Wolf reintroduction suffers setback in Mexico, 4 out of 5 wolves dead from poisoning

Washington Post ^ | 2-21-12

[SJackson]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves to a mountain range just south of the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an effort to re-establish the endangered species is off to a rocky start.

Correspondence between Mexican wildlife officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Tuesday that four out of the five wolves released by Mexico’s Environment Department last October are dead from poisoning.

Despite the deaths, supporters of wolf reintroduction in the American Southwest are still hoping releases in Mexico can provide a genetic boost to a small population of wolves in New Mexico and Arizona.

“They’ve been working for decades for this reintroduction so obviously this is setback, but my assumption and hope is that they will continue and make it successful,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an American group that has supported returning the wolves to their historic range.

[SJackson]

If you’d like to be on or off this Outdoors/Rural/wildlife/hunting/hiking/backpacking/National Parks/animals list please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.

A government program introduces 5 wolves. Worthy of our administration.

[driftdiver]

Sounds like a good start

[Cicero]

Sounds like Mexicans know how to deal with wolves. Kill them before they spread.

[hinckley buzzard]

>Prime country for the drug smugglers. Doubt they have any interest in letting wolves walk around their drug trails.

[SJackson]

Probably can't find the links, but during the Bush years there was opposition to the border fence because of the Mexican wolves. They needed access to the US, and I believe they put offsets in parts of the fence so the wolves could get through. Nonsense, I know, but now all those wolves who couldn't get through the fence are no more, endangered.

BTW, according to this blog, the "Mexican" wolves were imported from the US. Go figure.

[Cicero]

Good grief. I guess I missed that. Mexican wolves doing the job U. S. wolves won’t do?

[cicero2k]

Ya think the Mexican ranchers would be using some of the guns we sold them to make the second ammendment look bad, rather than poison.

[TigersEye]

4 out of 5 wolves dead from poisoning

The fifth one was shot by a drug lord with a Fast and Furious AK-47!

[TigersEye]

They are running for their lives back to the U.S. before they end up on a rotisserie in the mercado.

[driftdiver]

Their ultimate goal is to create vast tracts of the US where people don’t go. What better way to start that process than to seed those areas with dangerous predators. Which by the way will drastically reduce other wildlife which happen to draw hunters.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

4 out of 5?

Excellent- that’s 80 percent dead!

[Daffynition]

[pingman]

Sudden-onset lead poisoning, I’ll bet!

[cracker45]

Poison doesn’t require 24/7 monitoring, but I still like the 3 Ss for surefire confirmation!

JC

[midwyf]

Good. I can find nowhere in history that wolves were worshiped like they are by some today.