Species Extirpations

Several species native to the Colorado Plateau have been extirpated from the region over the course of this century. Many, such as the gray wolf, were actively hunted while some have been lost due to habitat degradation.

Perhaps the most widely-known or publicized species to have been extirpated from the Colorado Plateau is the grizzly bear. This large bear once roamed different parts of the Plateau, particularly the highlands rimming the area. The native Merriam's elk of the southern Colorado Plateau, a probable subspecies, was extirpated earlier this century and is now extinct. All of the Southwest's elk today are descendents of transplanted elk from the Yellowstone region of Wyoming and Montana.

Hunter with coyote pelts. Courtesy of  Cline Library Special Collections, Northern Arizona University.

Federal predator control programs, formed at the request of livestock ranchers earlier this century, are largely responsible for the extirpation of both the grizzly bear and the gray wolf from the Colorado Plateau and the Southwest. Hunters were paid by the federal government to kill livestock predators, including cougars, grizzly bears, wolves, and coyotes.

A recent species reintroduction effort by the US Fish and Wildlife Service is underway in the White Mountains of Arizona that seeks to restore the previously extirpated Mexican gray wolf to a portion of its historic range.