Media Release Jan 3 2006:
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Wolf Success Alters Lives of Inhabitants

According to the residents of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, there are a minimum of 37 documented wolves in the wilds of New Mexico, and a minimum of a dozen individual animals and pairs that remain uncounted by the agencies managing the program. There are an additional 15 wolves known to be in Arizona with undocumented individual and pairs in that state as well.

“Despite the requirements in final rule, I doubt we will ever see an accurate wolf count done through the Interagency Field Team, Says Laura Schneberger. They don’t have the man power, it’s not in their best interest to show the total overall success of the program. If they succeed in getting 100-125 wolves on the ground, they will have to pack it up and move the program elsewhere and nobody seems to want to do that.”

Schneberger, a rancher and President of the Gila Livestock Growers association has been affected by the program for nine years. She believes there are many more wolves in the wild than those the agency will admit are in the recovery area.

“The Interagency Field Team, who are in charge of getting the facts to the public, seem to be playing both sides against the middle to drag out the reintroduction as long as possible. They know of literally dozens of un-collared animals out there and if pressed will admit to seeing these animals from the air when they conduct weekly location flights. The problem is once the end of the year count comes along, they can only find but a fraction of those wolves. So the program uses a smaller number than is actually out there. The year end count is usually only a couple weeks worth of work”, says Schneberger. “But worse, non government organizations that support the wolf recovery, constantly complain about how small the number of animals in the wild actually is. They then issue press releases or file lawsuits pretending that the collared animals are the actual total numbers in the wild. It is a manipulation of the public the media and the judicial system, none of whom are getting reliable information. I have often wondered why FWS doesn’t correct this misinformation but they don’t.”

According to John Oakleaf the Fish and Wildlife Service’s field team coordinator, there are 4 known packs in the Gila National Forest and some dispersing wolves.

The Saddle pack has 6-9 documented wolves, 3 wear collars (AF797, AM732, M1007), and there are 3-6 un-collared pups, 3 were observed in late October, 6 observed in July.

The Middle Fork pack has 2 wolves, both wear collars (AF861, AM871). The pack was assumed to have denned in early 2006 based on aerial locations. However, subsequent observations have been unable to confirm the survival of pups therefore, pup status remains unknown.

The San Mateo pack north of Reserve NM consists of (AF903, M927) However, M927 was found dead, in November. Previous counts in were at 4-5 animals including 3 adults and 1-2 pups. 2 pups were observed earlier in the year, 1 pup was observed in November. Currently the IFT counts 3-4 wolves with 2 adults, 1 wears a collar, and 1-2 pups.

The Meridian pack consists of (AM806 and f1028) - 2 collared individuals 1 pup and 1 adult.

In November, Male 859 was lethally removed for its third livestock depredation incident. Its mate, F924 was trapped and removed after her second depredation incident. She is eligible for re-release into the BRWRA at a later time.

“We have those wolves that the team knows about, and more that they don’t,” says Schneberger.

“Most sightings go uninvestigated, but my documentation shows a pack of six wolves near Quemado on the Arizona border that killed a dog and harassed livestock in early 2006; 2 wolves seen and heard at Mule creek NM by local ranchers and hunters; 2 wolves are near Mimbres NM; 2-7 wolves or possibly wolf hybrids north of Luna NM; 2 un-collared wolves in the San Francisco basin east of Reserve.” “Wolves have been seen in Sierra and Socorro counties; 3 were seen on highway 59 near Dusty NM; 1 near Winston NM. There are several sightings of single wolves east of Datil NM and as far south as Kingston NM. There also seems to be a newly formed pack at Collins Park in the same region that is currently occupied by both the Saddle and Luna packs. I used to keep count in Arizona too but with the population explosion here I can’t keep up in Arizona anymore. However, I have received several reports of people encountering un-collared wolves there as well.”

Ranchers and rural occupants believe the wolves are now breeding with dogs and coyotes. Last week two wolf-like animals were shot north of Luna NM. The animals have some wolf-like characteristics, with a mane and a 36-40mm canine spread of a typical Mexican wolf as well as the color and markings of a domestic dog.

The animals were working as a pack to kill an elk calf when a landowner in the area shot two of the three animals. {See attached photos}

Livestock depredations have been increasing in the BRWRA as well. Compared with wolf populations in northern states on the verge of delisting wolves, the southwest depredations are significantly higher.

In Idaho which has 650 or more individual gray wolves, livestock depredations for 2005 are 2.9 per wolf. New Mexico and Arizona have about 60 wolves currently documented by FWS to be in the wild. In both Arizona and New Mexico during fiscal year 05-06, Mexican wolves were responsible for 6.0 livestock kills per wolf. In the Southwest there are more than double the depredations as states with recovered populations, with less than a tenth of the wolves on the ground.

“There is no doubt both people and wolves are suffering from the policies of this program and the managers are either in denial or playing games with the public,” says Schneberger. “It is time the agencies came clean with the facts on how many wolves they have and how they plan on expanding the program to other areas of the state. There has literally been an explosion in the New Mexico population in the past two years and this type of disastrous management cannot go on indefinitely.”

For the Schneberger family the program has been a disaster. The family came home from an overnight Christmas trip and found wolf tracks in the snow at their home. One of the family’s two five month old Great Pyrenees pups was missing and is presumed dead.

“We didn’t witness the attack like so many families in this area have, but it is still devastating to my kids and to me. It is no longer just about our livestock and economic survival now about the safety of our kids.”

Dog killing is becoming a problem within the program. Within a twenty mile radius of Wall Lake, ten miles down the canyon from the Schneberger ranch, the Aspen pack, has killed 6-7 dogs in the past year. One attack occurred in the presence of an eight year old girl The field team refers to the child as “an individual” in their monthly report. The dog was taken to the vet and survived but the IFT officers told the family they should not allow their daughter to be outside near their dogs.

Jim Harris, a neighbor of the girls’ family says, “ We all think what might have happened if she had not had that dog with her to get between her and that wolf.”

“What level of sacrifice by these people does the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the NM Department of Game and Fish consider acceptable?” asks Joe Delk. “How many ranchers have to go broke, how many pets and working dogs have to die? Will the death of a child finally be the sacrificial boundary? How do these agencies measure fear, anguish, helplessness and hopelessness and why should a disproportionate few people in a poor rural community have to bear all the sacrifice for what is supposedly a program to benefit the public?"

Delk, the Executive Director of the Paragon Foundation, a New Mexico based property rights organization that recently sponsored a wolf impact forum in Las Cruces and plans on hosting more around the state, also questions the programs management practices.

Mary McNab, Blue Arizona resident living in the BRWRA agrees that the program is poorly managed but feels the program has been less than honest with the public from the earliest days of the planning.

“The wolves are being dumped in small spots of the recovery area that are sometimes only as large as twelve square miles. These areas are still surrounded by towns, schools, livestock and backyards. There is no core area for recovery here, so the wolves are forced into habituation behavior by close proximity to all and sundry that was already here. There is no place for them to escape to the wild, there is no core recovery area for them to learn to be wild. These are impossible circumstances for the people to live with.”

Every day that goes by allowing the animals to prey on people at their homes and on their privately owned animals increases the habituation behavior and spreads it to other pack members. Dr. Valerius Geist from the University of Calgary also worries about the behavior of Mexican wolves in the southwest.

“In short, what is being observed is pre-attack behavior. I am an ethologist by profession. That is I profess animal behavior. I am very familiar indeed with wolf behavior and I see a need to inform the Southwest program managers that their assessments that wolves are showing no signs of aggression and just appear curious, puts persons in jeopardy. I see here a misunderstanding of the exploratory behavior of wolves."