- By Bryan Bird and Michael Dax
- Nov 25, 2023
- https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/allow-wolves-to-keep-on-roaming/article_22b44968-898f-11ee-8932-93fbffb12388.html
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The wandering Mexican gray wolf, nicknamed Asha, has been celebrated on the pages of The New Mexican and beyond.
The wolf is likely looking for a mate or fresh territory as her wandering is an innate behavior that reduces the likelihood of breeding with pack mates. In fact, this type of movement could help wildlife managers solve the problem of inbreeding that threatens the small population of Mexican gray wolves and should be supported not hindered by misinformation and myth.
A recent guest commentary in by Jeff Young, however, is an example of the continued fallacy and fearmongering used to argue against allowing wolves to roam beyond the experimental population area in New Mexico and Arizona (“Keep wolves within historic range,” My View, Nov. 18).
Some rely on an outdated and politically motivated interpretation of “historical wolf range” to justify keeping wolves out of the very places that biologists say are essential to recovery.
The best science indicates Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado are (and historically have been) suitable habitat for Mexican gray wolves — as evidenced by Asha’s repeated northward movement.
Young makes claims about the effects on elk and deer hunting due to the presence of this native carnivore on the landscape. The actual numbers bear out the opposite story.
Data from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and Arizona Game and Fish Department show that deer and elk hunting improved with the growing presence of wolves. Defenders of Wildlife analyzed hunter success rates and harvest numbers in the Experimental Population Area from 2007 to 2019.
In both states, elk and deer hunting success rates improved or remained steady at the same time the wolf population more than tripled (from 52 to 163). Overall, hunting increased 22% for elk and 12% for deer. (Similar increases have been recorded in the Northern Rockies in relation to gray wolves.)
In New Mexico, the percentage of successful hunts remained stable at 36% for elk and between 22% and 24% for deer.
The data shows wolves do not negatively affect hunter take.
Although wolves have not impacted hunting opportunities, wolves do influence the behavior of their prey. Wolves keep elk and deer populations in check, which can prevent overgrazing and maintain intact river systems. Also, because wolves tend to hunt older, sicker animals that are not typically targeted by hunters, they may also slow the spread of deadly infectious diseases, like chronic wasting disease, among prey animals.
For millennia, wolves and elk coexisted in North America until European settlers nearly killed off both species.
Today’s populations of wolves and Rocky Mountain elk are a prime example of the result of federal and state reintroduction efforts. An example we should strive to emulate in other areas.
Allowing Mexican gray wolves to return to historical landscape and resume their important ecological role would benefit the wolves, the elk and their habitat.
With this in mind, New Mexico and Colorado need to recommit to wolves in the Southern Rockies as this mixing zone could guard against the loss of the Mexican subspecies in Southern New Mexico and northern Mexico.
It is simply the right thing to do.
Wolves once roamed from Canada to Mexico and the Mexican subspecies bred with other subspecies, preventing inbreeding and associated negative health effects. It is not illegal for the Mexican gray wolves to roam north of Interstate 40. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state Department of Game and Fish do have the authority to remove wolves outside the Experimental Population Area, but they have a protocol to make that decision based on the behavior of the animal.
Northern New Mexico is not complete without the howl of the lobo, and for an animal like Asha who seems committed to wandering, it is our duty to give her that freedom.
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