The Mexican gray wolf, or lobo, is one of the most endangered carnivores in the world. After lobos were nearly wiped out, reintroduction began in 1998 in remote areas of New Mexico and Arizona, including such iconic Wildernesses as the Gila Wilderness, and the Blue Range Wilderness and Primitive Area. Since then, recovery has been slow and turbulent.
In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided that the only wild population of Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. was not “essential” under the Endangered Species Act to the recovery of Mexican gray wolves as a species. Conservationists sued, and in 2018, a U.S. district judge told the USFWS to write a new management rule for the lobo—one based on the best available science.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently sought public comments on a new Mexican Wolf 10(j) Rule. Wolves need and deserve the maximum protection possible, and the agency needs to recover w
Urge the USFWS to do its job to protect and recover lobos by designating them “an essential” population so they have full legal protection, by requiring the release of well-bonded wolf families into the wild, by expanding their range to allow for several populations of lobos, by removing the current population cap of 325 wolves, by proactively reducing and preventing conflicts with livestock, and by protecting wolves from poaching and other human-caused death.
Photo: Valerie via Flickr