Mexican wolf end of year counts mislead the public

by Laura Schneberger

Are Mexican wolves really being destroyed by humans in the reintroduction area?

That is the question behind what is becoming an annual failure of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to increase their wolf population. Slipping from 52 in 2009 down to 42 in 2010 the program consistently fails to gain ground.

Since the FWS are so “determined to identify the reasons for this decline”, let’s examine what they might be missing. In 2008 18 foxes attacked people in Silver City NM, not isolated incidents, yet rabies is completely ignored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in New Mexico and Arizona. This is odd considering FWS regional director; the man responsible for the Mexican wolf program, Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, is an expert in wildlife diseases.

Fact, there is a major rabies outbreak destroying wild canine and cat populations throughout the (BRWRA) Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, and has been for several years. The FWS cites 31 pups they know were born last spring. However they didn’t vaccinate or collar all of those pups according to the Final Rule governing the program.

31 new pups should have boosted numbers beyond 80 in the wild? If 50% did survive that would be 67 give or take, on the ground now. There could very well be that large an increase but since FWS annual count occurs only after young wolves begin dispersing, their numbers aren’t going to reflect much in the way of an increase.

FWS imply in media reports that they believe more than 2 of the 8 wolves found dead last year were illegally shot. Fact, one of those shootings was done in a front yard. FWS were notified of the shooting when it occurred they found a collared but offline dead wolf. One not counted in last year’s tally. Currently an investigation is ongoing into what may be yet be a legal wolf shooting. FWS know this but continue to insinuate there is something shady and sneaky going on in the backwoods of the BRWRA.

At least two wolves were killed by FWS manipulation of the San Mateo pack, FWS know this as well, but still appear to insinuate that ranchers or someone else killed the animals by shooting them. How is misleading the media and public about dead wolves found, but not confirmed as illegally killed, going to contribute to a self sustaining wild wolf population?

The decline is “tremendously disconcerting and very disturbing,” said Benjamin Tuggle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional director for the Southwest.

Officials thought this would be a good year for wolf pups. Also, the service didn’t permanently remove any wolves from the wild last year, as it usually does after ranchers complain the wolves are eating cattle, he said. “I am determined to identify the reasons for this decline and turn the situation around so we can see more Mexican wolves in the wild during 2010,” Tuggle said in a news conference by telephone Friday. Two wolves were confirmed to have been shot to death last year.

Tuggle said he is not ruling out the possibility that the other six dead wolves were shot. Those deaths are under law enforcement investigation. “I don’t think we can make any assumptions,” Tuggle said. “It has a lot to do with the condition of carcasses. I think the two that we can clearly say were shot were fresh enough” carcasses to make such a determination, he said. {http://www.azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/article_1d9a72c2-9f55-5730-b948-b57533cd1620.html Mexican wolf population dipping Tony Davis and Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star}

Fact two wolves, far fewer than in previous years were indeed shot in 2009 and one of those may have been legally shot. This number is far less than the number predicted to die suspiciously on an annual basis by the EIS and Final Rule. Rabies on the other hand cannot be tested for if the carcass is too old, allowing the agency to sidestep their own complicity in the program’s failures.

As usual the annual counts are done by getting into a plane or helicopter, circling the few collared animals out there and counting what is standing around the animals that have telemetry collars. If livestock producers ran their ranches that way, they wouldn’t know where their cows were either and would soon be out of business. Perhaps it is harder to count wolves on the ground than cows, but obviously this method isn’t working well.

Why are wolves avoiding wilderness in favor of livestock operations? That alone should set off alarm bells. Does the habitat exist for any more than a small number of wolves without destruction of the human element, a completely immoral solution to the problem?

Science has confirmed there is inbreeding repression in these wolves, something the agency claimed was not occurring until 2007 when they finally admitted it was occurring. Is it surprising there is fluctuation in the wild considering that in captivity, these wolves have killed and eaten their newborn pups, birthed consistently small litters, abandoned and starved pups? If it is happening in captivity, then logically these things are also happening in the wild.

Even FWS’s decision to invoke non removal of depredating wolves failed. A decision that kept at least 2 large packs on the ground and killed more than 2 dozen cows calves and yearlings in 2010, did nothing to help raise the numbers of wolves in the wild. What it did do was further burden and hardened the ranching and community stand against the program management methods.

Since they aren’t born with telemetry collars, FWS likely do not know where literally dozens of wolves are at. There is at least one known full and fairly large pack outside the recovery area in New Mexico. The agency’s relationship with the rural residents, including small townspeople, has seriously deteriorated to the point that nobody is reporting wolf presence any longer. It is simply easier to deal with wolves in their lives, than wolf managers and wolf advocates. It appears FWS feels, what they don’t know about doesn’t hurt them if they can just keep their cushy relationship with the wolf advocates and keep the media focused on ranchers as the reason for population decline.

Craig Miller, who works with Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation organization, blamed poaching as the likely culprit. “Mexican wolves are in big trouble. With numbers so perilously low, every single wolf in the wild counts toward the animal’s survival. Turning this dire situation around will require every effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to craft a science-based recovery plan that pays careful attention to genetic issues. The service must also make a renewed commitment to keep wolves on the ground,” said Miller, Defenders’ Southwest representative. {http://www.azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/article_1d9a72c2-9f55-5730-b948-b57533cd1620.html Mexican wolf population dipping Tony Davis and Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star}

Between 2003 and 2007, a large portion of, $4,716,264,730.00 (that is billion with a “b”) in total payments were paid too many environmental organizations in taxpayer dollars from the Judgment Fund. This included attorney fees and costs in cases against the federal government often even when cases were deemed frivolous or just lost on the merits. Groups, who are right now, attempting to portray ranchers as being overly subsidized by the federal government, filed dozens of lawsuits over Mexican wolf management and other endangered species issues in the southwest and paid themselves well for it. {http://westinstenv.org/sosf/2009/10/17/billions-paid-to-enviro-litigants/}

As one national reporter said “That’s good work if you can get it.”

FWS and wolf advocacy groups use strong arm tactics against the communities this has become a disaster for the public, the local communities, livestock producers and the entire program. FWS allow media and non government organizations, to spread of false premises on what is going on in the program. This certainly isn’t going to win over the trust of people in the rural parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Only science, truth and good faith can do that. Thus far this FWS has failed miserably at those requirements.

If they want success next year, the agency needs to go back to implementing the Final Rule. They should train their team on what the Environmental Impact Statement, managing the program, and the Federal Register Rule actually say. They should replace staffers who refuse to follow the Rule. They should stop bending the management of the program to meet wolf advocates, ridiculous demands. The program did better back in the days before the agency got into bed with extremists. They should collar and vaccinate pups early, remove and replace depredating animals, work with the communities and ranchers, not wolf advocates.

Fact, hysterical reports by wolf advocates, FWS and even by several news outlets, that there is a mass slaughter on Mexican wolves by ranchers and rednecks is far from truthful. Slandering ranchers as the Arizona Republic recently did in its editorial. Time For Ranchers To Stop The Slaughter, isn’t going to help this program succeed. Ranchers have been implicated in killing Mexican wolves. The public deserves the truth; it is just too much of a stretch to expect it from wolf advocates including those in media. But it should be a requirement of the Agency behind this program.