Some Animals Going To The Ladder Ranch
	Compliments of February 2000

By JANIS MARSTON

For The Daily Press

GLENWOOD -- Dust swirled around the green cylindrical transport cage that carried one alpha male Mexican gray wolf and its 8-month-old pup down the back road from Smoothing Iron Mesa on Wednesday.

A government truck hauled the two wolves east, away from the New Mexico-Arizona state line, where they had been released as part of a program to reintroduce wolves into the wild. The program soured when this pack -- the Gavilan or "hawk" in Spanish -- was documented to have killed three cows in Arizona and two more, including a 1,500-pound bull, just west of here.

The two male wolves were headed to Ted Turner's Ladder Ranch near Truth or Consequences. Traveling by way of Silver City and Hillsboro, it was the end of freedom and a journey toward a life of captivity for the Gavilan alpha male. The male, linked to the cattle depredations, will stay at the Ladder Ranch and be used for breeding.

Biologists with the federal government's Wolf Recovery Program hope to rerelease the other captured members of the Gavilan Pack, as well as the Pipestem Pack, into the vast Gila Wilderness.

Two of the eight-member Gavilan Pack wolves were not trapped. One, a 2-year-old, radio-collared male, left the pack to find territory of its own and has been located in the Snow Lake area of the Gila National Forest east of here. It will be allowed to roam.

The final member of the pack, another pup, is not wearing a radio collar and biologists do not know its location. "It could be dead for all we know," said the biologist behind the wheel of the wolf-transport truck. She asked not to be named.

The five pups have not been seen together since October before the pack was moved to the Glenwood area, according to the Wolf Recovery Team.

She said traps for the pup would continue to be set on Smoothing Iron Mesa, near the grazing allotment where the bull and pregnant cow were killed. No more cattle depredations have been reported since early January, when the bull's carcass was found and wolf traps were set.

However, wolf sightings and anti-wolf sentiments are swirling around the small communities of Alma and Glenwood with more frequency.

"The children can't play in the forest as they once did (here)," begins a press release labeled "No to Wolves! -- Tiny New Mexico Village Plans Huge Protest Rally." The rally is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, at Glenwood's park.

"Over a thousand people are expected" to attend, the release states. Distributed by Glenwood's Chamber of Commerce, it continues: "Mothers will speak about being afraid to let their children play outside because of wolves roaming the village. Judy Cummings, environmentalist-turned-rancher, will tell about being 'sold out' by environmental groups."

Cummings and partner, Bud Collins, run the Cross Y Ranch and the allotment west of Glenwood where the wolves killed two of their cattle.

A few miles north of Glenwood is the community of Alma. Residents there have been seeing wolves on the hillsides, in the fields or on Mineral Creek Road for several months.

Susan Venus, who runs the Red Hen Café, said she nearly hit a wolf with her car last Friday. It was carrying a cat head, she said.

Frozen in her headlights, it dropped the head on Mineral Creek Road and ran up a hill. Venus retrieved the cat head and put it in a freezer, safekeeping it for evidence.

The cat belonged to Georgia and Kelly Klumker, who live on that road, and used to have 22 cats. Now there are 15 and the Klumkers say wolves got them.

In mid-January, Georgia was washing her windows when she said she saw a wolf carrying off one of her cats. It was on Mineral Creek Road about 70 feet from her clean window and then went up the hillside directly across from the Klumkers' house.

Some news reports have made much of the fact that she is an 81-year-old great-grandmother. But Georgia, a country woman all her life, says she knows what she saw. It wasn't a coyote, she said.

Her husband, Kelly, saw it, too. "I'm sure it was a wolf," he said. Besides, he said, "coyotes have always been around and nothing like this has happened."

He cites other instances that point to a different kind of predator in the area and said his neighbors are seeing the same reactions: Dogs trembling in fear with their hair standing straight up and three deer running full speed across his field. "I've never seen anything like that. Something really had them scared."

His three horses also are acting strange. "The horses aren't bothered by coyotes but they're spooked at something," he said, pointing to a metal gate that was knocked loose and dragged 20 feet away by a frightened horse.

The Klumkers and daughter Kathleen Schuster, who lives on the same property with them, say they are afraid. "Especially for the grandchildren," Schuster said of her three, who often play in the yard. She said she also worries about her own safety when she comes home in the dark.

Wildlife biologists with the wolf reintroduction program have visited Alma and Mineral Creek Road several times, trying to find signs of wolves in the area. So far, there have been no conclusive signs.

Some who say they've seen a wolf described the animal as being much larger than a coyote. They estimate the animal weighs up to 70 pounds.

Biologists who have been caring for the Gavilan Pack said the alpha male weighs 58 pounds. The pups weigh between 50 and 55 pounds, they said.

Venus, the café owner, said she and a tracker went out together earlier this week to view tracks left by the animal she almost hit. The tracks were not wolf tracks, she said, admitting she's now not sure what kind of animal she saw.

"This thing's huge," Venus said, placing her hand almost three feet from the floor to show the animal's height. "If it's a coyote, it's the biggest friggin' coyote I've ever seen."

Wendy Brown, wolf program team leader, said this morning the only tracks any of her biologists have seen are those of coyotes or dogs.

Comment on this topic here

webmaster?subject=Wolves%20Going%20To%20The%20Ladder%20Ranch%20Page">