MEXICAN GRAY WOLF

Last chance for the Lobo Miller keeps an eye on predators that may threaten livestock, especially the Mexican gray wolf. After being hunted to the brink of extinction, the wolf is once again roaming the grasslands, mountains and streams of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. So Miller was concerned when the Durango female showed up near his house about a dozen times. Yet instead of trying to scare it off, he did the opposite. On June 21, he branded cattle less than a half-mile from the wolves’ den, the enticing aroma of seared flesh surely reaching the pack’s super-sensitive nostrils. Miller was, in essence, offering up a cow as a sacrifice. The government’s Mexican gray wolf reintroduction rulebook says that a rancher cannot shoot a wolf simply because she threatens his livestock. But if a single wolf kills three cows or sheep or other domestic animals in a single year, then federal officers may kill or capture the wolf. The wolf Miller had his eye on already had two strikes against her; Miller was hoping for a third. "We would sacrifice a calf to get a third strike," Miller told High Country News, candidly revealing a tactic that could help ranchers get the upper hand in their protracted, bloody war against the endangered Mexican wolves....
Ranch Hand Admits to Baiting Wolves to Prey on Livestock; Results in Removal of Endangered Wolves Today, High Country News reported in an article, Last Chance for the Lobo, that a ranch hand working on the Adobe-Slash Ranch in New Mexico abandoned a pregnant cow that was about to give birth in an area wolves were known to inhabit, in order to lure wolves into attacking livestock which would provide an excuse for removing the wolves. According to the article, the ranch hand knew where the wolves were by using radio-tracking data provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which is meant to help ranchers avoid livestock losses. As the article reports, this baiting incident resulted in the lethal removal of the Durango pack's alpha female. "If the accusations detailed in Last Chance for the Lobo are true, it is deeply disturbing that someone would use the very tools offered to help them avoid conflict with wolves as a means to derail the recovery of the Mexican wolf. Defenders of Wildlife has worked hard to help ranchers coexist with wolves through compensation, cooperation and trust. It appears that ranch hand Mike Miller abused that trust and deliberately sacrificed livestock under his care to force the removal of endangered wolves....