New Conservation Facility
In December, the Albuquerque BioPark completed construction of a new wolf conservation facility, which will be home to a dozen or so Mexican wolves. To help keep the wolves from becoming habituated to people, it will not be open to the public.
Lynn Tupa, the BioPark Associate Director, gave me a tour just days before the first wolves arrived. It was a sunny winter morning, and a roadrunner darted through the brush outside the enclosure while inside a worker operating a small front loader pushed dirt around, putting the finishing touches on one of the five new habitats.
Photo: Albuquerque BioPark
July 2024 by pkn
Created from a former park, the four-and-a-half-acre site is fenced, with the landscape left natural — brush, willows, and a few cottonwoods. It’s quiet, away from the hubbub of a nearby neighborhood and the public areas of the BioPark. Cameras mounted throughout the facility will enable staff to monitor wolves while minimizing human contact.
Sick or injured wolves will be treated and rehabilitated in small enclosures at the front of the facility. Larger habitats at the rear with shade structures, concrete-lined ponds, and culverts for potential denning areas, provide more space in a natural setting for pairs or families of wolves.
Wolves Arrive at Albuquerque BioPark
Three days after my visit, nine wolves were moved into the new habitat from facilities in New Mexico (including the BioPark) and Missouri that participate in the Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) program. They work closely with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and other agencies to recover the Mexican wolf population and to reintroduce wolves into a portion of their historical habitat in New Mexico and Arizona.
All of the Mexican wolves alive today are descended from seven wolves captured in the 1970s with the goal of saving the species from extinction. At the end of 2024, there were 286 wolves living in the wild, most of them wild-born and raised. With such a small founding population, genetic diversity, in both captive and wild populations, continues to be a challenge. But it is more easily managed with wolves living in captivity.
Each summer SAFE holds a meeting with representatives from approximately sixty facilities across the U.S. and Mexico to determine which captive wolves will be paired in the coming year. The BioPark was selected to host a breeding pair this year.
Wolf Pup Season is Coming
Wolves typically breed in February or March, so our local pair will have had a few weeks to grow accustomed to their new home and to each other. Whether or not they mate will be up to them.
Wolf pups are born about two months after breeding, so come late April, BioPark staff will be watching for signs that the female wolf is preparing to give birth. They will also be in close contact with FWS to coordinate a possible foster of BioPark pups into a family of wolves in the wild with a new litter of their own.
Placing captive-born wolf pups in wild dens is the most commonly used method to attempt to boost genetic diversity in the wild population.
H.R. 4255 – Enhancing Safety for Animals Act of 2025
Last summer Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona introduced H.R. 4255. It would remove the Mexican wolf from the endangered and threatened species lists.
The Center for Biological Diversity responded to the proposed bill with a press release stating that if passed, H.R. 4255 would “effectively end recovery efforts for this unique, highly imperiled subspecies”.
On January 22, 2026, the bill passed the Natural Resources Committee and was recommended for consideration by the full House of Representatives.
While waiting for news of the arrival of wolf pups, I plan to write letters to my Congresswoman and Senators to let them know I support continued federal protection of Mexican wolves. I will also ask that they vote against H.R. 4255 or any other bills that would delist Mexican wolves.
If you are interested in calling or writing to your Representative or Senator, this link provides information.
Now is not the time to delist Mexican gray wolves!
