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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Mexican Gray Wolf Population Dropped in '09
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — The wild population of endangered Mexican gray wolves continued what federal officials called a disappointing downward trend last year, with wolf numbers tumbling nearly 20 percent in 2009 to a total of 42.
The lobo count is the lowest since 2002 in the recovery area that stretches across 4 million acres of forest in southeast Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
It was the third year in a row that the wolf population either showed no growth or shrank, and the net loss occurred in New Mexico.
"I'm extremely disappointed and troubled about this year's low numbers," said Benjamin Tuggle, the Fish and Wildlife Service's regional director. He said he was "determined to identify the reasons for this decline and turn the situation around so that we see more Mexican wolves in the wild during 2010."
The number of wolves in the New Mexico wild fell from 29 in 2008 to 15 last year, while the count in Arizona grew from 23 to 27 over the same time.
When the reintroduction program was launched in 1998, federal officials estimated the wolf population would reach 100 with 18 breeding pairs by the end of 2006. But that year, the wild wolf count hit 59, then slumped to 52 in 2007 and 2008. Only two breeding pairs, wolves whose pups survive to the end of the year, were counted last year.
Tuggle said that a number of wolves disappeared, including two with radio collars that allow Fish and Wildlife to track them. In addition, four adults and four pups were found dead last year, including two that were shot by unknown persons. The causes of the other six wolf deaths have not yet been determined.
"Mexican wolves are in big trouble," said Tucson-based Eva Sargent, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife. "With numbers so perilously low, every single wolf in the wild counts toward the animals' survival."
Litters of pups, which federal officials hoped would replenish and expand the wolf population, were also hard hit, as only seven of 31 pups born last spring survived through December.
Tuggle said he was looking at taking more aggressive steps to bolster the population, including new releases of captive wolves, and said the low count "strengthens my determination to recover these wolves to their natural habitat."
Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said federal officials should consider releasing three new wolves into the wild for every one killed by poaching.
Robinson also blamed the wolves' lack of genetic diversity, aggravated by years of federal wolf removals for cattle depredations, for contributing to smaller pup litters and lower pup survival.
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