First Wolf Release Will Be In Gila
	From the April 2000

By Tania Soussan
Journal Staff Writer
    Mexican gray wolves should be roaming free in the Gila Wilderness by this weekend, marking the first wolf release in New Mexico.
    A team of biologists packed into the remote area north of Silver City this week to release the four wolves in the Mule pack, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Bauer said Friday.
    The alpha female is expected to give birth to pups next week, so biologists wanted her to be in the wild in time to find a den site.
    "She is extremely pregnant, and she delivered around April 1 last year, which is quite early," said Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Vicki Fox.
    The Mule pack wolves will be the first released in New Mexico as part of the federal reintroduction program. The program aims to re-establish wild packs of the endangered animals, which were hunted to the brink of extinction.
    Environmentalists have hailed the release in the Gila, but cattle ranchers and some area residents have bitterly opposed the move.
    A second pack of five wolves, known as the Pipestem, will be taken to large mesh holding pens in the Half Moon area of the Gila early next week, Fox said.
    The pack will stay in the pens until they are acclimated to the area.
    That will bring the number of Mexican gray wolves either roaming free or in acclimation pens in the wild to 22.
    Meanwhile, a male wolf pup was struck and killed by a car on an Arizona highway about a week ago.
    That pup, who was almost a year old, had been released in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona with his parents and two siblings earlier this month.
    His body was spotted along Arizona Highway 191 south of Hannagan Meadow by a passing motorist and reported March 25, just a few days after the pup left an acclimation pen.
    He was the second Mexican gray wolf to be killed by a car. A pup was killed near the New Mexico-Arizona border last year.
    "They just don't do well near roads," Bauer said.
    "Before we began the program, we predicted that would be one of the causes of death," he said. "It's unfortunate but not unexpected."
    The Mule pack wolves were recaptured from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in far eastern Arizona after some of the animals killed cattle.
    They were taken to a mesh acclimation pen in the Creel Canyon area of the Gila on March 24 and were to be released late this week or this weekend, Bauer said.
    The other wolves in the wild include a young male from the Gavilan pack, who will turn 2 this spring and has been exploring on his own.
    Field staff haven't been able to locate that wolf, but someone spotted a large doglike animal just south of Datil on March 23.
    Tracks that could have belonged to a wolf were later spotted following elk tracks in the area. Field staff are continuing to search and hope to pick up signals from the Gavilan wolf's radio collar.
    Also in the wild are the Hawk's Nest pack, an adult pair and three pups. They are successfully killing and feeding on elk, according to Arizona Game and Fish Department.

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