Category Archives: Arizona

The Bluestem Pack–A Story for Mother’s Day

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May 1st: Deep beneath the winter leaf litter that covers the forest floor the earth responds to the increasingly direct radiation of our yellow star.  The first wildflowers of the new season push up green leaves through the brown debris.
—Chet Raymo in 365 Starry Nights

Photo Credit: Al_HikesAZ via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Al_HikesAZ via Compfight cc

Somewhere in the White Mountains, out in the stands of Douglas firs, ponderosa pines, and just-budding aspens, the Bluestem Pack is running, hunting, sleeping. Over the last few weeks winter has begun to give way to spring and the rhythms and patterns of this wolf family’s daily life have also likely changed.

Springtime comes slowly to this part of Arizona–it snowed eight inches at Big Lake in the heart of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests on the last weekend in April, but the days are growing longer and warmer. The swallows have returned and are building nests, but it’s still too early for the wildflowers to bloom.  This week both snow and thunderstorms were predicted.

At last count the Bluestem Pack included the alpha pair and some of their offspring born in 2013 and 2014. Most of them wear radio collars. With special receivers the field team that monitors the recovery effort can pinpoint their whereabouts. On my desk I have the latest published telemetry flight locations. Given the traveling nature of wolves, the three-week-old report was “outdated from the moment it was collected” according to a note on the update.

But, map that data (as the field team does), collected over weeks and months, and a picture begins to emerge—an outline of the Bluestem’s territory.  Last year the pack claimed almost 300 square miles.  When I pair that information with what is known about the natural history of wolves and the specific lives of the pack members, I can begin to picture what their daily routine might be like right now.

If all has gone well for the wolves AF1042, the alpha female, is holed up in a den somewhere nursing pups. She is an experienced mother, has raised five litters. Before giving birth she would have prepared a safe place under cover, warm and dry, for the pups to spend the first few weeks of their lives. Born deaf and blind, the newborns are not able to regulate their body heat.  AF1042’s sole responsibility, and it’s a big one, is to feed and warm the tiny wolf pups.

And the rest of the pack?  Some of the yearlings and two-year-olds may be starting to disperse, traveling on their own looking for mates.  Others including the alpha male will remain close to the den, hunting and bringing back food for AF1042, who is only able to leave her place with the pups for brief moments to stretch her legs and to tend to her own needs.

At two weeks the pups will open their eyes.  A week later they will be able to hear and stay warm on their own.  And within another week they will toddle to the mouth of the den poking their heads outside, meeting their pack mates, getting their first look at the great big world.

AF1042 will get a well-deserved break—a chance to run through the newly green meadows—knowing that the other wolves will be keeping a watchful eye on the newest pack members.

It may be weeks before the field team is able to confirm whether or not the Bluestem Pack has new pups.  In the meantime a red wolf (another endangered wolf, native to the southeastern U.S.)  at the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) gave birth to a litter on May 2nd.  This camera in her den provides a rare opportunity to watch a wolf mother taking care of her pups in the first few days and weeks their lives.

Note:  Many thanks to Leanne at Big Lake who was kind enough to answer my questions about springtime in the White Mountains and to WCC for allowing us to watch Salty and her pups.

 

 

Names for the 2014 Mexican Wolf Pups

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Scarlett. Dark Fang. Howl. Elpis. Prosperor.*

These are five of the 91 names submitted in the third annual Mexican wolf pup naming contest hosted by Lobos of the Southwest.  Students from kindergarten through eighth grade competed to name 17 pups born in the wild in 2014 (38  were documented in the annual census, but only those captured and collared received names.)

I had the honor of being a judge this year for the first time and spent three days looking at artwork, reading essays, considering names and marvelling at the creativity that went into the entries.  It was a tough job and after submitting my rankings I awaited the results as eagerly, I’m sure, as the students.

Apache_DaisyKThe winning entries—Tempesta, Fuerza, Apache, Pecos, Griselda, Dakotah, Essential, Vida, Century, Atoyaatl, Adero, Survivor, Guardian, Monty, Tiara, Bravery, and Mia Tuk—can all be seen here along with the artwork and essays.

The wolf pups, born in the spring of 2014, will soon be a year old and are almost full grown.  They spent the winter learning to hunt with their families/packs.  Some will stay for another year, helping out with the new pups, but others will start to travel on their own, looking for mates and trying to establish their own territories.

One of my favorite entries is the one pictured above. Apache.  It’s a great name for a wolf, but it’s also a success story in the recovery effort of the Mexican gray wolves, just barely saved from extinction.

Apache, assigned the official studbook number of m1383, is a male wolf born to the  Hawks Nest Pack that runs in Arizona in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

He is the great grandpup of the original Bluestem Pack alpha female (F521), named Estrella (Spanish for star), by the zookeepers at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo when she was born in 1997.  She was released into the wild with her mate and pups in 2002 and lived a long and productive life.

One of her daughters (F1042), Apache’s grandmother,  is the current alpha female of the Bluestem Pack.  F1042 had four pups in 2012 that received names in the first naming contest—Huckleberry, Keeper, Little Wild, and Clover.  All have died (two in illegal shootings and one in a routine capture by the field team) except Clover (F1280).

Clover dispersed from her family, the Bluestem Pack, late in 2013, found a mate, and became the alpha female of the Hawks Nest Pack.  Apache was born in her first litter of pups.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that in two years  I’ll be writing about Apache’s first pups.

*These entries all received honorable mentions.

 

 

 

 

Weekly Roundup – Lobo Week – March 23rd-29th

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It’s Lobo Week 2015—a time to look back and reflect on the progress that has been made in the recovery and return of the Mexican gray wolf to its native habitat.  Seventeen years ago the first eleven captive-born and raised Mexican wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) were released into the wild.  It’s been a long and contentious process, but a survey completed at the end of 2014 confirmed that there are now more than 100 of the wolves living in New Mexico and Arizona—a long-anticipated benchmark.

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

A critical part of the recovery has been and continues to be the captive breeding program.  Zoos and refuges across the country participate in the Species Survival Plan that saved the wolves from extinction and are the perfect place to get a closer look at the endangered wolves.  Two of my favorites are Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood, New Mexico (20 minutes east of Albuquerque) and The Living Desert in Palm Desert, California  (30 minutes south of Palm Springs).  Both have large natural habitats with good viewing areas (don’t forget your binoculars).

One of the facilities that I have not yet visited is the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, New York, just fifty miles from Manhattan (I won’t venture a guess as to how many minutes that might take!).  Their Mexican wolves are not on display, but are visible some of the time via wildlife cameras in their enclosure and den.  This video shows how the wolves are fed and explains WCC’s philosophy of keeping the wolves as wild as possible by shielding them from interaction with humans.

A highlight of this week’s celebration of the lobo will be the announcement of the winning entries in a contest to name the wolf pups born last spring (38 had been captured and collared at the end of 2014).

As a judge, I had the privilege of reviewing the 91 entries; each included either a drawing or essay.  The kids (kindergarten through 8th grade) amazed me with their knowledge of the wolves and the thought given to assigning names to the newest lobos. It was a blind judging so I, too, am anxious to find out the results!

For lots more information about Mexican gray wolves visit Lobos of the Southwest.

A little late . . . but enjoy the rest of your week and go outside!

Weekly Roundup – January 18th

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Photo Credit: Eli Nixon https://www.flickr.com/photos/really_still_photography

Photo Credit: Eli Nixon

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m off to a very slow start in the new year, but the news keeps on coming! I will try this for a week or two:  a roundup of stories and photos,  most nature-related, some as follow-up my prior posts.

It was hard to miss this story– 2014 was the warmest year on record according to both NASA and NOAA.

In northern New Mexico we had a couple of cold, foggy days early in the week along with two or three of inches of snow helping, I hope, our new piñon trees put down roots.  But according to this article in the Santa Fe New Mexican the long term outlook for the Southwest’s piñon forests is dire.  As temperatures continue to warm the prediction is that we will experience longer droughts and the loss of our trees along with wildlife, like the squawking jays at our backyard feeder, that depend upon them for sustenance and cover.

The other big news in our region was this press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) about changes to the management of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program.

Some of it was good news.  The wolves, a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), got their own separate listing as an endangered subspecies (Canis lupus baileyi) which will allow them to receive continued protection under the law even if the gray wolf is delisted.  The bad news is that the lobos will not be allowed to roam and  establish territory north of Interstate 40 in areas like the Grand Canyon where prime habitat exists for them to live and hunt.  This editorial  favoring more robust protection of the wolves, as I do, was published at azcentral.com  and covers more of the pros and cons of the new rule.

In California a few days into Tommy Caldwell  and Kevin Jorgeson’s barehanded climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, their story was covered on NBC Nightly News, capturing the world’s imagination.  I thought about them each day and was thrilled to hear that they succeeded.  Here is the New York Times article about their adventure.  And for another take on it, this poem published at PoetryFoundation.org.

And finally, how lovely is this soaring golden eagle captured on camera by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Have a good week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wolves and Public Opinion

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There are only 83 Mexican gray wolves left in the wild. I think that makes them worth fighting for.  I am 13 years old, and I want to help save the lobos of the Southwest. 
Faith Kindred, Parker City, Indiana
Letter to the Editor in the Rio Grande Sun–Española, NM

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Letters matter.  I’ve written several–to the editors of the Santa Fe and Albuquerque daily newspapers, to the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, and more than one to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS)–all in support of the Mexican gray wolf.  Before this year ends there is one more opportunity to register an opinion with the USFWS about ongoing efforts to reestablish the lobo in the wild.

USFWS has been working for more than a year on changes to the rule that governs the Mexican wolf reintroduction effort, conducting public hearings and soliciting comments.  In late November they issued this press release along with the final Environmental Impact Study and draft Record of Decision (ROD).

The ROD outlines the four alternatives under consideration and explains the rationale for the one USFWS has selected to pursue.  This article from the Arizona Daily Star (reprinted on the Lobos of the Southwest website) from November 26th explains and summarizes the decision and also includes reactions from environmentalists and ranching organizations.  USFWS will finalize the ROD in January and is accepting public comments through December 27th.

Lobos of the Southwest provides this guide to submitting comments along with a link to the USFWS website.  For a better understanding of the opposing viewpoint I found it helpful to read about Arizona Cattlemen’s Association’s  Fight & Fix Campaign on their website.

And now it’s time I started working on that letter.

Wolf News: the good, the bad, and the worrisome

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One way to grasp the main perspectives of environment and biodiversity is to understand the origins and precious nature of a single living form, a single manifestation of the miracle of existence; if one has truly understood a crane–or a leaf or a cloud or a frog–one has understood everything.
–Peter Matthiessen The Birds of Heaven

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont viamot Compfight cc

One evening last week the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project Monthly Update landed in my email inbox.  Part newsletter, part report card,  it often reads like a dry government report, but study it carefully and it comes alive, providing a glimpse into the life of a wolf.

When it arrived  I  stopped what I was doing and scrolled to the section called Mortalities.  In good months there are none, but that wasn’t the case in November.  An alpha male was “located dead in Arizona”.  No details provided, but the most likely cause of death for  a wild wolf  is being shot (illegally) or hit by a vehicle.

Also included are  individual summaries or report cards, for each pack.  They are based on weekly telemetry flights that pinpoint the locations of the radio-collared wolves and field observations (gathered both in person on the ground and  from motion-sensitive trail cameras).

Nineteen packs (primarily made up of multi-generational families) are currently living in the reintroduction area which includes the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests  and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona and the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.  Below is a brief look at two of the packs.

The Bluestem Pack This family has long been established in the central part of the Apache-Sitgreaves.  The current alpha pair has been together for a few years and has raised several litters of pups.  The pack is large right now–thirteen–with juveniles and pups  (born in 2013 and 2014, respectively) running with the parents.  The juveniles may soon start to disperse to try to find mates and establish new territories.

Rarely has this family of wolves gotten into trouble, but in November they killed a cow.  The sequence of events after the depredation probably went something like this.  A rancher found one of his cows dead and reported it to the field team overseeing the reintroduction program.  They investigated the carcass, determined that a wolf had made the kill, and probably had a pretty good idea which pack was responsible, but used the telemetry reports for confirmation.  Often they will identify a specific wolf or wolves, but in this case they did not, reporting only that it was “adults and juveniles in the Bluestem Pack”.

The Hawks Nest Pack This is a new family of wolves related to the Bluestem Pack–the alpha female was part of their 2012 litter.  They have established a territory further north in the Apache-Sitgreaves and are raising their first litter, the grandpups of the Bluestem Pack’s  alpha pair. The only news for this pack in November was that the field team confirmed two more pups in addition  to the one that was captured and collared a few months ago.

It will be a week or two into the new year before the next update is issued.  In the meantime the only way to keep track of the Bluestem and Hawks Nest wolves will be via the sporadically published telemetry reports.

Meet the Mexican Gray Wolf – A Short Video

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My very first post in July of 2013 was about Mexican gray wolves.  I have continued to write about them every few weeks, telling the stories of one family of wolves, the Bluestem Pack, that runs, hunts and raises their pups in the  White Mountains of Arizona.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

Although the Bluestem Pack continues to thrive after living in the wild for over twelve years, the survival of the rare Mexican wolf (a cousin to the gray wolves of Yellowstone) is still in doubt. At the last official count there were only 83 of them living in a portion of their historical habitat in New Mexico and Arizona.

I recently found this video called Meet the Mexican Gray Wolf on Facebook.  Prepared by Sawtooth Legacy Films, it is a good concise introduction to the Mexican wolf. In less than three minutes it tells more about the endangered mammals in pictures and videos than I could in a thousand words.

In late November The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) proposing changes to the Mexican wolf recovery effort.  At more than 500 pages it’s not a quick read–more about that in an upcoming post.

In the meantime Lobos of the Southwest keeps their website and Facebook page updated daily with links to the USFWS documents, information on where and how to comment, and the most recent articles and letters to the editor concerning Mexican wolf recovery.

Bluestem Pack – Fall 2014 Update

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While no longer an icon for pristine wilderness, the wolf is a symbol for conscientious caring for the environment, for conservation that is enduring.
George Rabb

Photo Credit: Eric Kilby via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Eric Kilby via Compfight cc

By now the Bluestem’s newest members, pups born in the spring, have felt the chill of the coming winter and have chased their first snowflakes.  They are half-grown, six-months-old, big enough and strong enough to run with the pack.

Field team members, who monitor the location and status of the endangered Mexican gray wolves, observed the pack of eleven feeding on an elk carcass near Lake Sierra Blanca in mid-October.  The lake is in the heart of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona, the traditional territory of the pack.

The Bluestem Pack, really an extended family of related wolves, is made up of the alpha pair (parents), five juveniles born in 2013, and one collared* male pup born this year.  The others are probably pups from this year’s litter that have yet to be captured and collared.  According to Jane Packard in Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation (edited by D. Mech and L. Boitani) the function of the family group at this stage is to provide a hunting school which gives the juveniles, “opportunities to hone their hunting skills while traveling with the family”.  She goes on to say, “most wolves disperse from their natal pack between the ages of 9 and 36 months”.

Only one of the wolves, a female, from the 2013 litter has dispersed.  She has been traveling for several months further south in the Apache-Sitgreaves and, so far, there have been no reports that she has found a mate or joined another pack.

It’s a dangerous world out in the wild for wolves.  Of the four pups born to the Bluestem Pack in 2012 three died before reaching their second birthdays.  The one surviving wolf from the litter, a female, dispersed, found a mate, and is now the alpha female in the Hawks Nest Pack.  They have established a territory north of the Bluestems’s and are raising at least one pup.

Twelve years ago the original Bluestem alpha pair and several of their pups and juveniles were released in a  place called Fish  Bench. It’s not too far from where the pack runs, hunts, and raises their young today, proof that, in  spite of being hunted to near extinction, Mexican wolves never forgot how to be wild.

*Pups are captured by the field team to verify their genetics, check their physical condition and to outfit them with radio collars for tracking purposes.

 

Bluestem Pack – Summer 2014 Update

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As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
Rudyard Kipling

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

The Bluestem Pack still runs in the White Mountains of Arizona–twelve years after the original family of wolves was released into the wild.  Last week a telemetry flight located the alpha pair, AF1042 and AM1341, and five pups born in 2013 a few miles south of Noble Peak. It appears they probably also have new pups, born in the spring of this year.

When I last wrote an update back in April, little was known about AM1341.  A few months after the Bluestem’s prior alpha male, AM806, was illegally shot in the summer of 2012, an unidentified male began traveling with the pack.  In January, 2014 he was  captured, collared, and assigned a studbook number, but it took a  genetics test to  confirm that he was the father of last year’s pups.

The pack has gotten into some trouble over the last two months.  One of the 2013 pups, f1332, has been traveling alone for several weeks and in June killed a calf.  A second incident occurred in mid-July when a wolf injured two horses; telemetry reports confirmed that it was AF1042, the alpha female.

Most of the Bluestem Pack’s 2012 pups (the last litter fathered by AM806) have perished, but one, F1280, survives and has become the alpha female of the Hawks Nest Pack.  The two wolves (AF1280 and AM1038) have established their territory in the north-central portion of the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona and were recently located a few miles west of Gobbler Peak.  In late July the field team documented the alpha pair howling accompanied by one or two pups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted  public hearings last week  in Arizona and New Mexico  to take comments on  proposed  changes to the rule that governs the management of the small population of Mexican wolves  that live in the wild.  Fish and Wildlife’s final decision, expected in January,  will greatly impact the odds that today’s pups will be able to find mates and establish territories–to survive and thrive.

I attended the meeting in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico on Wednesday night and the comments mostly favored the lobos, but they still have a long way to go.  I’ll write more about the proposed rule changes and the  hearing in upcoming posts.

Welcome to Wolf Week!

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Yes, it’s true.  I borrowed the idea from the Discovery Channel, but I promise no snarling, growling, menacing wolves here.

Mexican Gray Wolf at Wildlife West Nature Park Photo Credit: Paula Nixon

Mexican Gray Wolf at Wildlife West Nature Park
Photo Credit: Paula Nixon

It’s a big week for the Mexican gray wolves native to the Southwest with two public hearings scheduled to discuss their future.  The first will be held in Pinetop, Arizona tonight, the second in Truth or Consequences (T or C), New Mexico on Wednesday night.  US Fish and Wildlife officials will conduct both hearings, giving the public an opportunity to voice their opinions about  proposed rule changes to the reintroduction program, which has allowed the wolves to be reintroduced into their historic range over the last sixteen years.  This recent article in the Arizona Republic provides more details.

Stay tuned for the story of Ernesta, a female wolf recently re-released to the wild with a new mate and pups; an update on the Bluestem Pack, successfully living in the wild for twelve years; and the tale of a road trip to T or C.