A new report from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) showed that the population of wild Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest has grown in the last year by ten percent.
However, some claim that their gene pool is still not strong, thereby endangering their survival in the long-term. As the year 2013 approached its end, an approximated 83 wolves were spotted, a ten percent increase to that of year 2012 where only 75 wolves were seen. FWS regional director Benjamin Tuggle reported that it's the most they've encountered since the start of a 1998 program that reintroduced the species.
The federal agency plans to use scientific method and limiting human-wolf interaction to a bare minimum to see this project through. Wolves were seen around the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
""The wolves are teaching us as much as we are trying to manage them," Tuggle said to ABQJ News. "We're hoping that the combination between science and trying to minimize wolf-human interactions will keep us on a positive trajectory."
Half of the 14 wolf packs have already given birth to 17 wild pups before the start of 2014. However, FWS assistant recover coordinator Maggie Dwire pointed out a problem: a large number of the wolves are related. This can decrease the litter size and the survival rates when they breed. To date, there are only five breeding pairs in the wild.
The diversification of the gene pool can be facilitated by letting out breeding pairs into the wild. They've released one "new" wolf that has been held captive since 2008 and plan to liberate four more in the course of 2014.
These conservation efforts are direct responses to an extermination program that nearly made the Mexican gray wolf extinct. Fortunately, seven wolves from Mexico and Arizona were brought to safety and made to breed until they were finally allowed to reclaim habitat in the wild by 1998. Just last year the gain were set back by the losses incurred by the program as four wolves were brutalized while another four were snatched away from their home in the wild.
