Field Notes: Mexican Gray Wolf Technician Field Notes from Winter 2024

As winter transitions into spring, wildlife technicians supporting the Mexican gray wolf recovery project conduct annual population counts with the Interagency Field Team. These young professionals, supported in part by Defenders of Wildlife, help to monitor the Mexican gray wolf population's health and genetic diversity.  This crucial part of the species’ recovery program requires immense time and effort from wildlife managers in New Mexico and Arizona. Wildlife technicians try various tactics to look for the wolves, including speaking with landowners about sightings, utilizing wildlife cameras, and even interpreting tracks and analyzing scat.  

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USFWS

Scat is the least invasive method to monitor wolf packs but also has the potential to be inaccurate. Several carnivore species live on this landscape, and distinguishing wolf scat from that of coyotes, cougars, bobcats and domestic dogs can be tricky. To understand why this method is valuable, we look to our wildlife technicians — invaluable, seasonal staff who support the Interagency Field Team which is made up of government agencies and tribes collaborating to recover one of the world’s most endangered land mammals.

“You’re still probably asking yourself why it is important to collect scat. Well, the answer is simple, DNA. With scat, if it hasn’t been sitting out too long and gotten brittle, it can provide ways to identify if it was deposited by a pack you’re specifically looking at or an uncollared wolf on the landscape. This is especially significant, since uncollareds can either be singles looking for a pack or multiples with an already established pack in an area unknown to us. Yes, there are mistakes, and other animals can be identified, but it has been a boon and large percentage of DNA mapping resources for Arizona for the last year.” –  Austin Nino  

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Maggie Howell

Ground counts and camera monitoring are important parts of the annual population census. The most exciting counts are conducted by helicopter, also known as “helo-ops.”  These operations, which usually occur in January, are crucial to covering the remote areas of Arizona and New Mexico that make up the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. This past winter,  some of the wildlife technicians had the opportunity to support the White Mountain Apache Tribe with their sky operations in the population count.  

“We only caught one wolf over the four days, but it was an older male whose collar had died so that was pretty cool! It was very interesting to see the processes involved in helicopter operations and was wonderful to be able to meet new people within the program.” – Jessica Ridge

Wildlife technicians provide regional and federal wildlife managers with daily logs of field activities.  These early professionals learn firsthand just how important the daily tasks – such as administering vaccines to wild and captive wolves – are to the recovery of the Mexican gray wolf.  

“Everyone gathered in unison, the veterinarians, the tribal members, and the biologists in charge. It was a well-oiled machine with not a moment wasted. The wolf’s collar had been successfully changed and been carefully reevaluated since his initial entry into the project. Being able to witness the working up of a wolf was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was enough to fill any person with unfettered joy and surreal feeling. Albeit also with a stench of stink that most canids have from rolling around in detritus and all manner of grizzly prey items. Waiting with the wolf was the most intimate setting I’ve had with one.” – Austin Nino

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Evelyn Lichwa / Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team

“After an hour of cautiously driving with the wolf in the back of my truck we get to the release sight. Opening the gate of the pen and backing away — nothing happens. Five minutes pass, then ten. Still nothing. Finally, I go over and lift the back of the enclosure and the wolf slides forward to the door. Still nothing. I jiggle the pen a few times and explosively, the wolf darts of the pen and up the adjacent hill. About 25 yards away, the wolf looks back for a second locking eyes. This one second of recognition makes a lifetime of being flexible to change and the compounding of plans all worth it. Heading back to the office after the release, you being ready to plan for the next day, sort of hoping for lightning to be struck again.”   – Louis Garcia  

Government conservation programs are among the most powerful tools to recover and preserve imperiled species. Yet, the full scale of this work — and the many hands that support It — often goes unnoticed. As recovery programs like this one, and so many others across the country, come under scrutiny, however, the impact will be very noticeable. The continued recovery of this incredible animal may be in jeopardy. Defenders of Wildlife will continue to support programs like this, as well as advocate for those who work tirelessly for the success of these wolves and the well-being of surrounding human communities.

“Respect for the lands, the people and the animals on the landscape is tantamount to the project ensuring its continued success.” –  Austin Nino  

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Wolf Conservation Center

The wildlife technicians are sponsored through a collaborative effort with Defenders of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support field activities of the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team. The program is designed for college students and recent graduates pursuing careers in wildlife management and conservation and provides hands-on experience for the technicians and vital field support for the agencies to increase wolf monitoring, security, conflict-prevention and wolf survival.