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2010. Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment

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2010. Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region (Region 2) Albuquerque, New Mexico 2010 Disclaimer Data from the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project used in this document spans from 1998 to December 31, 2009, or for a range of years within this time period. Some of the data are only available in published form in annual reports, and thus reported only through December 31, 2008. 2 Acknowledgments The Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment is dedicated to John Raymond Morgart, Ph.D. John passed away on October 14, 2009, at the age of 58. He led the Mexican wolf recovery program from 2004 to 2008 with enormous dedication and skill. His many contributions to the conservation of the Mexican wolf, including this document, are remembered with great gratitude. The following U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) staff have been instrumental in promoting and supporting the development of this document: Benjamin N. Tuggle, Regional Director, Region 2; Wendy Brown, Region 2 Recovery Coordinator; John Morgart, former Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator; Steve Chambers, Region 2 Senior Scientist; and John Slown, Biologist. Maggie Dwire, Assistant Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, and John Oakleaf, Mexican Wolf Field Projects Coordinator, contributed tremendous time, information, and institutional knowledge of the program without which this document would not have been possible. Service employees Julie McIntyre, Brady McGee, John Slown, and Sarah Rinkevich assisted with literature compilation; Melanie Ikenson provided litigation summaries. The Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (AMOC) members also contributed profoundly to the development of the document with their insights and critique. In particular, AMOC members Terry Johnson – Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD), Matt Wunder and former AMOC member Chuck Hayes – New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), Dave Bergman - U.S. Department of Agriculture – Wildlife Services (USDA-WS), and Cathy Taylor – U.S. Forest Service (USFS) provided substantive feedback. Most importantly, the Southwest Distinct Population Segment (emphasis on Mexican gray wolf, Canis lupus baileyi) (SWDPS) Recovery Team, especially the Technical Subgroup, contributed the ideas that form the foundation of this document. The Southwest Region of the Service convened this team in 2003 to revise the 1982 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan. This document intends to capture the scientific concepts and information that they discussed before the Service put the planning process on hold in 2005 as the agency decided how to respond to several court cases. Their work has not been resumed, although the agency maintains its intent to develop a revised plan. This document was written under contract to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Tracy (Scheffler) Melbihess, former Service employee and liaison to the SWDPS Recovery Team. 3 Literature Citation and Availability Literature citation should read as follows: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2010. Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment. Region 2, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Copies of the document can be requested from: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office 2105 Osuna Drive NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113 Telephone #: 505-346-2525 or 1-800-299-0196 Fax #: 505-346-2542 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Office P.O. Box 1306 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87103-1306 Telephone #: 505-248-6920 Fax #: 505-248-6788 Copies are also available on-line at: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf 4 FOREWORD A conservation assessment, unlike a recovery plan, is not a document required by or defined in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), or related policies. It has no predetermined format or content mandated by law or policy. Rather, this is a unique document developed in response to the unique needs of the Service at this time. It has been over 25 years since the completion of the 1982 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, and an up-to-date description and assessment of the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) (Mexican wolf) recovery effort and relevant technical literature in the Southwest is needed. The purpose of this conservation assessment is to provide information relevant to the conservation and recovery of the gray wolf in the Southwest. Specifically, the document may provide background information needed for future recovery planning or policy decisions or may highlight issues that warrant attention and resolution. The scope of the document is primarily limited to biological science and related disciplines in order to provide an up-to- date assessment of and scientific basis for gray wolf recovery in the Southwest. The social and economic facets of gray wolf recovery are recognized as equally important, and at times inextricably linked to the biological aspects, but are beyond the realm of information this document strives to provide. The document is organized in three main sections. “Gray Wolf Recovery in the Southwest: The Past to the Present” briefly reviews the decline of the gray wolf in the Southwest and the inception of Mexican wolf recovery efforts pursuant to the ESA, focusing on the development of a binational Mexican wolf captive breeding program and reintroduction of the Mexican wolf in Arizona and New Mexico. The current status of the Mexican wolf in the wild is then provided. “Gray Wolf Biology and Ecology” provides an overview of basic gray wolf biology and ecology, with descriptive information on the Mexican wolf where available and informative. Synthesized data from the 5-Year Review of the reintroduction project is provided throughout this section, in some cases updated with annual data from the years following the review (2004-2008). In “Conservation Assessment”, a five-factor analysis is conducted to ascertain the security of the wild Mexican wolf population, followed by the identification of a set of three conservation principles (resiliency, redundancy, and representation) that are used to structure discussion of the current recovery effort in the Southwest. “Summary statements” throughout the document serve as focal points of the assessment. These statements are not recommendations, nor do they have any regulatory standing. Rather, they are provided as a communication tool. The terms used to identify the wolf that is the subject of this conservation assessment are subtle but distinct. The gray wolf, Canis lupus, is the entity listed on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife (50 CFR 17.11(h)) and protected by the ESA; therefore, it is appropriate from a policy, and at times biological, standpoint to use the term “gray wolf.” Due to the Service’s regional division of gray wolf recovery efforts, it is also useful at times to refer to the gray wolf in specific regions of the country. Thus, when the term “gray wolf” is used in reference to the Service’s gray wolf recovery programs in the Mountain-Prairie and Pacific regions or the Great Lakes, Big Rivers Region, it describes the gray wolves located 5 there. In the Southwest, the situation becomes more complex. Here, the gray wolf recovery focus has been on the Mexican wolf, a subspecies of gray wolf that historically inhabited the southwestern region of the United States and Mexico. Since this recovery program, from a policy standpoint, is conducted under the umbrella of the Service’s gray wolf recovery efforts, it is at times referred to in the assessment as “gray wolf recovery” or “gray wolf recovery in the Southwest.” However, given the Southwest Region’s heretofore subspecific focus on the Mexican wolf and the formal title of its recovery program - Mexican Wolf Recovery Program - the assessment uses the term “Mexican wolf” when providing biological information specific to the subspecies, as well as in the context of the agency’s commitment to conserve the subspecies, the ongoing Mexican wolf reintroduction, the captive breeding program, and the subspecific focus of the 1982 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan. Further, in keeping with the current management structure of the Mexican wolf recovery effort, the conservation assessment distinguishes between the Service’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Program and the interagency Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project by the use of the terms “program” and “project”, respectively. The project is one component of the recovery program, which encompasses reintroduction, captive breeding, and all related conservation activities for the Mexican wolf. The conservation assessment also uses two similar but importantly different terms when discussing Mexican wolves that have been reintroduced to the wild. The term “Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area”, or BRWRA, refers to an exact geographic location and its accompanying regulations as defined by Federal regulation (50 CFR 17.84(k)). The term “Blue Range population” is used to refer to wolves within the BRWRA as well as wolves that have traveled onto nearby tribal or private land, as all of these wolves are functioning biologically as a single population. Thus, BRWRA is a formal geographical designation, whereas “Blue Range population” is an informal term for the reintroduced population. The Southwest Region (or, Region 2) of the Service includes the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Mexican wolf recovery and reintroduction efforts to date have taken place in Arizona and New Mexico. However, southern portions of Colorado and Utah have been included in recent Service policy decisions related to the Southwest that were overturned by court decisions (see “Status and Implications of Gray Wolf Recovery in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes for the Southwest”). Thus, the assessment does not attempt to define “Southwest” or “southwestern” in recognition that such definitions are context dependent, but instead uses these terms broadly as a general reference to this region of the country. When precise locations are required for accuracy, they are provided. While these various terms are used for clarity, adherence to policy, and consistency with current terminology used in the Southwest Region, they may unfortunately cause confusion.
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