KNAU (Original) Posted October 2, 2017 by Ryan Heinsius
State wildlife managers have released a study highlighting the historical range of endangered Mexican gray wolves. It contends the animal’s territory was almost entirely in Mexico, but as KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius reports, some conservation groups are skeptical of the findings.
The authors used ecological and other evidence to determine 90 percent of the wolf’s habitat was in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The paper, co-written by an Arizona Game and Fish Department biologist, argues releasing Mexican gray wolves in northern Arizona would risk them breeding with other wolf species.
But groups like the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project dispute the paper. They say areas north of Interstate-40 and on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon are crucial for their recovery.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a new management plan that would limit the animal’s range to southern Arizona and New Mexico. There were at least 113 Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest at last count.
