Tell the Feds: Save Mexican Wolves From Inbreeding Doom
Scientists urge releases of at least five family packs of endangered Mexican gray wolves into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico this spring, to diversify the gene pool of the inbred wolves in the wild. Only 110 wolves, including 8 breeding pairs, now live in Arizona and New Mexico. Inbreeding means few pups being born and few surviving to adulthood.
The Gila includes the world's first wilderness area with abundant elk and deer. The government intends to place captive-born pups in the dens of wild wolves and hope the adults accept the new pups as their own. This move, an effort to limit protests from the livestock industry, could work, but a similar experiment in 2006 led to the deaths of five pups in the Hon Dah pack.
Time is running out for Mexican wolves, and they can't afford risky experiments. Urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release at least five wolf families into the Gila to increase genetic diversity before it's too late.
Dear Secretary Jewell and Director Ashe,
Please ensure that your reluctant, if not recalcitrant, southwestern regional office releases at least five captive-bred family groups of Mexican gray wolves into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico this spring in order to address the emergency of inbreeding afflicting the wild Mexican wolf population. Scientists including within the Interior Department have been urging such releases since 2000, all the paperwork has finally been accomplished, and it is time to let the wolves go.
Do not allow the politically influenced focus on "cross-fostering" of wolf pups from captivity — a misguided distraction that consumes the Southwest Regional Office — to detract from the urgent necessity of releasing family groups of wolves together. The former is experimental, risky and uncertain; the latter has often been successful. And do not allow timid managers to release fewer than five wolf packs this spring. The inbreeding is so severe that many captive-bred wolves must be added to the wild population.
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