The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors last week expressed its continued opposition to expansion of the habitat of the Mexican wolf into the county.
The board considered the potential impact on ranchers and other animal owners that could be affected by predation from wolves.
The species has been the focus of a reintroduction effort throughout the Southwest.
The effort hasn’t always gone smoothly.
“Reintroduction of the Mexican wolf began in 1998 as an attempt to restore balance to its arid ecosystem, but trouble was not far behind,” according to a report from Wild Earth Guardians, an organization that has been working to help expand the habitat of the Mexican wolf. “Many of the wolves released into the wild have died, and the majority of deaths have been human-caused. Some have been shot illegally by poachers or during authorized, federal predator control actions.
“Some were hit by cars. Others died accidentally when they were recaptured for translocation or to be brought back to captivity, and some of those back in captivity have never been re-released. The wild population is barely hanging on; the last count of Mexican wolves in the wild, completed in January 2009, found 42 wolves and only two breeding pairs. Since 1998, the federal government has removed [either by lethal control or recapture] more than three times as many Mexican wolves as currently exist in the wild.”
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Aug. 27, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
