Mexican Wolf Research Paper

Grace Blanco

Professor Ken G. Sweat, Ph. D.

BIO 105 Environmental Biology Hybrid Course

6 September 2015

Topic: Mexican Wolves re-leased into the blue range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA) in eastern Arizona.

First and foremost the Mexican gray wolf is referred as "El Lobo" which is in Spanish for the wolf. It was once a "top dog" in the borderlands. They eat large and small mammals like deer, elk and rabbits. After being wiped out in the U.S. and only a few animals were remaining in Mexico. They were reintroduced to the wild in Arizona 1998. There are only about 300 Mexican wolves in total. Mexican gray wolves usually stay in habitats like mountain forests. They once ranged from central Mexico throughout the southwestern U.S before its extinction. Wolves are very social animals. They live in packs like any other wolves would most likely live like. When they reproduce pups are born blind and defenseless.

They were listed as endangered species. Then in 1976, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Mexican wolf as an endangered species. They were completely wiped out from Arizona and New Mexico. In 1997 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduce Mexican wolves in eastern Arizona within the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA). They decided to released wolves and their offspring for a nonessential experimental population. Last year 110 wolves in 19 packs are back in the wild. On January 16, 2015 the Service published two final rules in the Federal Register: Endangered Status for the Mexican Wolf and Regulations for the Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Wolf. Today, the Mexican wolf has been reintroduced to the Apache National Forest in southeastern Arizona, and may move into the adjacent Gila National Forest in western New Mexico as the population expands. Recently, Mexican wolves have also begun to be reintroduced in