Recovering an endangered species - the re-establishment and growth of Mexican wolves in the southwestern United States

• Main Author: Oakleaf, John K.
• Other Authors: Wallace, Mark, Krausman, Paul, Breck, Stewart, Cain III, James, Grisham, Blake, Gipson, Philip S.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Arizona; Canis Lupus Baileyi; Elk; Fertility; Food Caches; Genetic Fitness; Mexican Wolves; New Mexico; Predation; Recruitment; Releases; Reproduction; Survival; Translocations; Canis lupus; gray wolf
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2346/90063

The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) was on the edge of extinction in the late 1970s when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) contracted with a trapper to catch wolves in Mexico in order to start a captive breeding program. Seven wolves (three were considered founders (one female and two males that were unrelated) of the population) were ultimately captured and used as the foundation for this captive breeding program. The captive breeding program was successful, however Mexican wolves in the wild appeared to be extinct by the late 1980s. The success of the captive breeding program allowed the USFWS to consider reintroduction of surplus animals back into the historical range of Mexican wolves within the southwestern United States. The reintroduction of Mexican wolves in 1998 extended the southern distribution of gray wolves by ~1,100 km and reestablished unique genetics (i.e., a different subspecies) that were not present in other gray wolf populations in the wild. While the conservation benefit of the reintroduction of Mexican wolves is clearly important, some of the data available have yet to be published as this was a secondary priority relative to management and growth of the population. In the following chapters, I present information on the status of Mexican wolf conservation and original investigations into the questions related to the efficacy of reintroductions, factors that relate to pup production, recruitment numbers, and predation by Mexican wolves. In my first core chapter (Chapter II: Gray Wolves in the Southwestern United States: History and Reintroduction Efforts), I provided a general description of gray wolf distribution, habitat, and life history both historically and following the reintroduction of Mexican wolves. I also address the status and management of Mexican wolves and adaptive management of wolves in the southwestern United States. Indeed, the successful reintroduction and growth of the wolf population in the southwest is astounding given the obstacles that Mexican wolves had ...