News of the introduction of a Mexican Gray Wolves to remote areas of New Mexico is sure to spark controversy from ranchers and residents, but in Albuquerque, it’s a different story.
A new 4.5 acre enclosed area of the Bosque near the ABQ BioPark could soon house as many as 20 wolves through a rehabilitation and reintroduction program developed in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The facility $4 million facility was funded by Albuquerque’s 1/8th cent gross receipts tax approved by voters in 2016 for BioPark facilities and state Game and Fish Funds. City officials say the facility will house it’s first wolves “by the end of the year.”
The new facility, not accessible to the public, is designed to help with wolf breeding and recovery. “Through fostering, young wolf pups born in professional care facilities are transferred within a few days of birth into a wild wolf den with pups of the same age so the wild mother raises them as her own. This helps bolster the wild population,” explained Lynn Tupa, Associate Director at the ABQ BioPark, in a city preview of the facility.
The Mexican Gray wolf, native to the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico, was targeted for decades by ranchers who culled them as predators for cattle herds. The wolf was listed as endangered in the 1970’s and reintroduced in targeted locations in Arizona dn New Mexico beginning in the 1990’s.
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, a nonprofit supporting wolf reintroduction, reported earlier this year that an estimated 162 wolves were active in New Mexico now. But New Mexico cattle grower’s have increased lobbying in Congress and with President Donald Trump’s administration to delist the wolf from endangered status which would allow for their killing by ranchers again.