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For Immediate Release -- as excerpted from full PDF (3-pages)
June 25, 2024
Contact:
- Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org
- Cyndi Tuell, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 272-2454, cyndi@westernwatersheds.org
- Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club, (602) 999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Letter Urges Mexican Gray Wolves to Be Released as Families
SILVER CITY, N.M.— A coalition of conservation organizations today requested that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service resume releasing captive-born Mexican gray wolf pairs together with their pups into Arizona and New Mexico. Releases of wolf families that survive and breed would diversify the wild population’s depleted gene pool.
“Keeping families intact as they transition to living in the wild is the key to saving the Mexican wolf from extinction,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sadly, we know that three-quarters of the captive-born pups released into wild wolf dens through last year simply disappeared, leaving the gene pool stagnant. The Fish and Wildlife Service has to change course.”
The Service discontinued releases of well-bonded wolf families after 2006 because of pressure from the livestock industry. Since 2016 the agency has instead released captive-born pups into the dens of wild wolves.
Only 24 of the 99 pups released without their parents from 2016 through 2023 were ever seen alive again.
Mexican gray wolf. Credit: Robin Silver / Center for Biological Diversity. Image is available for media use.