Mexican gray wolf 'Taylor' north of I-40 for third time this year

An endangered Mexican gray wolf has run north again two weeks after New Mexico’s Department of Game and Fish moved him south.

On Saturday, male wolf 3065 was located north of Interstate 40 outside of the Mexican wolf experimental population area for the third time this year.

The Department of Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are monitoring his movements, according to Game and Fish spokesman Darren Vaughan. The agency has not said if it will relocate him once again.

The wolf has been nicknamed Taylor by environmental advocates, as he repeatedly frequents the Mount Taylor area. On Nov. 11, Game and Fish relocated him from north of Gallina by helicopter to the Gila Wilderness in Grant County. The wolf was originally found near Mount Taylor and relocated in May, before wandering north again in July.

Taylor has a radio collar to track his movements, and he was making rapid movements north in October, likely in search of a mate, according to a Game and Fish news release.

Taylor is the fifth wolf to travel north of I-40 in New Mexico since 2017.

According to Game and Fish officials, Taylor is unlikely to find a mate in the Mount Taylor area, as there are no other known Mexican wolves in the area. They relocated him in early November because of the potential risk of death as well as “a likelihood of a negative interaction or breeding with domestic dogs,” the news release said.

The federal government, New Mexico and Arizona are working to recover the endangered species within the Mexican wolf experimental population area (MWEPA), which stretches across Arizona and New Mexico south of I-40. When wolves leave the experimental population area, they are often relocated by the state and federal agencies overseeing the recovery.

“The MWEPA is an important factor to maintain the genetic uniqueness of the Mexican gray wolf and supporting the recovery of the species in their historic range,” Vaughan said in a statement.

A coalition of more than 30 environmental advocacy groups has repeatedly asked state and federal agencies to expand the species’ range and let Taylor continue wandering north. They argue Mexican gray wolves should be allowed to establish a population in northern New Mexico and that the subspecies could benefit from breeding with northern gray wolves in Colorado.

“Intergradation of wolf types across the North American continent, in part, sustained the genetics of the southernmost subspecies, the Mexican gray wolf,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Cutting it off now, when the Mexican gray wolf needs so much more genetic diversity, makes no sense at all.”

Genetic diversity is a key concern in the wolf recovery effort for both government agencies and advocacy groups.

In the early 1900s, as native prey populations declined, Mexican gray wolves preyed on livestock, which motivated a successful effort to eradicate the species. With few left in the wild, the Mexican gray wolf was listed as endangered in 1976.

In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service started releasing Mexican gray wolves in the experimental population area. The recovery program began with seven wolves.

The wild population of wolves has increased annually for the last nine years, with 286 wolves documented in the wilderness in 2024.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service keeps transporting wolves south again after their northward journeys claiming there are no other lobos for them to find for mates north of I-40,” Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair of the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande chapter, said in a statement. “With five wolves having made the trip in recent years, clearly there could be if they were all just allowed to roam.”