The Fish and Wildlife Service has been reintroducing Mexican gray wolves to the wild, but relations with livestock have complicated their comeback.

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Nearly a decade after the federal government began its plan to bring back the Mexican gray wolf, a mere 59 are believed to be living in the wild.

Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reintroduced more than 90 of the endangered wolves, the complex balance of placing the animals into areas with livestock has made their comeback problematic.

Fish and Wildlife is giving the public a chance to revisit its policy governing wolf reintroduction over two weeks of hearings that began Monday. A local hearing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at the University of Arizona.

Passions on both sides of the issue run high. Many ranchers are upset that the wolves kill their cattle and other livestock and want the wolves removed, while some environmentalists are adamant that having the wolves in the wild is necessary to maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Critics say the population of Mexican gray wolves — a rare gray-wolf subspecies — has failed to thrive because of poor policy.

Just last week the government raised the ire of wildlife advocates by announcing it would be removing two females and their pups from one of the packs currently roaming a designated reintroduction area called the Blue Range, in Eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Those wolves, part of a pack known as the Aspen pack, have killed several cattle in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said.

Slown said Fish and Wildlife promised the ranchers that it would work with them and try to prevent losses of livestock.

"The wolves have a direct impact on livestock — wolves kill cows. We wish they would only kill elk," Slown said.

The six agencies that manage the Blue Range area have a "three strikes" rule for the wolves — they are allowed three livestock killings before they're targeted for removal, Slown said. Removal means the government will try to trap the wolves, which are wearing radio collars. Wolves that are trapped are typically placed in captivity.

But if authorities can't trap the two adult wolves, they will shoot and kill them. Slown said they will not shoot the pups.

Three wolves in the Aspen pack were captured outside the Blue Range Recovery Area on Nov. 1. One adult male was moved to a captive facility at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge north of Socorro, N.M., and two female pups were collared and released back into the Blue Range area.

Also last month, the Albuquerque Journal reported that another entire pack of wolves — the three-member Durango wolf pack —is missing and efforts to find it have been unsuccessful, even though the wolves wear radio collars that emit signals indicating their whereabouts.

Advocates of keeping the Mexican gray wolf in the wild are disappointed that the number of wolves in the recovery area has failed to flourish in the last few years. Some of the wolves have died as a result of complications during removals. Others have been shot and at least 10 were hit by vehicles.

Groups such as Defenders of Wildlife say the wolves should be allowed to live outside the reintroduction area, which they say is too small to support a viable population.

Defenders of Wildlife Southwest Director Eva Sargent says 75 percent of the wolves' diet is elk, 10 or 11 percent is deer and about 4 percent is livestock.

"Ecosystems need big predators because they are what runs the entire show, regulates everything else," Sargent said.

As an example, Sargent noted that when the northern gray wolf was returned to Yellowstone National Park, the vegetation also returned. Deer had been eating up all the trees and plants, but once the wolves came back and balanced the deer population, plant life returned.

"All the opinion polls show the majority of people in Arizona and New Mexico want wolves," Sargent said. "Wolves are really wonderful. We have enough prey and area to make room for these animals, we just need to be creative about these cattle conflicts."

Slown said about 350 Mexican gray wolves are currently living in captivity in 47 facilities and other places that hold wolves.