack causes trauma for all the pack’s members, and can even cause packs to disband, studies show.

• Fewer than 60 Mexican wolves roam the wild, and the Fox Mountain pack contains one of only six breeding pairs identified. Removing this wolf is biologically harmful and a huge waste of taxpayer money.

• The livestock owner has been compensated for his losses.

• Livestock owners within the territory of the Fox Mountain pack should immediately either temporarily remove all livestock from the vicinity of the pups’ den, or use electric fencing or herders to manage cattle by day, and barns and corrals to secure the animals at night.

http://wg.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=9201.0

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Let’s work to keep this wolf mother wild to raise her puppies, lead her family and continue to  contribute to the important recovery of Mexican gray wolves!!

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This video was taken  in the late seventies. It’s believed to be one of the last wild Mexican gray wolves “captured from northern Mexico before the species went extinct in the wild.”  Click here to read more.

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Photo: Courtesy Lobos of the Southwest

Video: You Tube Courtesy  ricklobello 

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Mexican Gray Wolf

Tags: Mexican gray wolf alpha female, Fox Mountain Pack, New Mexico, USFWS, retire grazing leases,  keep her wild, take action

Bitter Sweet Victory,..Fox Mountain Alpha Female Spared Death But Will Be Removed From The Wild….

The alpha female of the Fox Mountain Pack will be spared a death sentence but is being sent to The Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center, where she will live in captivity separated from her four pups, who will be left with their father, the alpha male. This will put tremendous pressure on him to hunt and find food for his growing family without his mate by his side.  Will the pack even survive without their matriarch?

No doubt your  phone calls and emails, along with other wolf advocates, decrying the  impending kill order on this critically endangered wolf, was the turning point that led to the compromise. A big thank you to everyone who spoke out but I feel tremendous sadness that a successful and important breeding female will be removed from the wild. The ranchers won because there will be one less Mexican gray wolf roaming free. This mother will never see her pups again. She will spend the rest of her life in captivity and that is not what we want for these animals. But the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center did come to her rescue and we should all be grateful for that. Still the victory is bitter-sweet.

The USFWS must demand the BLM retire grazing leases in the wolf recovery area, to give these animals a fighting chance!!

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Scottsdale wildlife center saves Mexican Gray Wolf from death sentence

Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center

Mexican Gray Wolf

A Mexican Gray Wolf that lives at Scottsdale’s Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center.

Posted: Saturday, August 11, 2012 6:17 pm

The Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale has saved an alpha female Mexican Gray Wolf that federal fish and wildlife officials had planned to kill.

The mother wolf of four pups was to be shot after killing cattle in New Mexico, but Southwest Wildlife stepped in and offered the wolf a permanent home. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to the arrangement.

According to a news release from Southwest Wildlife, at last official count, there were only 58 Mexican Gray Wolves in the wild, making them one of the most endangered mammals in North America.

On Saturday, the Tribune received numerous letters from people in the Southwest pleading for the wolf to be saved.

The wolf is the alpha female of the Fox Mountain Pack in southwestern New Mexico, and has four puppies. Federal wildlife personnel are attempting to capture her, and Southwest Wildlife staff is awaiting word of whether she has been safely captured.

The puppies will not be taken from the pack, as they will be cared for by their father, Linda Searles, founder and executive director of Southwest Wildlife, said in the release.

On Thursday, federal Fish and Wildlife officials signed an order to shoot the wolf, which was accused of killing too many cows. This is the first time since 2007 that the agency planned to kill a wolf because of predatory attacks on livestock. The rancher who lost the cattle has been compensated, the release said.

Southwest Wildlife serves as a holding facility for the federal Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program.

“We’re happy we could find a solution to this situation, other than killing the animal, because there are so few of these wolves left,” Searles said. “We will continue to work with Fish and Wildlife through the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program to maintain the species, which is an important part of our ecosystem and our Western heritage.”

The Nina Mason Pulliam Foundation will provide funds to construct an enclosure for the female wolf, but donations will also be needed to help Southwest Wildlife provide care. As part of the center, the wolf will help educate children and other visitors about the role different mammals play in our ecosystem and the importance of preserving endangered species.

For more information about Southwest Wildlife, visit http://southwestwildlife.org/.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/the_valley/article_8c748ae6-e41b-11e1-b793-001a4bcf887a.html

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Photo: Mexican Gray Wolf USFWS

Posted in: Mexican Gray Wolf, Wolf Wars

Tags: Fox Mountain alpha female, Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center, motherless pups, wild to captive, death order rescinded, Mexican gray wolves, USFWS

TAKE ACTION: USFWS Orders Killing of Endangered Mexican Gray Wolf Mother…..

Mexican gray wolf photo by George Andrejko, Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Update: August 11, 2012

No word on the Fox Mountain alpha female’s fate. Keep calling and emailing. If we don’t stop this travesty her pups will be orphans, the pack destroyed and a vital, critically endangered breeding female will have been removed from the wild.

From Lobos Of  The Southwest

Call the White House, the USFWS Southwest Regional Office, and NM Senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman now and tell them to keep the Fox Mountain alpha female in the wild with her pups!

White House number: 202-456-1111
US Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Office: 505-761-4748 or 505-363-2797
Senator Tom Udall: 505-346-6791
Senator Jeff Bingaman: 505-346-6601

So many people have called that voicemails are filling up and it’s harder to get through, especially after 5 p.m. If you can’t get through by phone, you can email:

USFWS SW Regional Director Tuggle: RDTuggle@fws.gov

President Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Senator Udall: http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=contact

Senator Bingaman: http://www.bingaman.senate.gov/contact/types/email-issue.cfm

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FROM CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

For Immediate Release, August 9, 2012

Feds to Shoot Endangered Mexican Wolf

Conservationists Decry the Senseless Killing of the Alpha Female of the Fox Mountain Pack

SILVER CITY, N.M.— The alpha female of the Fox Mountain Pack of Mexican gray wolves will be shot due to the seven-member pack preying on four head of cattle over several months. The owners of the cattle will be fully reimbursed, but the wolf family will lose their matriarch, according to a kill-order issued Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to its sister agency, U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services. Last year, only 58 Mexican wolves and six breeding pairs survived in New Mexico and Arizona , their only home in the wild.

”Instead of killing this successful wolf mother, more should be done by affected ranchers to protect their livestock,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “This kill order is a shocking return to reviled and destructive Bush administration policies toward Mexican gray wolves. Resources should be used to immediately hire a range-rider, rather than spend a greater amount of taxpayer money to shoot a radio-collared wolf in front of her pups.”

The last wolf shot in response to livestock depredations was the alpha female of the Durango Pack, killed on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico in June 2007. Her mate and pup disappeared thereafter and are presumed dead. Then-governor Bill Richardson withdrew the state’s assent to killing her and other wolves, but his message was delivered too late to save her.

“The Fox Mountain Pack is largely surviving on elk,” said Robinson. “Rare losses of livestock, whose owners are indemnified, should not be used as an excuse to resume a de facto war against the beautiful, intelligent, social and very imperiled Mexican wolf.  These pups should be allowed to grow up with their mother.”

After a decades-long wolf extermination program in the United States and Mexico carried out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 led to the rescue and captive breeding of the last five Mexican wolves in the wild in Mexico . Some of their great-grandpups were reintroduced in 1998, but the shooting of 12 wolves by the government, accidental killing of 18 more in the course of capture, and long-term incarceration of 32 other once-wild wolves has led to the population languishing and left it at risk of blinking out.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 350,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2012/mexican-gray-wolf-08-09-2012.html

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Please contact the USFWS immediately and tell them to leave this wolf mother alone. Her death will destroy the Fox Mountain Pack and for what? The feds have failed miserably to establish a healthy population of Mexican gray wolves, mainly because the wolves recovery area is packed with cows!! Now they want to kill a successful breeding female and orphan her pups???

Many ranchers  notoriously practice the Columbus method of ranching: Turning their cattle loose in the Spring and discovering them in the Fall.  Cows that drop dead  out on the range can be left to rot and of course predators will be drawn to the carcass. This teaches wolves and other predators it’s OK to feed on cattle. Yet wolves show tremendous restraint and cattle losses to wolves are infinitesimal.

The Mexican gray wolf is a critically endangered sub-species of  the gray wolf.  Should this wolf mother die over a few cows?

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FROM WILDEARTH GUARDIANS

URGENT ALERT:

Fish and Wildlife Plans to Kill a Female Mexican Wolf

Today or Tomorrow

Phone Calls Needed Now to Save Fox Mountain Alpha Female with Pups

  The US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to shoot the Alpha Female of the Fox Mountain Mexican gray wolf pack from the air today or tomorrow for livestock depredations. At last official count, there were only 58 Mexican gray wolves in the wild, making them the most endangered mammal in north America, and the most endangered wolf in the world. Every single wild Mexican wolf is important to the wild population.

 Please call now!!

If they kill this wolf, the USFWS will be depriving four pups born this summer of their mother, harming this family of wolves, and destroying one of only a few breeding pairs in the wild.
 
Call before it’s too late to save this wolf!

1. Please call the Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Office  ( 505-248-6911) and request that he rescind the kill order for the Fox Mountain alpha female. You can also send him a polite email to  RDTuggle@fws.gov

2. Call President Obama and ask him for a stay of execution. White House number:  202-456-1111.

Following are some points to make:

• There are fewer than 60 Mexican wolves in the wild. Eliminating even one wolf, especially a breeding female, is detrimental to the species.

• Biologists believe this female has four pups born this spring. Killing her may doom her pups as well. Research also shows that wolves suffer trauma when their pack mates are killed.

• The affected rancher has been paid for his losses. Killing the alpha female now is unnecessary appeasement to the public lands livestock industry.

• The public lands livestock industry must learn to operate with wolves, and the federal government must support policies such as grazing retirement to permanently reduce wolf-livestock conflicts.

• Killing this wolf wastes thousands of taxpayer dollars.

If you live in any of these swing states, please call the local Obama campaign office:
Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, or Wisconsin.

You can find the nearest Obama campaign office here.

http://www.barackobama.com/offices/

Your own words are best, but here’s a simple script for your call:

My name is ____________ and I live in ______________ state.I support the Mexican wolf recovery effort and I am calling to ask you to stop the killing of the Fox Mountain alpha female. With only 50-60 Mexican wolves in the wild, every one is important, and this Mexican wolf has pups born just this summer.There are many solutions to conflicts between livestock and wolves, but there are very few Mexican gray wolves.The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to release more Mexican wolves into the wild, not kill the ones already there.Include any personal reasons you have for caring about this and thank them.Please send us a message at info@mexicanwolves.orgto let us know you have called.Thank you for your work to save this Mexican wolf’s life!Photo courtesy of Endangered Wolf Center

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Photo:  Arizona Game and Fish

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Mexican Gray Wolf

Tags: Fox Mountain Pack, alpha female, orphanwolf pups, Endangered Mexican gray wolves, USFWS, WS, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians

Thanks To The White Mountain Apache Tribe For Giving Sanctuary to Endangered Wolves….

I often think of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, who welcome the highly endangered Mexican gray wolves onto their land. They deserve a huge thank you for being pro-active for endangered wildlife and giving Mexican gray wolves sanctuary since the first wolves were reintroduced in 1998.

The Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area hasn’t exactly been a perfect place for the wolves to call home. It’s packed with cattle. Trapping  is allowed and poachers seem bent on destroying the Mexican gray wolves’ fragile hold on survival. That’s why the tribe’s land is such an important refuge for the wolves.

“White Mountain Apache Tribe is located in the east central region of Arizona, 194 miles northeast of Phoenix. Located on the Apache, Gila and Navajo Counties, the White Mountain Apaches reside on 1.6 million acres at its ancestral homeland on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.”

A-key-yeh to the White Mountain Apache Tribe for standing up for the beleaguered Mexican gray wolves.

White Mountain Apache Tribe

Restoring Wolves, Owls, Trout and Ecosystems

http://www.cooperativeconservation.org/viewproject.asp?pid=136

Photo: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Native Americans, Mexican gray wolf

Tags: White Mountain Apache, Arizona, mexican gray wolf

Gray Wolves Under Siege, Especially Mexican Grays!!

Gray wolves are under siege and the most vulnerable population, struggling for survival, are the Mexican gray wolves. They’ve been decimated by poachers this year.  Their Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area is teaming with cattle. It’s heartbreaking.

A letter to the editor of the Azdailysun.com,  by the Director of the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, pretty much says it all.

Arizona’s wolves need a break 

Posted: Monday, December 20, 2010 5:00 am

http://www.azdailysun.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_e4c06f4c-5007-58dc-9d10-d46d6a74a7e0.html

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2010 A Deadly Year for Mexican Grays:

Poachers Beneath Contempt: ANOTHER Mexican Gray Wolf Found DEAD!!

July 16, 2010

http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/poachers-beneath-contempt-another-mexican-gray-wolf-found-dead/

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Poachers Tracking Mexican Grays With Radio Receivers?

July 17, 2010

http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/poachers-tracking-mexican-grays-with-radio-receivers/

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Poachers take out another of the rarest wolves in the world: Lobo poached

July 19th 2010

http://www.examiner.com/green-living-in-national/poachers-take-out-another-of-the-rarest-wolves-the-world-lobo-poached

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Reward Offered in Another Endangered Mexican Wolf Killing

Third wolf found dead in region this summer

July 30, 2010

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/07/reward_in_wolf_killing_073010.html

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Arizona Tribe Offers Tours to See the Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves Ranchers Are Poaching

http://animaltourism.com/news/2010/07/19/graywol

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Another Tragic Loss for Mexican Gray Wolves, Something MUST Be Done!!

October 27, 2010

http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/another-tragic-loss-for-mexican-gray-wolves-something-must-be-done/ 

 

 

Top Photo: Courtesy of the Spanish language Wikipedia

Bottom Photo: kewlwallpapers.com

Posted in: Mexican gray wolf, Wolf Wars

Tags: gray wolf, canis lupus bailey, Endangered Species, Arizona,  New Mexico

Another Tragic Loss for Mexican Gray Wolves, Something MUST Be Done!!

Wichita, Kansas 1997

“Gathering strength in a Kansas zoo, a litter of Mexican wolves boosts hopes of restoring this subspecies of the gray wolf to New Mexico and Arizona.”

UPDATE: The Mogart Pack alpha male has been found alive. Good news!!

Most Recent Missing Mexican Wolf Found–And He’s Not Dead

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Here we go again. The alpha female of the Mexican gray wolf Mogart pack has been found dead in New Mexico, her mate missing. I’m angry and frustrated by the constant bad news coming out off the Southwest. The war on wolves continues.

Mexican grays are becoming inbred due to their small gene pool and tiny numbers. We’re now down to 37 Mexican gray wolves in the wild. There is a $60,000 reward on the head of the last poacher’s head.

What will it take for SOMEBODY TO TALK? A million? Two million? Whatever the price, it needs to be paid. The drip, drip, drip of dead wolves in the Southwest is a crime of major proportions and it’s not going to be solved until someone starts giving up the poachers.  IMO this is a carefully orchestrated operation. The scum poachers know what they’re doing, killing off one of the alpha pair, effectively disbanding the pack. Is the alpha male dead as well?

Were these wolves collared? If so, who has access to the radio receivers to track the wolves? What progress has been made in the tragic killings of the Hawks Nest wolves?

USFWS, is charged with not only recovering the gray wolf but protecting them. The paradigm on how they manage these critically endangered animals needs an overhaul. Open up new territory, such as Grand Canyon National Park, where there is a solid prey base for wolves and NO CATTLE.

USFWS, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!! What you’re doing is not working. Time is of the essence. AND RELEASE MORE WOLVES!!

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Mexican gray wolf found dead in NM; 4th this year

By SUE MAJOR HOLMES / Associated Press

Posted: 10/26/2010 04:16:37 PM MDT

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_16438639?source=most_viewed

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Center For Biological Diversity
For Immediate Release, October 27, 2010

Lawsuit Launched Over Long-delayed Protections for Mexican Wolf, Giant Palouse Earthworm, Spring Pygmy Sunfish and Oklahoma Grass Pink Orchid

Program for Protecting Imperiled Species Remains Mired in Missed Deadlines, Bureaucratic Foot-Dragging

WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its failure to respond to petitions to list four species: the Mexican wolf, giant Palouse earthworm, spring pygmy sunfish and Oklahoma grass pink orchid. The four species join 91 others listed in an earlier lawsuit over the agency’s failure to make timely decisions for species that desperately need protection.

“The program for listing species under the Endangered Species Act is broken. Every day of delay means placing the Mexican gray wolf, giant Palouse earthworm, spring pygmy sunfish, grass pink orchid and dozens of others at increased risk of extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “Under Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lacks any sense of urgency for plants and animals facing the prospect of disappearing forever.”

The agency frequently claims it lacks sufficient resources to list more species. Congress, however, has increased the budget for listing species from $3 million in 2002 to more than $10 million in 2010 with little increase in the rate of species listings. To date, the Obama administration has not substantially increased the pace of species listings by the Fish and Wildlife Service. It did finalize protection for 51 species in Hawaii, but in the conterminous United States has only finalized protection for one plant and only proposed protection for 16 species. Because it takes at least one year to finalize proposed listings, these 16 will likely be the only species protected in all of 2011. Under the Clinton administration, by contrast, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed 498 species for an average rate of 62 species per year.

“We had hoped to see serious reform of the Fish and Wildlife Service under Secretary Salazar, but instead it’s only been more foot-dragging and delay,” said Greenwald. “Meanwhile, species that badly need protections provided by the Endangered Species Act are facing increased habitat loss, the effects of climate change and other threats to their survival.”

Background on the species
The Mexican wolf was listed as an endangered subspecies of the gray wolf in 1976, but in 1978 all gray wolf subspecies’ listings were consolidated into a species-level listing for all gray wolves in the lower 48 states. Although it does receive some protection from listing of the gray wolf overall, a separate listing as a subspecies or distinct population would compel the government to develop a modern recovery plan for the Mexican wolf, which is declining toward extinction as the government delays again and again. Today, only about 42 Mexican wolves survive in the wild. The Center filed a petition to list the Mexican wolf on Aug. 11, 2009. The Fish and Wildlife Service issued an initial positive finding, but has failed to make the 12-month finding determining whether listing is warranted.

The giant Palouse earthworm is a native of the Palouse prairies of eastern Washington and Idaho, which have been plowed and paved. Today it occupies just 3 percent of its former range. It has been found only five times in the past 110 years, including this year when University of Idaho researchers found two live specimens on a prairie near Moscow, Idaho. The earthworm was first petitioned for protection in 2006. After that petition was rejected by the Bush administration, the Center and allies petitioned again on June 30, 2009. The following month, the Obama administration reversed course and agreed to consider the new petition, but is now late on making a 12-month finding.

Discovered in 1937, the spring pygmy sunfish was twice presumed extinct during the 70 years it has been known to science. It is limited primarily to headwater springs in the Tennessee River watershed and historically occurred in three small disjunct spring complexes (Cave, Pryor and Beaverdam springs), separated by up to 65 miles. Two of the three populations have disappeared. The Cave Springs population was extirpated in 1938 due to inundation by the formation of Pickwick Reservoir; the Pryor Springs population disappeared by the late 1960s, most likely due to dredging and chemical contamination; and the single remaining native population occupies only roughly five river miles within the Beaverdam Springs complex. The Center and fisheries biologist Mike Sandel petitioned to list the sunfish November 24, 2009. The Fish and Wildlife Service has yet to make a finding on the petition.

The grass pink orchid occurs in wet prairies and open savannahs, where it requires frequent burning and is under threat from forces like habitat destruction for urban and agriculture sprawl, livestock grazing and fire suppression. It once occurred across 17 states from Minnesota to Texas and across to Florida, but is now believed to survive in only eight: Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. The petition was submitted by Douglas Goldman, a concerned scientist on May 28, 2008. The Fish and Wildlife Service issued an initial positive finding, but has failed to make the 12-month finding determining whether listing is warranted.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/listing-delays-10-27-2010.html

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Nat Geo Wallpaper, Photo Joe Sartore

Posted in: Mexican gray wolf, Wolf Wars

Tags: Stop poaching wolves, Mogart Wolf Pack, wolf wars, get cattle out of the Gila, retire grazing leases