Mexican Wolf

(Canis lupus baileyi)

by Tyler Knight

https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/species_images/doc4961-250px-thumbnail.jpg

Description & Ecology:

The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), is the smallest, southern-most occurring, rarest, and most genetically distinct subspecies of gray wolf in North America. These wolves weigh around 50 - 80 pounds and are about 5 ½  feet long from nose to tail. They are also anywhere from 28 to 32 inches tall at the shoulder. Their coat is very distinctive and full of deep colors consisting of gray, rust, and black. They also often have distinguishing facial patterns. There are no solid black or white variations that exist as with other North American gray wolves.

Mexican Wolves communicate through a complex way of communication that includes scent marking, body postures, and numerous vocalizations. They live in packs consisting of about 4-8 wolves. These packs include an adult mated pair and their offspring, often from several generations. This pair tends to be monogamous and the only ones in their pack breeding. The wolves have a 63-day gestation period after breeding in February. Then they will give birth in April or early May to four to six pups. Mexican wolves like to prey on native animals around them including elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, javelina, rabbits, and other small mammals. They hunt collaboratively, by chasing their prey long distances in order to take down the animals that are much larger than them in size.

Geographic & Population Changes:

Mexican wolves are found in a variety of southwestern habitats. Despite this, they are actually not low desert dwellers as once thought to be. In the past, Mexican wolves lived in the mountain forests, grasslands, and shrublands of central and northern Mexico, southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona.

https://www.wolfquest.org/wolf_mexican.php 

This is most likely due to the combination of available resources including cover, water, and available prey. Today, the Mexican wolf has been reintroduced to the Apache National Forest in southeastern Arizona. As the population hopefully expands they may also move into the adjacent Gila National Forest in western New Mexico. After being. There are only about 300 Mexican wolves left captivity and about 97 in the wild. The goal of the reintroduction program was to restore at least 100 wolves to the wild by 2006, but unfortunately it will take much more than that until they are safe from extinction.

Listing:

• Date Listed: 03/09/1978
• Type of Listing: Endangered!
• Cause of Listing: The wolves were targeted because they preyed on sheep, cattle, and goats which interfered with livestock operations.

          Ultimately, humans pose the greatest threats to the Mexican Wolf. We at one point quite literally wiped out the entirety of their population in the wild. After that it took a captive breeding program started by Mexico and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service using 7 founder wolves to restore their population to what it is today. Unfortunately, their population is still at low numbers. Despite a majority of people in both states where the wolves reside supporting their recovery, illegal killings continue to be the leading cause of death for lobos.

Recovery Plan:

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         Since 1976 The Mexican Wolf (Canis Lupus Baileyi) has been protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. The recovery strategy for the Mexican wolf is to establish and increase the size of two resilient, genetically diverse Mexican wolf populations distributed across ecologically and geographically diverse areas in the subspecies’ range in the United States and Mexico. The recovery strategy ensures that the Mexican Wolf population will be able to achieve the ability to become delisted through the conservation of their population and habitat. The recovery strategy for the Mexican wolf addresses the threats of human-caused deaths, extinction risk due to small populations, and loss of gene diversity. Eventually, it is expected that through this recovery plan the Mexican Wolf populations will become stable and will increase. In addition to this it is believed that the wolves will be well distributed geographically and more genetically diverse. The main components of this strategy include monitoring wild populations and implementing adaptive management and collaborating with partners to address social and economic concerns related to Mexican wolf recovery. This plan was developed in coordination with federal agencies in Mexico state as well as U.S. federal and Tribal Agencies. The end goal is to help the wolves become capable of enduring threats and well as granting them long term survival. Through the protection of their habitat and population it is believed that eventually this will be done along with their removal from the list of threatened and endangered species.

What Can You Do?

         

You can help save the Mexican Wolves through many different ways! Here are a few:

1. Adopt a wolf: By symbolically adopting a wolf, your $125 donation will go towards work that fights anti–wolf extremism and it ensure a lasting future for wolves in their natural homes as well as secure a suitable habitat for them across the U.S.
2. Take Action: Call or send a message to an elected or regulatory official in order to spread the word that they must take action in passing the many laws that can help the survival of the wolves.
3. Become an Advocate For Wildlife: Every voice raised for defending wildlife matters! Spread the word through social media, communicating with elected officials, or just communicating these issues to your friends and family. 

Other Resources:

Want to take action for the sake of the wolves? Visit these additional resources:

• https://defenders.org/gray-wolf/what-you-can-do
• https://earthjustice.org/cases/2014/saving-the-endangered-mexican-gray-wolf
• http://www.endangered.org/mexican-gray-wolves-need-more-help/

Works Cited:

Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “Mexican

Wolf (Canis Lupus Baileyi).” Species Profile for Mexican Wolf (Canis Lupus Ssp. Baileyi).

Society, National Geographic. “Mexican

Gray Wolf.” National Geographic Society, 9 Nov. 2012.

“Threats.” Mexican Gray Wolf, Defenders of

Wildlife, 8 Nov. 2013.

“Wolf Facts.” Official Web Page of the U S

Fish and Wildlife Service,