Wolf Haven & Mexican Wolf Recovery
Wolf Haven International is proud to be an important partner in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. Wolf Haven is one of only three US pre-release breeding facilities for the program where wolves are placed for breeding and aversive conditioning prior to release in the wild. Since the first year of releases, in 1998, two packs of Mexican gray wolves (The original Hawk's Nest Pack and the Cienega Pack) have gone from Wolf Haven International to Arizona's Apache National Forest. Both groups of wolves have fared extremely well in the wild, making substantial contributions to Mexican Wolf Recovery.
Lorenzo is a Mexican gray wolf who resides at Wolf Haven. Photo by Julie Lawrence.
What happened to the Mexican gray wolf?
The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) - also known as the lobo - is the most highly endangered subspecies of gray wolf. In fact, the Mexican gray wolf is one of the rarest mammals in the world. It is estimated that at least 4,000 of these wolves once roamed across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and were equally as abundant in Mexico.
Like the other gray wolves in the United States, Mexican gray wolves were exterminated by government programs and private individuals to the point of near extinction. When the idea for wolf recovery in the Southwest began in the late 70s, officials had to face the reality that two of the indigenous species were extinct. There were originally three separate sub-species of gray wolves that could be considered Mexican wolves – Canis lupus (C.l.) monstrabillis, C.l. mogollonensis, and C.l. baileyi. By the time wolves were wanted to re-establish a population, only C.l. baileyi remained – and not in the U.S.
Recovery Efforts
A former wolf-trapper, Roy T. McBride, was commissioned in 1977 by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a survey of Mexican wolves in Mexico. What started as a survey ended as a trapping mission with the goal of starting a captive breeding program. Over a period of three years, McBride live-trapped five Mexican wolves in two regions of Mexico. Three of those wolves became founders of what came to be known as the McBride lineage of the Mexican wolf captive breeding program. The first litter of pups from the McBride lineage was born at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona in 1978.
By 1995, about 100 Mexican wolves had been born to the McBride line. Recovery officials were understandably concerned about the low number of founders (and therefore the level of inbreeding) for the captive population of this most rare of North American canids. Early on in the captive breeding program, the search had begun for additional Mexican wolves to add to the captive blood line. As there were not thought to be any wild Mexican wolves remaining, even in Mexico, recovery officials had to turn to captive populations of wolves.
Mexican gray wolf being released into the wilds of the southwest. Photo courtesy of USFWS.
There were two captive populations that were considered. One was the Mexican wolves from the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. The zoo population was founded by two wolves in the mid 1970’s. The other captive population was a group of what were thought to be Mexican wolves that were privately owned. This captive group was also founded by only two wolves. The male was trapped near Tumacacori, Arizona in 1959 and the female was purchased by a Canadian tourist in Yecora, Sonora, Mexico in 1961. After an extensive genetic assessment of these two captive-born groups, the decision was made to add both of them to the captive breeding program for a much needed genetic infusion. Eight wolves were taken from the zoo in Mexico City and named the Aragon lineage. Twenty-two wolves were added to the breeding program from the privately owned group in the United States which came to be known as the Ghost Ranch line.
By the time these two new lineages were added, there were a relatively large number of wolves representing the McBride line. The same became true in the Southwestern wilderness when Mexican wolves were first returned to the wild in 1998. As more representation from the Aragon and Ghost Ranch lineages has been bred into the population of captive wolves, the push has begun to also increase those lines in the wild population.
Mexican gray wolf prior to release in the wilds of the southwest. Photo courtesy of USFWS.
To assist with that goal, in November 2006, Wolf Haven received a male known as 752 from the California Wolf Center. Half of 752’s genes come from the Ghost Ranch lineage, making him an extraordinarily valuable male, genetically speaking, for the direction the program is trying to take at the moment. His chosen mate, known at Wolf Haven as Lola, but known to the recovery program as 908, is a tri-lineage wolf, meaning that she has ancestors from all three lineages. While recovery officials need 752 to infuse the wild population with his rare genes, they would also like the option of having a wolf of his lineage contribute to the captive population. As a male, it is relatively simple to obtain and preserve his genetic material for future use. Before breeding season this year, biologists from the red wolf program which is based at Point Defiance in near-by Tacoma, collected semen from 752 to be stored for potential future use. Artificial insemination has been used with some success, both in the red wolf and Mexican wolf breeding programs.
Semen collection of genetically valuable #752. Photo by Julie Lawrence.
As one of about forty breeding facilities for the Mexican wolf SSP, Wolf Haven has had four litters born here since our acceptance into the program in 1994. We are hoping for another litter this year from 752 and Lola. As with all things involving wild animals, however, there are no guarantees. As one of only three pre-release facilities in the United States, we have had two packs released directly into the wild in Arizona – the Hawks Nest Pack in 1998 and the Cienega Pack in 2000. We are hoping that 752 and Lola may be the alpha pair of the next pack of Mexican wolves to be released from Wolf Haven.
Female Mexican gray wolf pup born spring 2007 at Wolf Haven. Photo by Erik Wilber.
The next time you visit Wolf Haven, make sure and check out our exhibit Mexican gray wolves Diablo, and his companion, Gypsy, who is Lola’s sister. About a quarter of a mile away in one of our pre-release enclosures, 752 and Lola are living in relative isolation preparing for the time when they may join their wild brothers and sisters as the last hope for this incredibly rare canid.
