For the first time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has deliberately killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf, a species the agency reintroduced to eastern Arizona in 1998.
The female adult was shot and killed Tuesday in the Gila National Forest in western New Mexico, said Victoria Fox, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife in Albuquerque.
The wolf that was deliberately shot and her mate, captured in a leg-hold trap May 21, had been preying on livestock, Fox said. The female had attacked three head of cattle, killing one calf and injuring two others, since the male's capture, she said.
"This wolf had been given tremendous consideration in order to see her be successful in the wild before the decision to take lethal-control action was made," Fox said. "That was a decision that was very carefully made."
Fox also reported the death of another female adult wolf found Sunday near the Arizona town of Vernon in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest. The wolf will be taken to the service's forensics laboratory in Oregon to determine the cause of death.
The agency's deliberate killing of the New Mexico wolf and the declining numbers of the endangered animals reflect a systematic mismanagement of the recovery program, said Michael Robinson, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in Piņos Altos, N.M.
Wolves will continue to suffer due to policies demanded by the livestock industry and supported by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, he said. "The service needs to immediately change their policies and follow the recommendations made by scientists in a report they themselves commissioned," Robinson said.
The report recommended several changes in the reintroduction program, including steps to remove cattle and horse carcasses on national forest land to keep wolves from scavenging on them and becoming habituated to them, Robinson said.
Fox said the action to kill the wolf is consistent with the service's other gray wolf reintroduction programs.
"This was based on the wolf's continued behavior, a lack of fear of humans and her cattle depredation, basically conduct unbecoming a wild wolf," she said.
Contact reporter Thomas Stauffer at 573-4197 or at stauffer@azstarnet.com.
