Mexican Gray Wolf

[Coues&Bass]

The Federal Government’s efforts to reintroduce the Mexican Gray Wolves into the wilds and forests of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona has not become the success that wildlife managers had hoped it would.

Twelve years after Mexican Gray Wolves were reintroduced into western New Mexico and eastern Arizona, their dwindling numbers are putting the population “at risk of failure,” says a recent report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Factors such as the rigid borders of the endangered wolves’ recovery area, removal of wolves to protect livestock, and illegal shooting of wolves are keeping the only wild population of Mexican Gray Wolves from growing, says the “conservation assessment,” released last month.

The known population of wolves hit a high of 59 in 2006 but then began dropping,

falling to 42 last year.

The project has cost taxpayers $20-million or more since the wolves were first released in 1998. Now officials and others are seeking a way to move the wolf program further from its origin as a way to rescue the subspecies, and instead create a viable wild population.

The Wolf Recovery program is planning to release several more wolves sometime this summer in an effort to continue to grow the wild Mexican wolf population.

 

Mysouthernaz.com

[Couzer]

20 mil divide by 59,,,,,, about .33 mil per wolf Those are pretty darn expensive!