25 Oct 2012: Analysis
Few creatures in the United States have come as
close to extinction as the Mexican wolf, which was wiped out in the U.S.
by 1970. Now, scientists and conservationists contend, federal
officials are caving into political pressure and failing to implement a
legally mandated reintroduction plan.
by caroline fraserFor a melodrama of persecuted fugitives to rival
Les Misérables,
look no farther than the Mexican wolf, the subspecies of gray wolf that
once populated the U.S. Southwest. Hunted and trapped by ranchers and
federal agencies since the late 1800s, now detained by the same agencies
in pens called “wolf jail,” few species in North America have come
closer to extinction. Fewer still have suffered through attempted
recoveries so plagued by reversals and allegations of mismanagement.
Like Jean Valjean (#24601), they are known by their numbers. Extirpated
in the U.S. and nearly gone in Mexico by the 1970s, the wolves became
the focus of a captive breeding program launched by 1980 with a handful
of individuals, some interrelated. In 1998, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service —
the lead agency responsible for the wolves’ recovery
— reintroduced the first of 11 in the wild. That January, alpha female
#174 from the Campbell Blue pack was carried into a snowy stretch of the
Blue Range mountains of eastern Arizona and her cage door opened by
U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. By August, she was dead, shot
with a high-powered rifle by an unknown killer. Her companions were
slain, disappeared, or removed by wildlife officials for leaving the
recovery area, a violation of conditions of their parole.
Arizona Game and Fish Department
A female Mexican wolf paces in a pen before her release into the wild.
Since that time, many scientists and conservationists contend, the
Mexican wolf recovery in the wild has been a failure. Even the Fish
& Wildlife Service deemed the population “at risk of failure”
in its 2010 assessment of the program.
The recovery has been shadowed by accusations that U.S. officials have
shied away from their obligation under the Endangered Species Act to
fully protect Mexican wolves because of vehement opposition from western
states. A successful breeding program now maintains several hundred in
captivity, but only 58 survive in the wild, a marked contrast to the
more than 1,700 gray wolves that have repopulated the northern Rocky
Mountains after widely publicized reintroduction efforts.
The main reason for the faltering Mexican wolf program is a set of rules
— negotiated between the federal government and the states — more
restrictive than those governing any other endangered species
reintroduction. The Mexican wolves in this “nonessential experimental”
population may only be freed inside a small patch of Arizona, although
much of the recovery area lies in New Mexico; those preying on cattle
can be removed or legally killed; those straying outside must be trapped
and brought back, subverting natural behavior and dispersal. In the
temperate Southwest, they are surrounded year-round by cattle, an
ever-present temptation, unlike gray wolves to the north, where severe
winters limit grazing to a few months.
While defending the program as a success, Fish & Wildlife Service
officials have recently expressed frustration with those restrictive
rules. Tom Buckley, the agency’s spokesman in the southwest, pointed out
that “second and third-generation animals [are] living and breathing in
the wild” and called the program “pretty successful.” But he notes that
the release area is “full of wolves” with established territories,
making future releases hazardous for newcomers and halting progress.
So it was all the more surprising earlier this month, many experts say,
when the agency opted for the staus quo and denied a request to
classify the Mexican wolf,
Canis lupus baileyi, as a subspecies of the gray wolf,
Canis
Biologists and geneticists are incensed over what they see as political and bureaucratic interference.
lupus.
The protection already enjoyed by the wolf, the agency claimed, had
raised its numbers “from none... to 58.” Sherry Barrett, Mexican wolf
recovery coordinator, echoed that assessment, arguing that “It’s a big
success when you started from no animals in the wild.” But scientists
and environmental groups argue that a subspecies listing is essential
for a robust recovery, as it would require a new recovery plan and the
identification of “critical habitat,” which might extend into the
neighboring states of Colorado and Utah.
Biologists and geneticists summoned by the agency to revise the Mexican
wolf’s 30-year-old recovery plan have grown incensed over what they see
as political and bureaucratic interference. Their fears — that the Fish
& Wildlife Service is allowing states to hijack the scientific
process — are the basis of
a formal complaint of “Scientific and Scholarly Misconduct”
filed in June with the U.S. Interior Department, charging that the
federal Mexican wolf recovery program has become “the antithesis of
scientific integrity.”
The whistleblower organization behind this
J’accuse is Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which has harried the
agency over the Endangered Species Act since the Clinton years. In 14
single-spaced pages, PEER’s complaint also assails the agency’s National
Wolf Strategy, including the controversial, congressionally mandated
decision to remove the gray wolf in the northern Rockies from the
endandered species list. PEER claims Fish & Wildlife’s decisions
have lacked public transparency and review by independent scientists,
violating the Obama administration’s promise to honor the best available
science.
Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team
A Mexican wolf is released at Gila National Forest in New Mexico in 2010.
PEER has taken up the cause of scientists who recognize that the
lobo
is the most genetically distinct of all remaining wolf subspecies, a
Pleistocene relict of the first wave of wolves to colonize the
continent. The Mexican wolf is an irreplaceable fixture of the
modern-day restorationist’s fondest dream — that a Noah’s Ark of wolf,
jaguar, and the Bolson tortoise may one day revive ecosystems in the
Southwest degraded by centuries of overgrazing and development. Since
the 1990s, expert panels of wolf biologists commissioned by the Fish
& Wildlife Service have consistently advised the agency to follow
the science: Modify restrictive rules that require constant trapping and
relocating of the wolves, release them in Arizona and New Mexico, and
establish several wild populations so that the existing one cannot be
wiped out by disease, fire, or other threats.
The agency has consistently declined to do so, dismissing previous
panels tasked with revising the recovery plan. Philip Hedrick, an
Arizona State University genetics expert who served on those panels, has
grown increasingly alarmed by the agency’s failure to act, saying
delays erode dwindling chances for “genetic rescue.” Says Hedrick, “The
long-term and even the short-term survival of the wild population is in
jeopardy.”
Over the years, pups and entire wolf packs have been lethally “removed”
or taken into custody following livestock losses by public lands
ranchers, who lease forest allotments for cattle grazing. Among them was
Mule Pack alpha female #189, who lost a leg to frostbite while caught
in a trap. Re-released, she survived on three legs until she
disappeared. Overall, the Fish & Wildlife Service has removed more
wolves (153) than it has released (92). Nearly half the 88 reported
deaths have been caused by illegal shooting, while rural communities
have complained ceaselessly of threats to livestock and pets.
The Mexican wolf reinstroduction program has played out on a remote
stage, the rugged, juniper-covered canyons, grassy meadows, and heights
studded with ponderosa pines of the “
Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area” on
Entire wolf packs have been lethally ‘removed’ or taken into custody following livestock losses.
the border between Arizona and New Mexico. To reach it from
Albuquerque requires hours of driving, crossing the Continental Divide,
passing through the desolate Plains of San Agustin and its strange
spectacle of the Expanded Very Large Array, enormous dish antennas
trained on black holes. Spotting the elusive creature is nearly as
difficult. Smaller than the gray wolf, the
lobo is cryptically colored in browns and grays, and its numbers have remained tiny and its movements tightly controlled.
It took until 2010 for a Fish & Wildlife Service assessment to
acknowledge that Mexican wolves were “not thriving.” At that point
Benjamin Tuggle, director of the service’s Southwest region, summoned a
new recovery team. Its science panel was charged with updating the
recovery plan “consistent with the best available scientific
information.” That year, Obama’s Interior Department adopted a policy
demanding “clear and unambiguous... use of science in decision making.”
Scientists began preparing a confidential plan, proposing three
populations of at least 250 animals connected by corridors, standard
practice in recovering endangered species. Among suitable habitats, the
plan identified areas encompassing the north rim of the Grand Canyon and
border regions of Arizona and Utah, as well as New Mexico and southern
Colorado. That draft document was leaked last fall by state game
officials, igniting ferocious opposition from hunters’ groups and
prompting an angry letter from the Utah governor to Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar. In an op-ed, U.S Senator Orrin Hatch stated that Mexican
wolves “
do not belong in Utah” and decried the “environmental extremists” who would put them there.
The science panel nonetheless carried on, completing a longer draft plan
by May. PEER’s June complaint quoted Fish & Wildlife Service emails
in its contention that federal officials tried to improperly influence
the plan’s proposals for wolf numbers and potential habitat, with
Tuggle’s staff requesting a range of numbers instead of the “3 x 250”
recommendations: “You should not feel undo [sic] pressure at this point
to accommodate, per se, but you should recognize that this is his way of
telling you… what information he would like to see.”
Furthermore, the complaint argued that the broader National Wolf
Strategy paid more attention to state opposition and “political
concerns” than to science, proposing recovery efforts only for states
without objections, arguably a violation of the law. In June, the
American Society of Mammalogists warned the Fish & Wildlife Service
that further delays in reintroducing Mexican wolves will cause “irreparable harm,”
as captive wolves grow older and genetic opportunities are lost. By
September, the FWS had investigated and exonerated itself, finding the
complaint “not warranted.”
MORE FROM YALE e360
Scientists
have recently begun to understand the vital role played by top
predators in ecosystems and the profound impacts that occur when those
predators are wiped out. Now,
Caroline Fraser writes, researchers
are citing new evidence that shows the importance of lions, wolves,
sharks, and other creatures at the top of the food chain.
READ THE e360 REPORT
Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological
Diversity — one of the groups seeking to have the Mexican wolf declared a
subspecies — accused Fish & Wildlife Service officials of
“congratulating themselves on releasing wolves and not shooting every
one of them.” Robinson called the handling of the program “one of the
more spectacular” examples of the agency’s mismanagement, pointing out
that its own projections had called for 102 wolves and 18 breeding pairs
in the wild by 2006. The refusal of a subspecies listing was political,
he said, noting Colorado’s importance as a swing state in the upcoming
election.
In the midst of this heated debate, the Fish & Wildlife Service
announced in August that it would “lethally control” another wolf for
killing cattle. She was the Fox Mountain alpha female, caring for four
pups. After wolf advocates protested to the White House and legislators,
she was granted a reprieve, with plans made to place her in captivity.
She eluded authorities until Oct. 10, when she was caught in a federal
trap. A local conservation center has agreed to keep her for the rest of
her life.
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