Wolves Coming Back To The Gila This Week

Silver City, NM. (AP)

Mexican gray wolves will make their reappearance in the Gila Wilderness this week.

The Fish and Wildlife Service was building a temporary mesh pen in the Gila today, where the endangered Mexican gray wolves will be kept for up to 30 days to acclimate to the area. The first wolves are to be moved to the pens Wednesday.

Wolves are being moved from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on the Arizona-New Mexico line after some of the animals killed cattle.

Fish and Wildlife chose the Gila to release the wolves because it has extensive roadless areas free of human habitation or active cattle grazing allotments.

The first group, four wolves from the Mule pack, are to be moved into the pens Wednesday, the agency said. The pack consists of an adult pair, with the female pregnant, and two pups born last year.

A second pack, the Pipestem, will be moved to the Gila and released later this month. That pack consists of an adult pair, with that female also pregnant; three pups born in 1999; and a 2-year old female. Biologists have not decided whether to release the 2-year old female , however, said Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Vicki Fox .

Wolves have been responsible for eight confirmed livestock kills through January, and the agency recaptured many of the animals.

Ted Turner's 210,000-acre Ladder Ranch near Truth or Consequences is the new home for at least five wolves. These animals are from the so-called Gavilan Pack, blamed for attacking cattle in western New Mexico in December and January. The adult Gavilan wolves initially were released in Arizona, had pups, then roamed into New Mexico.

The Mule Pack did not attack cattle but was recaptured to move them to a better hunting site with more elk, Fish and Wildlife said.

The rare wolves first were released in Arizona in 1998 in a federal program to restore Mexican gray wolves to the wild. Five of the original 13 were shot, and one of the 22 wolves released last year was killed by a car.

Hearings early this month in the Gila-area communities of Reserve and Silver City drew standing-room crowds of opponents and supporters of wolf relocation.

Ranchers, who bitterly oppose moving wolves to the Gila, have said they fear attacks on humans, losses of livestock and damage to hunting.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said it received more than 9,000 comments on the plan. But, it said, the public participation process was not a vote on whether packs would be released, but rather an effort to find out whether the release would have any impact not already discussed in an environmental impact statement.

	Wolves Coming Back To The Gila This Week
	Compliments of March 2000