A brief description of proposed changes in federal Mexican Wolf Management
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is proposing to reclassify the Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus bailey) as an endangered subspecies while de-listing the Grey Wolf.
The Service is also proposing to expand the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area (MWEPA) to include all of Arizona and New Mexico between Interstate 10 and Interstate 40.
The Service is also taking comments on the possibility in the final rule of expanding the MWEPA in Arizona to include all areas between Interstate 40 and the Mexican border.
Within the MWEPA, wolves may be harassed to stop livestock attacks. Landowners are allowed to shoot and kill wolves caught in the act of biting livestock on private property. In the areas outside the MWEPA, wolves are given full protection as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which classifies harassment as “take.”
Meanwhile, the Service has been delivering Mexican wolves from the Sevilleta wolf facility near Socorro, NM to the Mexican government for introduction south of our border. The collared wolves released in Mexico on April 11, 2013 were a potentially breeding pair. M1201 and F1032 were translocated from the Sevilleta Wolf Facility into the Janos Biosphere Reserve about 25-30 miles south of the New Mexico boot-heel. Should wolves wander north across the southern United States border into an area outside the MWEPA, they will receive full protection under the Endangered Species Act.