The Mexican wolf is the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America. Once common throughout portions of the southwestern United States, the Mexican wolf was all but eliminated from the wild by the 1970s. In 1977, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve the species. In 1998, Mexican wolves were released to the wild for the first time in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area within the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. Missing from the landscape for more than 30 years, the howl of the Mexican wolf can once again be heard in the mountains of the southwestern United States.

Captive-born pups are mixed together with wild-born pups before being placed into a wild den in Arizona. Credit: Interagency Field Team.

Mexican Wolf Population Gets Genetic Boost with a Record 20 Captive-born Pups Cross-fostered into Wild Packs

May 2020
The Mexican wolf recovery effort recently got a genetic boost when biologists from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), and Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP), with extensive logistical support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), worked together to cross-foster 20 genetically diverse wolf pups from captive facilities across the U.S. into litters of wild wolf packs.

Over a six-week period in April and May, 12 pups were fostered into four different packs in eastern Arizona and eight were fostered into three packs in western New Mexico.

Read more.

News Releases for Mexican Wolf

2018 Mexican wolf Count Cause for Optimism

Service and Partners Mark 20th Anniversary of Release of Mexican Wolves in Wild

For additional USFWS Mexican Wolf News Releases visit the Newsroom and search for Mexican wolf.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with
others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and
their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.

All images Credit to and Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unless specified otherwise.