Life and behaviour of : Sandra Benson - Deputy Senior Handler (UKWCT)

Historial Range Pack Size It was originally found in the foothills and The Mexican grey wolf lives in small packs mountainous areas of central and north usually consisting of a breeding pair and their (3,000 - 12,000 feet), the Sonora and offspring from the previous year. The pack deserts, and into South East size is smaller than most northern grey , South and South West wolves as the prey is smaller in size. The . This area is mostly dry, chaparral adults usually mate for life and breeding takes place once a year between January and March, with a gestation period of 63 - 65 days, resulting in an average of four to six cubs which are born underground. They are born deaf, blind and defenceless. Social Life All wolves are social creatures and the Mexican wolf is the same, with the regular scrub, although the higher elevations are hierarchy from the alpha breeding pair to the forested with spruce and fir. The Mexican omega at the bottom of the pack. Packs wolf will cross these desert areas but not live rarely encounter each other because of their in them. intricate boundaries formed through scent marking and communication through Physical Characteristics howling. The pack hunts together and helps Adult Mexican wolves range in weight from raise the young.

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 65 - 85 lbs (27 - 37 kilos), are approximately Downward turn of the Mexican Wolf 4.5 - 5.5 feet from nose tip to end of the tail, The Mexican wolf or lobo as it and on average are 28 - 32 inches to shoulder. Between 1915 and 1926 Government federal wolf agents working in the Predatory Their coat varies in colour from reddish is known in Mexico, is one of and Rodent Control Programme eliminated brown to buff and white, with red and white almost all of the wolf population in the the smallest subspecies of the faces. The coat is shorter and more adapted Southwest. grey wolf, and is also the to warmer climates, and their ears are more southernmost in its range, pointed than the rest of the grey wolves, By the 1940s there were a few Mexican making them look more similar to their wolves in remote parts of Arizona and New which overlaps with the red cousin the coyote. Mexico. wolf ( rufus). Sadly both Diet In the 1950s wolf control programmes began to decimate any hope of viable breeding of these have come As with all wolves, their main prey is populations, plus development of a deadly ungulates, Coues white tailed deer, javelina, perilously close to extinction. new poison, Compound 1080, in 1952, antelope, pronghorn and elk, as well as brought the Mexican wolf to near extinction This subspecies of the grey smaller like rabbits. Wolves are in the Southwest. wolf is believed to be the opportunistic and can and do sometimes kill livestock. At the turn of the 20th century, Realisation rarest in North reduction of their natural prey caused wolves In 1976 the US Fish and Wildlife Service to begin attacking domestic livestock, and America and one of the most (USFWS) listed Canis lupus baileyi as an this led to government agencies and private under the Endangered endangered in the world. individuals endorsing eradication of the wolf. Species Act of 1973; and in 1977 they hired a Intensive monitoring shows that elk are the wolf trapper, Roy McBride, to live-trap as Kingdom: Animalia most common prey. The chart below gives many Mexican wolves as he could find. He Phylum: Chordata the estimated diet of wolves in the Blue Range came back with five wolves from the Durango Class: Mammalia Wolf Recovery Area based on diet analysis: region of Mexico, and one was a pregnant female. Order: · Elk: 75% Family: Mexican wolves in zoos at this time were · Small Mammals/Unknown: 11% Genus: Canis from two bloodlines - Aragon (in Mexico City) Species: Grey wolf (Canis lupus) · Deer: 10% and Ghost Ranch (in the US) and these five Sub Species: Maxican wolf new wolves were desperately needed to · Livestock: 4% (Canis lupus baileyi) strengthen and add diversity. During 1979 the Mexican wolf was listed in Conservation Critically endangered Appendix II (strictly protected species) of the Status: (UICN 3.1) Bern Convention on Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

12 ISSUE 34 AUTUMN 2008 Life and behaviour of wolves: the mexican wolf

Between 1915 and 1926 The army and UWFWS changed their minds A population count by the Interagency Field Government federal wolf agents again Team in winter of 2006 - 2007 estimated 60 wolves in the recovery area. working in the Predatory Animal In 1991 the International Union for and Rodent Control Programme Conservation of Nature, urged that the In June 2008 this same team relocated a pair Mexican Recovery programme should be of Mexican wolves into the recovery site at eliminated almost all of the wolf given priority over all other wolf projects and Gila Wilderness. The adult female (1028) and population in the Southwest. captive wolves were paired for maximum male (1008) came from Sevilleta National breeding potential. Most of this work was Wildlife Refuge breeding programme. done in zoos, none of which were federally Start of the Recovery Plan Tragically the killing continues. In July the owned, operated or supported. In 1979 the (USFWS) created a Mexican Wolf Arizona Republic reported that of nine wolves Recovery Plan and Team. This was intended By 1993 only 53 were in captivity, in 14 zoos' that died in 2008, at least three were killed to establish a captive breeding programme breeding programmes. It was felt 200 - 300 illegally. The USFWS identified three female with a goal to establish self sustaining were needed to safeguard the subspecies and possibly a male were shot; each was an populations in the wild, in its original range in from extinction and to provide stock for alpha. future reintroduction. the mountains of South Arizona and New This still occurred after a government census Mexico. Although little seemed to be In March 1998 the USFWS, the Arizona Game of wolf population in January 2008 found only happening quickly, advocacy and educational and Fish Department and the New Mexico 52 wolves and just three breeding pairs. In programmes were being prepared by various Department of Game and Fish, began the first addition, wolves can be legally shot if groups. reintroduction release of eleven Mexican involved in three or more livestock In 1980 the Wild Canid Survival and Research wolves - three adult males, three adult depredation incidents in a year, but this must Centre started working with the recovery females, three female cubs and yearlings and be confirmed as wolf kill. two male cubs. Sadly it was not a story with programme and received its first breeding Greta Anderson of the Western Watersheds a happy ending. The wolves were not born to pair of Mexican wolves from the Rio Grande Project in Tucson writes: Zoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico. this environment. The Blue Range site has many roads crossing it, "The public strongly support the restoration and cattle men still held but it is not resonating with the government". permits to drive cattle on Michael Robinson of the Centre for Biological the land. In addition they Diversity in New Mexico agrees, "The USFWS were released on land should pledge that for every wolf illegally that was open to public killed, two more will be released in its place". hunting. Within a year He also feels ranchers can do a better job of none had survived. preventing conflict through removing dead Undaunted the release cows. continued with three more Terry Johnson, an endangered species released into the Apache specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Dept Sitgreaves National Forest chairs the Adaptive Management Oversight in March 1999, and Committee made up of six agencies who

Photo: Wild Canid Survival and Research Center Research and Survival Canid Wild Photo: the following summer meet quarterly, their last meeting on the 30th another 19 were released. July. In 1982 the Recovery Plan was signed by US In June 2001 a panel of researchers headed He feels it is time to put wolf recovery back on and Mexican officials, but progress was slow by Canadian Paul Paquer produced an 80 track with a rethink of strategy. and by 1986 several wolf groups began page report which was part of the Recovery increasing pressure on the USFWS by asking Plan. It recommended: The battle to keep the Mexican wolf in the which three states were going to produce wild continues, and it will not be an easy one 1. Wolf managers should be free to release suitable land for the reintroduction. to win, but Canis lupus baileyi has many wolves direct to Arizona's side of the site Texas felt that there was nowhere on their supporters who are determined the Mexican land that was suitable. Arizona proposed 15 2. Ranchers with cattle should remove any wolf is here to stay. dead cow carcasses suitable sites and New Mexico offered White Information sourced from: Sands, an area used by the army as a missile In May 2004 the New Mexico Game www.mexicanwolfeis.org practise range. In 1987 an army commander Commission finally endorsed the wolf www.wildcanidcenter.org said no and it looked like the reintroduction restoration. plan had failed. www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/ In spite of continued shooting, wolf numbers Return of the wolf - Steve Grooms Wolf advocates regrouped to form the are rising. In 2004 there were between 50 - Mexican Wolf Coalition, which sued the US 60 in the wild of which half were wild-born, Editor's note - Sandra has volunteered at the Department of Interior and the Department and also approximately 250 in captive UKWCT for many years and is a Deputy Senior of Defence. Key players were: Defenders of breeding programmes. For a list of the Handler. She also organises the weekday Wildlife, the Sierra Club, and PAWS (Preserve breeding programmes/zoos, see website: volunteer rota and along with other vital roles Arizona's Wolves), who raised thousands of http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexican edits "Howls and Growls", the volunteers' dollars and provided public information. wolf/cap_manage.shtml newsletter.

UKWCT WOLF PRINT 13