Gish, Dan (1977) An Historical Look at the Mexican Gray Wolf

In 1990 the Arizona Game and Fish Department published a chronology of the Mexican wolf  (canis lupus baileyi). The chronology does a good job of documenting the uncertainty of the lineage of the canines currently being propagated by the federal govenment under the banner of “Mexican wolf recovery.”

The chronology also references a fascinating historical review of the Mexican wolf by Dan Gish, which it says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published in 1977.  Unfortunately despite its citation in numerous USFWS Mexican wolf recovery documents, this report is apparently not available anywhere online other than this web page.

Gish’s study soundly refutes many of the claims being made by the “Mexican wolf recovery” zealots. For example, Gish presents evidence from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service records that as early as 1919, the Mexican “wolf” may have been heavily hybridized by feral dogs that were caught running in equal numbers in the same packs as the “wolves.”

Furthermore, Dan Gish’s paper shows that all the total number of wolves of all subspecies combined, that were taken by predator control agents in Arizona and New Mexico at any  time  over a period of more than 5 decades, were far fewer than the minimum population goal of 750, of just the Mexican wolf subspecies, that the wolf zealots now propose to establish.

Click here to view: Gish, Dan; “An Historical Look at the Mexican wolf (canis lupus baileyi) in Early Arizona Territory and Since Statehood,” US Fish And Wildlife Service, 1977