Speak Up about Mexican Wolves!

The Mexican wolf is promoted as one of the most endangered animals in the world, yet it is actually a %u201Cnon-essential, experimental%u201D population of animals, with hundreds of wolves in captive breeding programs around the USA, plus an unknown number of uncollared wolves in the wild (including Mexico). 

Recovery efforts to date have not been successful, yet no one is questioning the real science behind why this might be. 

Mexican wolves are a desert species, not a species that evolved hunting and living in mixed conifer high-altitude forests of the Mexican wolf project area.  These wolves once ranged from central Mexico to southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona - but the high-altitude mixed conifer forests of west central New Mexico and east central Arizona were not part of Mexican wolves%u2019 regular territory, because that area was already populated by a different wolf species, the Mogollon wolf (Canis lupus mogollonensis). 

Pro-wolf organizations promote Mexican wolves as playing an important role in restoring balance to Southwest forests but how can balance be restored when in fact the introduction of Mexican wolves has added a totally new factor to the environment?Each wolf in the project costs taxpayers an average of $285,000.  Documented damages to people living in the project area include psychological trauma, depredations on pets, horses and livestock,  constant stress from habituation, the need to build bus stop shelters to protect children.  Bad management means these costs will never end, but will rather increase. 

Dr. Tuggle, isn%u2019t it time to bring this project back to science and stop taking direction from pro-wolf organizations who want Mexican wolves in our southwestern forests at any cost?  Scientists should be looking at why the species is not thriving in the Mexican wolf project area, instead of how to force wolves to live there.  It is time to restore the Mexican wolf to its rightful place and ecological role - but that may not be the mixed-conifer forests of the Southwest.

The Mexican wolf is promoted as one of the most endangered animals in the world, yet it is actually a %u201Cnon-essential, experimental%u201D population of animals, with hundreds of wolves in captive breeding programs around the USA, plus an unknown number of uncollared wolves in the wild (including Mexico). 

Recovery efforts to date have not been successful, yet no one is questioning the real science behind why this might be. 

Mexican wolves are a desert species, not a species that evolved hunting and living in mixed conifer high-altitude forests of the Mexican wolf project area.  These wolves once ranged from central Mexico to southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona - but the high-altitude mixed conifer forests of west central New Mexico and east central Arizona were not part of Mexican wolves%u2019 regular territory, because that area was already populated by a different wolf species, the Mogollon wolf (Canis lupus mogollonensis). 

Pro-wolf organizations promote Mexican wolves as playing an important role in restoring balance to Southwest forests but how can balance be restored when in fact the introduction of Mexican wolves has added a totally new factor to the environment?Each wolf in the project costs taxpayers an average of $285,000.  Documented damages to people living in the project area include psychological trauma, depredations on pets, horses and livestock,  constant stress from habituation, the need to build bus stop shelters to protect children.  Bad management means these costs will never end, but will rather increase. 

Dr. Tuggle, isn%u2019t it time to bring this project back to science and stop taking direction from pro-wolf organizations who want Mexican wolves in our southwestern forests at any cost?  Scientists should be looking at why the species is not thriving in the Mexican wolf project area, instead of how to force wolves to live there.  It is time to restore the Mexican wolf to its rightful place and ecological role - but that may not be the mixed-conifer forests of the Southwest.

Dear Dr. Tuggle:

We the undersigned are writing to urge you to not allow the political complexities of the Mexican wolf project in Arizona and New Mexico to overwhelm the biological and legal realities of the project.  It is the job of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to secure recovery of an endangered species through the use of best science practices and adherence to the strictures of the law, and to not allow the pressures of special interest groups to cloud management decisions. 

We urge you to make sure that management actions and operating procedures of the Mexican wolf project include adaptive management that recognizes that 1) humans and human activities (including ranching) are a rightful part of the environment of the project area and are protected by civil rights and environmental justice law, and 2) the Mexican wolf is a non-essential, experimental population that was only a visitor to the current Mexican wolf project area (which was the historical territory of the Mogollon wolf) and therefore cannot be restored to an area it never was resident of. 

We are asking you to acknowledge that the very basis for wolf management in the Southwest may be flawed and to accept that a non-essential, experimental population may call for unique adaptive management.  We additionally ask you to implement management practices that are appropriately and cautiously developed, and that are based on best science practices rather than the recommendations of special interest groups.  We also request that the Service use pro-active approaches to wolf management to protect human safety and interests, particularly ensuring that inappropriate wolves are not released into the wild (including wolves with a history of predation and/or habituation behavior, and wolves which have been raised primarily in captivity). 

Thank you for your unbiased and fair consideration of our concerns.