Trapping Efforts Cut Number Of Wolves In Wild
	Compliments of February 2000

By JIM OWEN

Daily Press Staff

A government agency's recent trapping of wolves has left only eight of the reintroduced animals remaining in the wild, including one in New Mexico.

Several months ago, more than 20 wolves were living in Arizona's Apache National Forest, near the New Mexico line. But most members of three packs have been recaptured following livestock depredation incidents.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently rounded up the Mule Pack after its members scavenged a dead horse in the middle of a road, according to Wendy Brown, acting Wolf Recovery Team leader.

She said officials wanted to move the pack "to an area where they had elk as prey, and room for the pups to disperse."

In the course of trapping the wolf pair and two pups, the alpha female was left overnight in an unpadded, steel-jawed leghold trap, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. She reportedly suffered frostbite, and half her leg had to be amputed.

In a news release, the Fish and Wildlife Service said uninjured members of the Mule Pack will be re-released into the wild, possibly in the Gila Wilderness, once the agency completes an environmental assessment of possible Gila relocation sites.

"We will get them back out there just as soon as we possibly can," Brown said. The injured female also will be rereleased if biologists think she can survive.

The Mule Pack had four pups, but the two now in captivity are believed to be the only ones still alive. How the two missing pups met their fate is unknown.

"They most likely didn't survive," Brown said. "We have seen no evidence of them for months. It is possible they succumbed to the parvovirus."

The Fish and Wildlife Service has ceased trapping for a nearly 2-year-old pup from the Gavilan Pack. As of this morning, it was about 20 miles north of Snow Lake, according to Brown.

The young wolf is the only member of the pack remaining in the wild, the others having been recaptured following two cow depredations west of Glenwood.

"He looks great," Brown said. "He is being radio-tracked, and he's doing fine. He was not involved in the two depredations in New Mexico, and he was not involved in killing cats in Alma."

The animal's trek "is very typical behavior for a young wolf," she added, noting that he has "had an elk cow cornered for several days."

Remaining in captivity are members of the Pipestem Pack, which is the only wolf family to successfully reproduce in the wild in the Southwest in more than 70 years.

The agency's handling of the pack raised the ire of the Tucson-Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity.

"As a result of the capture, three pups died of canine parvovirus," the environmental organization wrote in a news release. "According to a report of a recovery team veterinarian who conducted necropsies on the Pipestem pups, the parvo was likely set off due to the stress of the pups' capture."

Brown called that allegation "nonsense," adding: "Those pups had already been exposed to parvo. They did not die because we captured them."

The center also criticized the Forest Service's recent reissuance of a grazing permit for the Citizen Allotment, between Arizona's Blue Range and the Gila Wilderness.

That was "where a cow carcass left out on the range preceded the Gavilan Pack's preying on cattle in New Mexico," the release stated.

"The renewal of the Citizen Allotment permit contained no requirement for proper disposal of cattle carcasses, nor any other measures to prevent conflicts between wolves and livestock operators," it said.

Brown said that while it is true the wolves fed on a carcass before killing the cows in New Mexico, they previously had been involved in the depredation of three cows in Arizona.

Public hearings for the environmental assessment of proposed Gila Wilderness release sites are set for 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, at the Reserve Community Center; and 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at Western New Mexico University's Light Hall.

Four areas have been identified as potential sites:

* McKenna Park -- between the West Fork of the Gila River and the East Fork of Mogollon Creek, west of the Diablo Mountains;

* Chicken Coop and Creel canyons -- between the West Fork and Middle Fork of the Gila River, east of Lily Mountain;

* Miller Springs -- between Turkey Creek and the Gila River, south of Granite Peak and northwest of Granny Mountain; and

* Halfmoon Park -- near White Creek, northeast of Snow Park and Mogollon Baldy.

The sites "were chosen to minimize the potential effects of livestock depredations and human use of the wilderness," Brown wrote in a news release.

"Some of the most likely reasons for relocating wolves (in the Gila Wilderness) include conflicts with livestock or other domestic animals; dispersal of wolves into inappropriate areas; replacement of a lost mate; or genetic management of the wild population," she added.

The translocation of wolves previously released in Arizona would be "on an as-needed basis, to quickly maximize the recovery value" of the animals, Brown said.

Grant and Catron County commissioners have approved resolutions opposing the release of wolves.

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