Mexican wolf environmentalists see a difficult route to come

For more than 40,000 years, the Berinian wolf hunted through a frozen North America. Hunting in packages, this magnificent beast was strong enough to shoot horses, bison and even mammoths. While the climate warmed, however, his prey disappeared and the predator slipped into extinction. The gap that the extinction of the Berinian wolf left in the continent’s ecosystem was filled by the little gray wolf.

One of the first branches of this species would have been believed to have moved south to settle in southern California, Baja California, western Texas, Sonora and Chihuahua. In this territory, the gray wolf has become isolated from its cousins ​​further north. While their genes no longer mixed, the Mexican wolf entertained in a subspecies that was smaller than its northern relationships, with a narrower skull and a darker and more variable fur.

The Mexican wolf, Canis Lupus Baileyi, prospered for thousands of years. The Mexico (Aztecs) associated them with Huitzilopochtli, God of war and the sun, and hundreds of loungs of wolf were found in excavations of the sacred enclosure of Tenochtitlan. Mexican wolves went from northern Mexico to as far south as Oaxaca until the first years of the 20th century when human colonists moved to ever increasingly increasing number. Now wolves were hunted for sport, out of fear or to protect livestock. In the early 1970s, the Mexican wolf was turned off in the United States and only a handful survived Mexico.

Conservation begins for the Mexican wolf

In 1973, the American government promulgated the endangered species law and wolves were among the first species to be placed under its protection. Not only would other murders be prohibited, but efforts would be made to return the wolves to their old range. Between 1977 and 1980, five Mexican wolves – four men and a pregnant woman – were captured in Mexico and brought to the United States to start a captive reproduction program. At this point, the wolf was probably turned off in the world. The species was kept alive in captivity and in 1998, wolves born in captivity were returned to the wild. On the surface, this program was a magnificent success: there are now about 257 Mexican wolves living in the United States, 45 living in Mexico and 380 living in captivity in the two countries.

However, serious challenges remain. One of the concerns is that at its most critical moment, the species was at a handful of individuals, who may have left the compromised genetic pool. An approach to this problem was to adapt to cross: The introduction of small born in captivity, selected for their diversity of genes, in new worn born in nature. If they survive and reproduce, these animals will help extend the Mexican wolf gene basin. This process requires locating a den with a newborn litter and precipitating a small outcome born in the region. When the mother is hunting, a researcher can crawl in the narrow den and place the little one among her new brothers and sisters. It is an expensive process and around 50% of all wild -born wolves died during their first year of life, so the possibility of an introduced cub finally reproducing is far from being guaranteed. However, there is evidence that the program works, 20 ranges being identified as coming from crossed wolves.

There are other problems. In the United States, Interstate 40 was designated as the northern limit of the authorized scope of the Mexican wolf. Wolves, of course, are not aware of it, and in 2021 two Wolves moved north, probably looking for friends. A wolf known as Asha has become a regular intruder and was finally moved to a new-mexic conservation center. A male wolf known as Anubis was not so lucky: he was illegally shot down near Flagstaff.

A transnational conservation effort

In a time of changing climate, the natural prey of the Mexican wolf could derive more and more north, taking more and more wolves out of the areas that humans have designated for them. The long -term survival plan focuses on the creation of several separate sanctuaries, insurance if an area must be decimated by the disease or another disaster. However, a five -year assessment published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2024 expressed its concerns concerning the Mexican population.

The law on endangered species has real teeth; If they are captured, the hunters who fired on Anubis face a fine of $ 100,000 and a significant prison sentence. In Mexico, a combination of less environmental education and fewer resources has meant that wolves are not offered the same protection. 39 The deaths of wolves between 2011 and 2023 were classified as caused by man, the poison being the greatest killer. A combination of high mortality and smaller than the hope of the liberation numbers means that the Mexican objective of 100 wolves living in the wild has not been achieved.

The population of wild Mexican wolves in Mexico itself is numbered in an optimistic manner at just under 50 years old, but this number is disputed. As Greta Anderson, assistant director of the Western Watersheds for non -profit, explains Greta Anderson Project: “There are no living animals in Mexico, so any remaining population is total speculation. It is difficult to imagine that there are a lot of animals there – the mortality rate for necklace wolves is so high that it is difficult to imagine that unlit animals are somehow persecution. ” There is no immediate plan to change an approach that seems to work well north of the border. Instead, Hope is still placed to continue educating local communities and implementing a remuneration plan to reimburse farmers for livestock lost against wolves.

Mexican wolves are no exception to politics

Mexico wolf problems are shared by the United States. In 2020, the first Trump administration deleted most gray wolves from the US endangered species list. Although this decision was canceled by an American district court in 2022, the Biden administration generally continued the tendency to eliminate protections for wolves. In the coming years, complaints from farmers losing livestock could expect to receive more favorable audiences. The success that has been obtained so far has not at low cost either, and future financing is in doubt.

“I fear that we can see many attacks on the endangered species law in general, and the general funding of programs that deal with parallel biodiversity and climatic crises,” Greta Anderson told Mexico News. The fact that the Mexican wolf is always with us and that their number increases is a wonderful news, but the battle to save them is far from won.