ABQJOURNAL: Wolf Killed After It Killed Livestock

A Mexican gray wolf that officials said was involved in at least three livestock killings in the past year has been shot and killed in the Gila National Forest.

A member of the wolf recovery team killed the male wolf last Sunday after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permanent removal order for it. The order came after the wolf was confirmed to have killed a cow in southeastern Catron County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing wolves into the wild on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range.

However, the animals under the program are designated as a ”nonessential experimental population.” That gives the recovery team greater flexibility to manage the wolves under the Endangered Species Act and allows permanent removal of a wolf — by capturing or killing it — after three confirmed livestock deaths.

Game and Fish Director Bruce Thompson said the state is working with Fish and Wildlife on federal rule changes “that will promote more effective recovery areas and diminish the likelihood of problem wolves in New Mexico.”

The reintroduction program allows Mexican gray wolves to be released in New Mexico only if they previously were released in Arizona and have experience in the wild.

The wolf recovery team said three Mexican wolves, an adult male and two female yearlings, will be released this month in the Gila Wilderness.

The male was captured and removed from the wild in 2005 after it was involved in a livestock death. The yearlings were removed from the wild last year after cattle killings by adults in their pack.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates 32 to 46 endangered Mexican wolves live in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico.

Last week, Fish and Wildlife officials said the alpha male of a pack that had been killing cattle on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona had been shot to death, and that eight other wolves captured from that pack had died — including six pups killed by a surrogate parent wolf.