Wandering Mexican gray wolf released back into Arizona wilderness ‘where she belongs’
Wildlife officials released an endangered Mexican gray wolf back into the Arizona wilderness after holding her in captivity for five months.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service captured female wolf 2754 — nicknamed Asha by conservationists — in northern New Mexico in January, and held her at the agency’s Sevilleta Mexican Wolf Management Facility outside Socorro, officials said in a June 14 news release.
So why was she captured and held in captivity for so many months?
Asha had wandered outside the agency’s “arbitrary management zone” and north into the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, officials with the Wolf Conservation Center said in a June 14 Facebook post.
Her capture angered wolf conservationists, who say it is “frustrating” that “current policies restrict the movement of Mexican wolves and prevent them from recolonizing ideal habitat outside of the arbitrary borders.”
Asha had ventured away from her natal pack and out of the agency’s Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area (MWEPA) north of Interstate 40, wandering 500 miles north until officials caught her near Taos, New Mexico.
“The decision to move this wolf back to the MWEPA at the time was consistent with policies outlined in the Service’s Recovery Permit,” officials said in the release. “In addition, the lack of other wolves in the area meant there was no chance for female wolf 2754 to breed and contribute to Mexican wolf recovery.”
While Asha was in captivity at the Sevilleta facility, fish and wildlife officials tried to breed her with a male wolf. The plan was to release Asha, her mate and their pups either in Mexico to restore some of the southernmost wild Mexican wolf population, or in the Mexican wolf management area in New Mexico, “where they could help provide a genetic boost to the U.S. wild population,” officials said in the release.
But the pair did not breed, so officials decided to release her back into the Arizona wilderness where she was born in 2021, officials said.
Staff with the Arizona Game and Fish Department coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and released her into the Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona on Wednesday, June 7. The agency will still monitor her movements with a radio collar.
Her release came only “days after a federal hearing on the potential rewrite of the Mexican gray wolf recovery plan,” officials with Defenders of Wildlife said in a statement. The nonprofit petitioned for the rewrite, which it says “could have a positive impact on the wolf’s freedom to roam northward.”
Wolf conservationists rejoiced at Asha’s release, both in Facebook comments and in a news release.
“I can only imagine what it is like for a wandering, wild-born wolf to go through when they are confined in captivity for no good reason,” said Emily Renn, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, in a Wolf Conservation Center news release.
Renn urged the “agencies responsible for Mexican wolf management” to acknowledge that wolves traveling long distances is simply instinctual — “an inherent natural behavior” and asked that officials incorporate that instinct into the wolves’ recovery, rather than restricting it.
“Why does man think he can control wildlife,” someone said on Facebook. “All they do is cause more problems for all concerned which gets no where.”
“Wolves understand ‘policy’ on their home areas?” someone else said.
“Asha should never have been captured and taken into captivity in the first place — wolves should be allowed to roam where they will,” said Chris Smith, southwest wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians in the release. “But, it’s great to see Asha being released back into the wild where she belongs.”
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