Defenders of Wildlife has learned that two more Mexican gray wolves were recently caught in foothold traps in New Mexico. One of the wolves underwent veterinary treatment and will be re-released while the other pulled the trap loose and remains in the wild.
These latest incidental trappings add to a growing list of incidents in recent years. There have been 13 wolves caught unintentionally in traps in the last four years, with three occurring just in 2019.
Bryan Bird, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife, issued this statement:
"Cases of Mexican gray wolves being caught in traps have become far too common. With populations in New Mexico still recovering, the loss of any endangered wolf is unacceptable. We cannot afford for a single wolf to be injured or killed from preventable incidents like these.
“It's time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take decisive law enforcement action and for the New Mexico Game Commission to close occupied wolf areas to commercial and recreational trapping altogether."
Background:
• At last count in January 2019, 131 Mexican gray wolves roamed the wild in Arizona and New Mexico. Reintroduction and recovery efforts have achieved moderate success, as the wolf population has increased in recent years. These wolves are the result of a reintroduction program that began in 1998 with the releases of family groups of well-bonded male and female pairs and their pups.
• According to USFWS information, at least 42 Mexican gray wolves have been caught in traps since 2002. Four occurred in Arizona and the remainder occurred in New Mexico. Three more caught in non-intended traps in 2019 bring the total to 45.
• Two bills proposed in the New Mexico legislature this year, HB 366 (Wildlife Protection and Public Safety Act) and SB 390 (Trapping Regulation Changes) were postponed indefinitely. These two bills would have established various levels of restrictions on trapping to protect wildlife and the public.
• A federal judge in April 2018 rejected provisions in a 2015 federal management rule that unlawfully imposed roadblocks to recovery of the endangered Mexican wolf. The rule arbitrarily limited the lobos’ population numbers, banned them from needed recovery habitat, and loosened the rules against killing the animals in the wild.
• Federal, state and tribal wildlife agencies utilize targeted, humane trapping as a primary tool for live capture of some wolves as needed for radio collaring and veterinary health checks.
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