Conservationists have been sounding the alarm about a looming “genetic crisis” in the Mexican gray wolf community as reintroduction continues.
The group of conservationists celebrate the growing population of lobos — up to at least 286 in the United States after being exterminated from the wild in previous decades — but they warn that a lack of genetic diversity could cause many more issues in the future.
Right now, fish and game agencies in Arizona and New Mexico foster pups as the main way to increase genetic diversity. This process takes a captive-born pup and places it into dens in the wild so the pup can grow up in the wild with different genes.
Conservationists say that this method — while helpful — should not be the sole solution. In a statement, WildEarth Guardians Greater Gila New Mexico Advocate Leia Barnett said that “Our wild population of Mexican gray wolves are still as genetically related as siblings.”
“The solution lies in resuming the release of well-bonded family packs,” she said.
Barnett told the Bulletin that releasing the family packs that are being held in captivity to breed pups would be similar to how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced Mexican gray wolves back into the wild after the lobo’s extermination.
Barnett said introducing family packs into the wild would increase survival rates and improve the wolves’ chances of passing on diverse genes to new pups who would then have a better chance of having pups of their own.
Barnett also said that wolves who are genetically similar are more susceptible to disease.
“It could wipe out a large chunk of the population,” she said.
The Bulletin reached out to the USFWS but officials there pointed to the Bulletin to the agency’s website.
According to the site, “As natural reproduction in the wild began to reduce the need for releases from captivity to promote population growth, the USFWS shifted to fostering pups to achieve our genetic diversity goals.”
Other possible solutions highlighted by the activists include eliminating the I-40 boundary. This boundary uses interstate I-40 as the northernmost line meaning that wolves have to stay south of the interstate.
Claire Musser, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project executive director, called the boundary an “unscientific roadblock that limits their ability to disperse, form new packs and restore genetic diversity.”
If a wolf travels north of the interstate, it is captured and taken back south of the interstate. This happened with a wolf named Asha, which got a lot of media attention, in early 2023 she roamed just south of the Colorado state line and then, again, in late 2023 when she roamed beyond the I-40 boundary a second time.
The USFWS Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan says that the I-40 boundary was put into place with “the encouragement of the states” and that the boundary “encompasses the historical range of the Mexican wolf.”
The Mexican grey wolf population has now grown in numbers for the ninth year in a row.
The Mexican gray wolf began being reintroduced into the wild in 1998 after being nearly eliminated mostly due to ranchers protecting their livestock. Efforts to speed up the process have faced opposition from ranchers and hunters.
