Wandering Mexican gray wolf captured in New Mexico — for second time. ‘Frustrating’
An endangered Mexican gray wolf known for wandering across the southern U.S. was captured after she roamed where wildlife officials wish she wouldn’t — for the second time.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish used a helicopter to find and capture female wolf 2754 — known as Asha among conservationists — in hopes of breeding her, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release on Dec. 11.
In January, Asha ventured away from the pack she was born into and outside the agency’s Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area north of Interstate 40, wandering 500 miles north into the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, McClatchy News previously reported.
Officials captured her later that month near Taos and held her at the agency’s Sevilleta wolf management zone outside Socorro, where officials tried — and failed — to breed her, McClatchy News reported. When Asha didn’t breed with the male selected for her, officials released her in June back into the Arizona wilderness where she was born in 2021.
Just as she’d done in January, Asha left the agency’s wolf management zone in late October, officials said.
This time, she “spent several weeks moving between the San Pedro Mountains and the Valles Caldera National Preserve” and showed “no signs of returning” to the management area, officials said.
So wildlife officials decided to capture Asha before breeding season started, and they managed to do exactly that Dec. 9, officials said.
“Our decision to capture F2754 was made out of concern for her safety and wellbeing,” Brady McGee said in the release. McGee is the agency’s Mexican wolf recovery coordinator.
“Dispersal events like this are often in search of a mate. As there are no other known wolves in the area, she was unlikely to be successful, and risked being mistaken for a coyote and shot.”
Officials paired her with a “carefully selected mate” and hope she’ll breed in captivity this time, the release said.
“The best outcome for her is to be released back into the wild, where she and her offspring can contribute to Mexican wolf recovery,” McGee said.
Wolf conservationists said Asha’s second capture disappointed them.
“Asha’s capture is a frustrating, but not permanent pause in her journey,” the Wolf Conservation Center said on Facebook. “Despite physical and political barriers, she’s continued to show the nation that her home exists north of I-40, not in captivity or in the arbitrary confines of the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. When we finally stop trying to control wolves, we’ll realize that ‘recovery’ is much easier to achieve.”
Several people said in the comments section they were praying for Asha’s safety.
“No animal will ever see or feel arbitrary borders because in their free spirits the world is their playground,” someone said.
Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit group dedicated to wildlife conservation, believes the attempt to breed Asha will limit her movement once she’s released back into the wild with pups, the group told McClatchy News in an emailed statement.
“This wolf posed no threat to anyone,” said Bryan Bird, the organization’s Southwest program director. “She should be allowed to roam, to seek her own destiny. Wolves will naturally repopulate their historic range and we should be facilitating that instinct and preparing the way with facts and common-sense activities.”
Wandering Mexican gray wolf released back into Arizona wilderness ‘where she belongs’
Beloved gray wolf matriarch dies, California zoo says. ‘Huge gap in our hearts’
‘Legendary’ wolf that parented 40 pups reappears in Arizona 2 years after vanishing
