Mexican Wolf- Dillon Romero

Mexican Wolf
Canis Lupis Baileyi
By: Dillon Romero

Species Description

The Mexican Wolf is a subspecies of gray wolf commonly referred to as "El Lobo". These wolves often have gray with light brown fur on their backs with long legs and a sleek body enabling them to run very fast. These wolves used to have a very abundant population in the thousands, however, have faced massive population declines since the early 90's. During their prime, the Mexican Wolf was a "top dog" in the borderlands and kept the Southwest's ecosystem in balance. The Mexican Wolf ranges from 26-32 inches tall and 4.5-5.5 feet long with a weight of 60-80 lbs. Typically, males are heavier and taller than the females. The lifespan of these animals has been determined to be 15 years in a captive setting. In terms of reproduction, these wolves mate in mid-February to mid-March. The females have a gestation period of 63 days, producing 4-7 offspring.

Geographic and Population Changes

The Mexican Wolf lives in packs and is native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico. However, after being completely wiped out from the U.S and with only a few remaining in Mexico, they were brought into captivity to try and save them. These wolves need large areas of forested terrain, grasslands, and scrublands along with a large population of deer and elk to support their packs. Currently, they are being re-introduced to the Apache National Forest in Arizona, the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, and the northern Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. This is very important because we are seeing these wolves return to living in their native regions and regain the balance to those ecosystems.

Listing Type and Date

The Mexican Wolf was listed as an endangered species in 1973 and protected under the Endangered species act. The Mexican Wolf recovery plan was introduced in 1982 to halt extinction and determine if they could be reintroduced to the wild. In order to continue the push to preserve this species, the first revision to this plan was introduced this past November and actually developed a plan to preserve these wolves in the wild. This current recovery plan still lists the Mexican Wolves as E (endangered) and is in the plan stage RF(1),  meaning that the final revision has been approved by the Regional Director.

Cause of Listing and Continued Threats

The Mexican Wolf was placed on the endangered species list as a result of predator eradication programs in the late 1800's to mid 1900's. These programs completely wiped the Mexican Wolf population from the U.S and nearly Mexico too. In addition to this, it was determined that the Mexican Wolf suffered from genetic issues and small population size, both which contributed to their near extinction. Looking forward to the new recovery plan, these wolves are still at risk of not succeeding in their re-introduction to the wild. These continued threats are the excessive human-caused mortality, demographic stochasticity associated with small population size, and loss of gene diversity. These factors continue to hurt the Mexican Wolf populations and play a major factor in the re-introduction of this wolf subspecies.

Recovery Plan

Under the original Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, a captive breeding program was formed with three effective founder wolves captured from the wild in Mexico. This allowed the species to be saved from extinction and develop healthy, successful lineages of the Mexican Wolf for use in the new Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan. The new plan is utilizing these lineages that were generated from the three wolves captured in Mexico in order to reintroduce the Mexican Wolf into the wild. The plan seeks to establish and maintain two resilient, genetically diverse Mexican Wolf populations distributed across their geographic range in the U.S and Mexico. The recovery strategy takes into consideration the continued threats towards the wolf populations and vows to monitor these threats. More specifically, the plan ensures that Mexican Wolf populations can achieve the resiliency, representation, and redundancy needed to remove them from the endangered species list. This plan is expected to take 25-35 years and cost $178,439,000 to be implemented through 2043 when the Mexican Wolf is expected to be recovered. A more in-depth view of the plan taken from the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan Revision is below:  

1. Increase the size of two Mexican wolf populations; 

2. Improve gene diversity and maintain the health of Mexican wolves; 

3. Ensure adequate habitat availability to support viable Mexican wolf populations; 

4. Maintain the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) captive breeding program to improve the status of wild populations; 

5. Promote Mexican wolf conservation through education and outreach programs; and 

6. Ensure recovery success. 

This plan lays out the necessary requirements that need to be completed in order to successfully remove the Mexican Wolf from the endangered species list.

What Can You Do?

There are many things that people can do to help save these animals and restore them back to the wild. First, you can Take Action by sending messages to government officials. This allows you to make the Mexican Wolf's situation known to officials who can make a difference. Next, you can learn How To Be A Powerful Advocate for wildlife in order to speak up for the Mexican Wolf who does not have a voice. Third, you can Sign Up To Receive Instant Alerts and Updates about the Mexican Wolf's situation and progress during the recovery plan. Finally, you can Become a Defender of Wildlife in order to receive articles and pictures of current wildlife issues. By completing at least one of these actions, the Mexican Wolf becomes that much closer to returning to their rightful home. 

Other Resources

For more information about the Mexican Wolf and the recovery plan that is in action, you can visit the following links:

1. https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/2017MexicanWolfRecoveryPlanRevision1Final.pdf
2. https://defenders.org/mexican-gray-wolf/basic-facts
3. https://mexicanwolves.org/index.php/about-wolves

Sources

About Mexican Gray Wolves.” Mexicanwolves.org, mexicanwolves.org/index.php/about-wolves.

“Basic Facts About Mexican Gray Wolves.” Defenders of Wildlife, 30 Mar. 2016, defenders.org/mexican-gray-wolf/basic-facts.

Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Species and Populations with Recovery Plans, ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/pub/speciesRecovery.jsp?sort=2.

Photo sources (In order):
https://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2017/04/mexican-gray-wolf-in-snow.jpg.600x315_q80_crop-smart.jpg

https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/019/977/original/Mexican-Gray-Wolves-CWC.jpg

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/willcoxrangenews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/68/26859b22-1ff1-11e3-9651-0019bb2963f4/5238e6553040e.image.jpg

https://amedia.britannica.com/700x450/58/3058-004-7AB9F109.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/87/0b/75/870b751880f1f16ad571367ffa4b7017--grey-wolves-in-michigan.jpg

http://lazerhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/How-Big-Tall-Is-A-Wolf-Hunters-Mexican-Gray-Wolf.jpg

http://www.wolfhaven.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/gray-wolf-release.jpg