Despite efforts made by livestock producers and the government to stop depredation by Mexican gray wolves, four wolves in southwestern New Mexico were killed, prompting outcries from wildlife groups.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a Freedom of Information Act request to determine what led federal agencies in March to authorize the killings. Three memos were written by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS’) Mexican wolf recovery coordinator between March 3 and March 24, regarding the Prieto and Mangas Pack. The Mangas Pack lives near the state line with Arizona, while the Prieto pack lives several dozen miles to the southeast.
The USFWS on March 18 said there were 163 endangered Mexican gray wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, a population increase for the second year in a row.
In a memorandum dated March 24, USFWS stated, “The Prieto Pack and associated uncollared/failed collared wolves have engaged in a chronic series of depredation in late 2019 and early 2020. Twelve confirmed wolf-caused depredations of livestock occurred in a localized area in southwest New Mexico from Sept. 22, 2019, to March 24, 2020. These livestock were lawfully present on federal or private land.”
A separate memorandum regarding the Prieto Pack dated March 3 stated seven depredation losses occurred. On March 23, uncollared m1862 was lethally removed, and on March 28, AM1398 was lethally removed.
“I am concerned with the numerous depredations in this area over a short period of time and the toll these depredations have caused the livestock producer,” Brady McGee, coordinator of the Mexican gray wolf program, wrote. “It is the service’s intent to recover the Mexican wolf in a manner that reduces economic effects on the local livestock industry.”
In a memorandum dated March 13, USFWS stated eight confirmed wolf-caused depredations of livestock occurred from Nov. 4, 2019, to March 9, 2020, as a result of the Mangas Pack. The memo authorized to “lethally control or capture via live trapping and remove any two of the following wolves: m1832, m1839, f1840, m1842, or uncollared wolves. Removal is authorized for two wolves at this time.” On March 28, 2020, m1839 and f1840 were lethally removed in New Mexico.
The current management plan for the wolves allows agencies to “intentionally harass, implement non-lethal control measures, translocate, place in captivity, or lethally control problem wolves.”
The Interagency Field Team (IFT) and ranchers/permittees have taken a wide variety of preventative measures to avoid additional depredations.
Measures have included ranchers actively hazing wolves and looking for depredation, IFT hazing between Jan and March, and also initiating a diversionary food cache in March. A rancher in the range of the Mangas Pack maintained a range rider in the area. During the annual count and capture operations in February, the IFT unsuccessfully attempted to remove AM1398 from the Prieto Pack.
McGee directed the IFT to “continue or increase their proactive management efforts to reduce conflict with livestock by (a) continuing to conduct intensive wolf monitoring, (b) continue hazing wolves following the completion of removal activities, and (c) continuing to coordinate with livestock producers in the depredation area.”
He also thanked “the livestock producers in this area for their efforts to reduce Mexican wolf livestock conflicts, and the Mexican Wolf/Livestock Council, the Arizona Livestock Loss Board, and the Farm Services Agency for their financial compensation to the livestock producers for past, current, and any future depredation losses.”
On April 15, the USFWS opened up a 60-day public comment period as the beginning step in its revision of the 2015 Mexican wolf management rule, which a federal district judge ordered rewritten in response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity. — Charles Wallace, WLJ correspondent
