Mexican Wolves Need Your Help!

Mexican Wolves Need Your Help!

Speak up for lobos before Jan 27th

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) needs to hear from you about its revisions to the 2015 Mexican gray wolf 10(j) Management Rule. 

A federal court found that the current management rule does not rely on the best available science and violates the Endangered Species Act by failing to conserve the endangered Mexican gray wolf. We have the opportunity to demand that FWS follow the court order and base the revised management rule on independent academic science rather than political pressure. 

Just yesterday we received tragic news that Anubis, the wandering lobo we worked so hard to protect, was illegally shot and killed in northern Arizona on January 2. This devastating attack further illuminates the urgency with which the FWS must expand the recovery area, remove the northern boundary of I-40 and designate lobos as essential. Clearly they are as endangered today as ever.

Demand FWS improve lobo recovery now

To learn more about the issue, check out our partner organization’s video here on how to be a voice for lobos and read our recent editorial in the Earth Island Journal.

Then, take two steps for lobos:

• Provide oral public testimony at the January 11 meeting, if you can (note: you must register in advance):
  • There is a Virtual Public Information Session from 5:30-7p.m. MST, followed by the Virtual Hearing with oral public testimony accepted for the record from 7-9 p.m. MST
  • Prepare your comment by personalizing our coalition talking points below.
• Send a written comment to the FWS before January 27.
  • Prepare your comment by personalizing our coalition talking points below.

TALKING POINTS (please personalize):

• Mexican gray wolves are essential. Losing our existing population of wolves in Arizona and New Mexico would jeopardize recovery. The zoos and captive breeding facilities in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan could no longer replace the nearly 200 wolves in the wild.
• We need several populations of Mexican gray wolves, including one in the Grand Canyon ecoregion and one in the Southern Rockies, in addition to existing populations in the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area and Mexico and connectivity between all populations.
• Some of the world’s best wolf scientists have recommended a population of 750-1000 Mexican gray wolves. Managing for an average of 320 Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico, as the proposed rule recommends, is inadequate for ensuring their long-term survival.
• The Mexican gray wolf population should not be managed based on a population cap or average. Rather, the population should be allowed to reach a point of ecological effectiveness, allowing wolves to play their natural role as top predators.
• We can predict that wildlife species will shift their ranges in response to climate change and Mexican wolves will likely move further northward into the Grand Canyon region if allowed to do so. FWS must adequately address the potential changes in wolf habitat, prey species, water and vegetation distribution, and wolf movements due to the impacts of climate change in the revised Mexican Wolf 10(j) Management Rule.
• There is highly suitable wolf habitat north of Interstate 40. FWS should be pursuing recovery in an expanded area. Although FWS acknowledges that territory north of I-40 will likely be required for future recovery and recognized the importance of natural dispersal and expanding the species’ range, it nevertheless imposes a hard limit on dispersal north of I-40.
• Wolves should count toward a genetic objective only after they have reproduced in the wild.
• The release of well-bonded wolf packs with their dependent pups from the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan should also be included as a strategy for achieving genetic objectives.
• While it is a positive step that FWS has agreed to limit certain kinds of take of Mexican gray wolves, FWS must do more to limit human-caused mortality, including illegal killing. Proposed limits on taking wolves should be made permanent, not temporary. If Anubis were better protected and alive today, he would be leading the way toward lobo recovery in suitable wolf habitat.
• FWS should also include firm requirements to prevent conflicts with livestock and support non-lethal resolution of conflicts.
• FWS should do more to meaningfully include indigenous voices in Mexican gray wolf conservation. There are diverse perspectives on wolves amongst tribes in and around the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area; these perspectives should be uplifted as part of an inclusive and transparent rule change.

Thank you for acting today to Protect America’s Wolves!