Tag Archives: Mexican gray wolf

Mexican Gray Wolf Public Hearing-November 20, 2013

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On Wednesday afternoon I drove in rain from Santa Fe to Albuquerque to attend a public hearing about wolves.  Overnight the sunny, dry weather had changed to overcast and wet.  Rain was still falling several hours later as dusk settled over downtown Albuquerque and I wondered if it was an omen, but of what, I couldn’t say.

I found one of the last open slots on the periphery of the Embassy Suites parking lot and debated a moment before I decided to carry my leopard print umbrella, not knowing if its pointed tip might be perceived as a weapon and confiscated.  On my way in to the hotel, I noticed a few cars from Colorado and California scattered among the New Mexico license plates.

Inside, the doors to the ballroom had opened and people were filling out forms requesting the opportunity to speak. I didn’t sign up.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), who was conducting the hearing, stressed that written comments would bear equal weight to spoken and I had submitted my letter a few weeks earlier.  I came armed with my recorder and a notebook so I could focus on listening and observing.

 

Two Views

Two Views

With a few minutes until the hearing was to start I stopped by the conference rooms where the meetings and rallies representing those for and against wolves had recently concluded.  Out in the hallway both groups had exhibits:  a life-sized photo of four children in a wolf shelter or “kid cage”, constructed of plywood and wire, designed to provide a safe haven for rural children waiting for the school bus sat just a few feet away from a small nylon camping tent with snapshots of wolves mounted above it.

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Back in the ballroom the seats were filling up.  Security consisted of an armed guard and a yellow sign stating that weapons, food, and drinks were not allowed inside.  A woman wearing a Wolves Are Essential sign was turned away, but I got in with my umbrella.

I took a seat midway back in the room.  In the row in front of me sat a family, the two parents with their son and daughter, both grade-school-age.  The boy and his dad held their cowboy hats in their laps.  Milling about in the aisle were wolf supporters wearing Let the Lobo Live and National Rally to Protect America’s Wolves.

At six o’clock the meeting was called to order and three FWS employees presented and explained their proposed rule changes.

The first proposal is to de-list the gray wolf, meaning that it would be removed from the threatened and endangered species list and would no longer receive federal protection.  It would include all wolves in the lower forty-eight states except the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies.

The other proposals involve the complex management of the Mexican wolf recovery program and would allow the direct release of wolves throughout the recovery area, limit the wolves’ movement to the recovery area, and re-designate the existing wild population as experimental, non-essential.  This complicated set of changes would be the focus of most of the evening’s testimony.

Each speaker was limited to two minutes.  I sat with pen poised above my notebook as each one stood at the microphone.  Were they for or against the wolf?  Sometimes it was hard to tell.  The proposed rule changes were generally not favored by either side.  What soon became evident was the huge chasm between those who want all wolves de-listed (including the Mexican wolf) and those who think all wolves (including the gray wolf) should continue to be protected.

One speaker stood out for me:  Colin Henderson, a rancher in favor of expanding the Mexican wolf’s range. He raises Navajo churro sheep just north of the New Mexico border in Colorado.  After relating that he had two ewes injured and one sheep killed the prior week, either by coyotes or dogs, he said that he felt that the expansion was necessary to create a healthy, genetically sound wolf population.  If the wolves were allowed to roam without intervention, his sheep could be at risk.

By the time the hearing concluded three hours after it began, my unofficial tally showed that  seventy-two had testified with forty-nine speaking in favor of the wolves and twenty-three against, which agreed with the Albuquerque Journal’s “two to one in favor of expansion of the wolf recovery program.”

I walked outside after the hearing surprised to find that the rain had stopped.

Note: With one more public hearing in Arizona and the comment period extended until December 17th, it will be several weeks before the FWS issues their final decision.

 

 

 

 

Ranchers and Wolves: Changing Attitudes?

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Photo Credit: EssjayNZ via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: EssjayNZ via Compfight cc

“It would be easier to take (a) government payoff for every wolf kill than it would be to go out there and actually herd.  But in my opinion that doesn’t solve the problem,” said Wilma Jenkins in the June 4, 2012 story on KUNM (89.9 Albuquerque) about Mexican gray wolf reintroduction in Arizona and New Mexico.

Most of the stories I hear on the radio or read in the newspaper focus on ranchers and their adamant opposition to wolf reintroduction, so when I heard Jenkins’ comment I wanted find out more about the way she operated her ranch.

Wilma Jenkins and Doug Dressler’s Double Circle Ranch* is located near Clifton, Arizona in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests within the  designated recovery area for the Mexican gray wolves.   The ranch doesn’t have telephone service so we communicated via emails (June, 2012 and August, 2013).

Jenkins ran a herd of Texas longhorns and never lost one to a wolf.  She says her cattle seemed to be more intimidating to predators who look for weak prey.  “Longhorns can defend themselves,” but according to Jenkins the real key is herding.  She herded her cattle six days a week on horseback with a dog or two, allowing no stragglers.  That kept the scent of humans on the cattle and deterred the wolves.

Jenkins herded not only to discourage predators, but also for range health.  The benefits included “. . .reduced erosion, improved air and water quality and wildlife habitat.”  Having more wildlife present on the ranch meant “more than cows to eat for the wolves and other predators.”

When Mexican gray wolf reintroduction began fifteen years ago, the programs to help ranchers primarily focused on compensation for livestock killed by the wolves.  Over time the emphasis has shifted to programs that strive to minimize wolf/livestock encounters using management techniques that include herding, rotating pasture usage, and flagging fences to scare off the wolves.  The Double Circle did not qualify for funds to help with those costs since they had not suffered any wolf kills according to Jenkins, so they had   “. . . to pay or herd on our own time and dime—which I don’t think is fair—but that is how it is set up.” 

Jenkins considers that to be the negative impact of wolf reintroduction.  She says “ . . . many people are dead set against the wolf and resent being forced to have them on their land.  Many livestock costs are not covered in the compensation—like our herding, stress to breeding animals, etc.”

The positive benefits, she hopes, will be that the wolves keep the elk moving, which is beneficial to the riparian environment, critical areas for soil conservation next to rivers and streams that have been overgrazed.  As for the humans involved, she says, “People from opposite viewpoints are cooperating for a common goal—always a good thing.”

When I asked her in our most recent correspondence if attitudes were changing in her community she responded, “People seem to accept the wolves as part of the ecosystem now–but most are opposed to adding more wolves at this time.” 

*Jenkins and Dressler sold the Double Circle Ranch in November of 2012. 

The Bluestem Pack–Video of a Pup Capture

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Photo Credit: Albuquerque BioPark via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Albuquerque BioPark via Compfight cc

M1275, a male wolf born into the Bluestem pack last year, is pictured in this video.  Arizona Game and Fish biologists trapped the pup in August of 2012.  During the brief capture, they took a blood sample to determine parentage and administered vaccinations for parvo, distemper, and rabies.  Before release they outfitted the pup with a radio telemetry collar to allow the field team to track him.

As shown in this video, the field team takes precautions to minimize trauma to the wolf in the trapping process, but it doesn’t always go as planned.  In a similar operation in August of this year another Bluestem wolf, f1289, died after a difficult capture.  Results of a necropsy to determine the cause of death are still pending.

Of the estimated 75 Mexican gray wolves living in the wild, 44 wear radio telemetry collars according to the most recent Monthly Project Update issued September 12, 2013.  Weekly flights monitor the wolves’ locations and the information is used to determine denning behavior (the alpha female travels less and stays in one area) during breeding season and pack status (a wolf begins to travel separately from the pack).   It can also be used to investigate and assign responsibility to a specific wolf or pack when cattle or other livestock are killed.

M1275, now considered a juvenile, still runs with the Bluestem Pack and was recently recaptured and outfitted with a new collar.

Note:  A public hearing about proposed rule changes in the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program scheduled for Friday, October 4th, in Albuquerque has been postponed indefinitely due to the partial government shutdown earlier this week. 

Update (10/13/13)–Roxane at Lobos of the Southwest let me know that the Bluestem pups born in 2012 were given names in a contest late last year.  The two mentioned above were named Huckleberry (m1275) and Little Wild (f1289).

 

The Bluestem Pack – September 2013 Update

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Photo Credit: Eric Kilby via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Eric Kilby via Compfight cc

In my last post about the Bluestem Pack  I had confirmed with Susan Dicks at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that the alpha female F1042 had a new litter of pups.  This was surprising since her longtime mate, M806, was killed about a year ago. So far,  not much is known about her current mate, the new alpha male of the pack.

During July and August the known (collared) members of the pack. according to the Monthly Project Updates, were F1042 and three yearlings (m1275, f1280, and f1289).  Another yearling, m1277, began traveling alone and is no longer considered part of the pack.  The field team confirmed with trail cameras in July that six pups had been born in the spring.

In mid-August they attempted to capture the alpha male and pups so they could be outfitted with radio collars.  During that operation they trapped f1289 who died during processing.  FWS will perform a necropsy determine the cause of the wolf’s death.

The Bluestem Pack’s traditional territory is in the east-central portion of the Apache-Sitegreaves National Forest.  Each week, weather permitting, the IFT has a pilot fly a radio telemetry flight to locate each of the collared wolves.  They travel constantly so the report that is issued after the flight is immediately outdated, but it is still a look at where the wolves are at a given time.  The September 17th report located the pack about four miles northwest of Tenney Mountain and four miles southwest of Noble Mountain. 

The telemetry report also indicated that some of the pups-of-the-year had been trapped and collared.  There are two females fp1332 and fp1333 and two males mp1330 and mp1331.

Summer turned to autumn last weekend.  In Rutter and Pimlott’s book The World of the Wolf  they call fall  ” . . . the most carefree season in the life of the wolf.  The responsibility connected with raising pups is over; the breeding season is still months ahead; there is no snow to make hard work of travel; the weather is neither too cold nor too hot, and food is plentiful.”

While the Bluestem Pack ranges through the forests and meadows of the Apache-Sitgreaves,  humans will be debating their future.  A public hearing will be held in Albuquerque on October 4th to discuss proposed rule changes to the reintroduction program.

 

What Big Feet You Have: The Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico

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Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

The two  Mexican gray wolves pictured above remind me of my favorite wolf story, recounted by Barry Lopez in his 1978 book Of Wolves and Men.

Before a wolf was brought into their classroom, a group of grade-school children were asked to draw pictures of wolves.  The wolves in the pictures all had enormous fangs.  The wolf was brought in, and the person with him began speaking about wolves.  The children were awed by the animal.  When the wolf left, the teacher asked the children to do another drawing.  The new drawings had no large fangs, They all had enormous feet.

Once native in portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, Mexican gray wolves, or lobos as they are called in Spanish, are critically endangered with only about 75 living in the wild. Rebecca Bose, curator at the Wolf Conservation Center, gives us a closer look at these wolves in her photographic essay.  

Fifteen years ago the first lobos were reintroduced in Arizona.  Today, proposed changes to the rules governing the recovery effort may help their numbers increase.  According to this article in the Santa Fe New Mexican from a few days ago, the new deal would allow the wolves to be released directly into New Mexico for the first time and they would  also have more room to roam.

If all goes as planned, we New Mexicans will be more likely to hear the  howl of wolves in our state once again.

The Bluestem Pack – July 2013 Update

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Mexican Gray Wolf by Don Burkett

“What’s a wolf without her pack?” by Karyn Dodier Snow Poems 2013

Every time I read Dodier’s one-line poem I am reminded of F521, the original alpha female of the Bluestem Pack.  Last year I wrote a story, “The Missing Wolves”, about that family of endangered Mexican gray wolves living in the White Mountains of Arizona.  It seems fitting that my first blog entry should be about them.

What follows is a brief history of the pack.  More information is available on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s website.

Outfitted with radio collars and released into the Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Area (BRWRA) in 2002, the alpha pair (M507 and F521) learned quickly to hunt elk and deer and after their first year in the wild rarely bothered livestock.  They raised several litters of pups before M507 was killed by illegal gunshot in 2006.  F521 and the other pack members managed to raise the pups-of-the-year after his death and by the next breeding season M806 had joined the pack as the new alpha male.  F521 and her new mate produced a litter of pups, but it would be her last. At ten years of age she was getting old.

In 2009 F1042, one of F521’s offspring with her first mate, became the new alpha female of the Bluestem Pack.  F521 began to travel alone, sometimes running with the Fox Mountain Pack.  In December of 2010 she was shot and killed in New Mexico near the Arizona border.

F521’s legacy lived on as the Bluestem Pack continued to thrive, having new litters each year, but last summer  M806 was killed.  Once again, the pack succeeded in raising the new pups without their alpha male. That is where my story left off.

I thought about the wolves frequently as fall turned into winter.  At the end of the year the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Project’s interagency field team (IFT) reported that the pack had at least seven members.  I wondered if  they would manage to have another litter of pups; it seemed unlikely with few potential mates for F1042.  But early in January of this year the IFT released a male wolf (M1133) near the Bluestem’s territory  hoping that he would bond with F1042.  It was an important event for the pack and also for the long term success of the Mexican gray wolves–no wolves had been released into the wild since 2008.

But the wolves didn’t bond.  The newly released M1133, traveled alone in areas where he was unlikely to find other wolves according to a press release by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) so the IFT recaptured him.  Again, the survival of the Bluestem Pack seemed uncertain.

And then to my amazement, the June  Monthly Project Update  reported that F1042 was denning (staying close to the area where the pups would be born and raised) and had three to five new pups.  I emailed Susan Dicks, a wildlife biologist, with the USFWS and she confirmed that the Bluestem Pack has a new alpha male.  Not much is known about him, but he appears to be an uncollared  wolf.  The IFT will attempt to learn more about him in upcoming survey and capture operations.

So the Bluestem Pack lives on.   Soon the pups will begin to travel with the older members of the pack, running through alpine meadows, weaving through stands of ponderosa pines and aspen trees, learning to hunt elk.