Feds monitor for hybrid wolves in NM, Arizona

Federal wildlife managers have been working to return the endangered Mexican gray wolf to the American Southwest for the past 15 years. Every now and then, there's a genetic hiccup. It happens when a wolf breeds with a domestic dog and produces a litter of hybridized pups. Just last month, an animal that looked like a wolf was spotted in the mountain community of Reserve near the Arizona-New Mexico border so experts with the wolf management team had to investigate. They determined that the uncollared animal was most likely a pet that showed some signs of northern gray wolf heritage. While it doesn't happen often, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Buckley said Tuesday that hybridization is a concern. "The bottom line is it's not a good thing, and we try not to allow that to happen," he said. Any mixing of Mexican gray wolves with dogs has the potential to throw a wrench in the federal government's efforts to reintroduce the predators to Arizona and New Mexico. Having a genetically diverse — yet pure — population has been identified as one of the keys to making the effort a success, and biologists have gone to great lengths over the years to pair genetically valuable wolves and to collect semen and eggs from some of the animals for captive breeding and research. When hybrid wolves are found in the wild, they are removed to protect the genetic pool. For example, wildlife managers in 2011 had to euthanize four wolf-dog pups that belonged to a female Mexican gray wolf that had initially been released into the Gila National Forest with hopes of being a mate for another lone wolf. Only two other cases have been documented — one in 2002 and another in 2005...more