Welcome to the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program
Missing from the landscape for more than 30 years, the howl of the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), can once again be heard in the mountains of the southwestern United States. The Mexican wolf, like many species protected by the Endangered Species Act, is getting a second chance to play its role in nature through an ambitious recovery program led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). The Mexican wolf once roamed throughout vast portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. But, as human settlement intensified across the Southwest in the early 1900s, wolves increasingly came into conflict with livestock operations and other human activities. Private, state, and federal extermination campaigns were raged against the wolf until, by the 1970’s, the Mexican wolf had been all but eliminated from the United States and Mexico. In 1976, however, a new era dawned for the Mexican wolf. The Mexican wolf, a subspecies of gray wolf, was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, a recognition that the subspecies was in danger of extinction. The wolf was already functionally extinct in the Southwest, and only occasional reports of wolves in Mexico confirmed its continued existence in the wild. It was now incumbent upon the Service, one of two federal agencies responsible for administration of the Endangered Species Act, to lead an effort to bring the Mexican wolf back from the brink of extinction in the United States. The question was, “How?”		Notice of Availability for the DRAFT Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment DRAFT Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment View Mexican Wolf Annual Reports Download the Mexican Gray Wolf Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Download the Mexican Wolf Five-Year Review Documents Get information about the Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Project (BRWRP) View the latest BRWRA Monthly Project Update View the Mexican Wolf Photo Gallery Learn more about Mexican Wolf Captive Management Learn more about Mexican Wolf Recovery Program Chronology

Between 1977 and 1982, recovery of the Mexican wolf was jump-started with a flurry of activity. First, the United States and Mexico agreed to establish a bi-national captive breeding program with several wolves trapped in Mexico between 1977 and 1980. The purpose of the breeding program was to save the species from absolute extinction and to provide animals for future reintroduction to the wild. Meanwhile, the Service established a recovery team in 1979 to assist the agency in mapping out a recovery strategy for the Mexican wolf. The Service approved the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Plan in 1982. The plan recommended maintenance of the captive breeding program and re-establishment of a viable self-sustaining population of at least 100 wolves in the wild within the Mexican wolf’s historic range. Due to the perilous status of the Mexican wolf at the time, and uncertainty if captive-reared wolves could successfully be returned to the wild, the recovery plan stated that delisting may never be possible. The plan, therefore, did not provide a definitive recovery goal (criteria to down-list or de-list the Mexican wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species) for the Mexican wolf, but instead provided an interim objective to focus and stimulate reintroduction and recovery efforts.

As the Southwest grappled with the prospects of recovering the Mexican wolf, similar challenges were being faced in other regions of the country. Gray wolves historically ranged throughout most of the United States, and extermination campaigns had taken place throughout the country during the early and mid-1900s. The Service had listed several subspecies of gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act between 1973 and 1976, but later recognized that the approach of protecting individual gray wolf subspecies may not provide adequate protection due to overlapping subspecies’ boundaries and wolves’ highly mobile nature. Therefore, in 1978 the Service listed the entire gray wolf species as endangered, except in Minnesota where it was listed as threatened, in the coterminous United States. The species-level listing (as opposed to the previous subspecies level listings) prompted a national focus on the gray wolf, although the Service committed to continuation of subspecies conservation efforts, including the Mexican wolf, where appropriate.

Recovery efforts in three geographic regions of the country then began to take shape: the Northern Rockies, the Midwest, and the Southwest. These recovery efforts were substantially different. In the Northern Rockies, wolf populations in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho had also been eliminated, but wolves existed in healthy numbers just across the border in Canada. Therefore, the recovery strategy for this region of the United States was to re-establish viable populations via wolves dispersing from Canada. Translocation of wild wolves to suitable habitat was also deemed necessary, given that some areas appropriate for population re-establishment were thought to be too distant from the source population in Canada to effectively achieve recovery (Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan, Revised 1987). In the Midwest, a population of several hundred eastern timber wolves persisted in a remote area of northern Minnesota and a small handful of wolves were also present in Wisconsin and Michigan at the time of the species-level listing in 1978. Here, the northern boundary of Minnesota was contiguous with a healthy Canadian population of wolves, and the recovery strategy centered on the expansion of the existing Minnesota population and the establishment of one to two additional populations in the three-state area (Eastern Timber Wolf Recovery Plan, Revised 1992). It was only in the Southwest, where wolves had been so thoroughly eliminated that a source population of wild, free-ranging animals from which to build the recovery program did not exist, that a captive breeding and reintroduction program was necessary.

As the Mexican wolf captive program grew and demonstrated increasing success through the 1980s, attention turned to identification of appropriate areas for reintroduction of the Mexican wolf to its historic habitat. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was finalized in 1996, in which the Apache and Gila national forests in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, respectively, were identified as appropriate areas for reintroduction. In March 1997, the Secretary of the Interior signed a Record of Decision approving the preferred alternative of the EIS to release captive-reared Mexican wolves into a portion of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area. With substantial opportunities for public input, the Service subsequently published the Final Rule, Establishment of a Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Gray Wolf in Arizona and New Mexico, on January 12, 1998. The non-essential experimental population designation for Mexican wolves allows for greater management flexibility to address conflict situations, such as livestock depredations or nuisance behavior, than if wolves had retained the fully endangered designation. The Final Rule provides regulations for how the reintroduced population will be managed by responsible agencies, and further, spells out public rights with respect to human safety and protection of property from Mexican wolves on private, tribal, and public lands. A copy of the Final Rule can be down-loaded from our website.

On March 29, 1998, captive-reared Mexican wolves were released to the wild for the first time in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area. Here, 11 vanguards of the rarest and most unique subspecies of gray wolf in the United States began an historic journey – the journey of recovery.

Reintroduction of a top predator such as the Mexican wolf is highly complex and often controversial. It is important to understand the role Mexican wolves are playing on the landscape, including all of the potential biological, social and economic impacts – be they good, bad, or indifferent. In order to continually evaluate this role, an Interagency Field Team (IFT) has been formed and has the primary responsibilities of collecting data, monitoring, and managing the free-ranging Mexican wolf population. A series of 23 Standard Operating Procedures have been formalized to ensure consistency in management of the wolf population. Equally important is the IFT’s close interaction and involvement with local communities directly affected by wolf recovery.

Since reintroduction began in 1998, the Service has worked with its partners to develop a multi-agency cooperative reintroduction and recovery effort. A Memorandum of Understanding has been established with several Lead Agencies under which a Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (commonly referred to as AMOC) has been formed. Participating cooperators include the Arizona Game and Fish Department, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Department of Agriculture- Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture- Wildlife Services, White Mountain Apache Tribe, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and Greenlee County. Under this structure, the Arizona and New Mexico State Game and Fish Departments and the White Mountain Apache Tribe have lead responsibility for implementing the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area Reintroduction Project in their respective jurisdictions, while the Service remains responsible for overall Mexican wolf recovery. The AMOC was formed to foster cooperation and communication between the Lead Agencies, to provide guidance to the Interagency Field Team on policy issues related to managing the free-ranging Mexican wolf population, and to serve as the primary conduit for sharing information about the Blue Range Wolf Reintroduction Project with the interested public. Quarterly Adaptive Management Working Group (commonly referred to as AMWG) meetings are held by the AMOC in which any and all interested members of the public may participate in myriad ways such as reviewing and making recommendations on project management and proposals, and identifying issues and concerns regarding the Blue Range Reintroduction Project.

The Southwest Region of the Service invites you to join us on the historic journey of Mexican wolf recovery. Our Mexican Wolf Recovery Program website provides detailed information on all aspects of the program – from monthly updates on the current status of wolves in the wild, to an overview of the captive breeding program and pre-release facilities, to important documents, policies, and regulations that guide the reintroduction and recovery program, and to education and outreach materials for children and adults. Whether you follow the program from our local area or from across the country or another nation, your involvement and support is important to the program. Please contact us with any questions, ideas, or concerns you have about Mexican wolf recovery.

Last, but certainly not least, the Service would like to recognize and thank our Federal, State, and Tribal partners, as well as every member of the public who contributes time, energy, and information to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program.