For immediate release July 18, 2024
Media contacts:
Claire Musser, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project (928) 202 1325 claire@gcwolfrecovery.org
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, (505) 395-6177, csmith@wildearthguardians.org
Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 623-1878, greta@westernwatersheds.org
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department are using female to bait and capture her possible mate near Flagstaff
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Mexican gray wolf advocates are celebrating the good news of a wild wolf pair near Flagstaff, and are asking the agencies to let them continue to roam freely in the Grand Canyon ecoregion.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that they have caught and collared a female wolf with the intention of using her as bait to also capture her packmate and relocate them both back south of the arbitrary project boundary of Interstate 40.
“If we let our dispersing wolves live their own lives, we could learn much about wolves and habitat connectivity. These wolves show us their needs, and our agencies must listen. I haven’t received calls about wolves near Flagstaff, so I assume they lived peacefully, like Anubis, a Mexican wolf tragically shot in 2022,” said Claire Musser, Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “We should let these wolves roam instead of capturing them. Agencies need to invest in supporting our dispersing wolves and change our social landscape so wolves can restore the Grand Canyon region’s ecological health.”
“We’re thrilled that these wolves are doing exactly what wolves have done for millenia – disperse to suitable habitat, find mates, and occupy new territories,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “What’s unnatural is the agencies’ intention to use the new collar data to relocate the wolves south of their artificial boundary of Interstate 40.”
“The inconsistency with which these agencies treat roaming wolves is so telling,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “In New Mexico, they captured an ‘out of bounds’ wolf because they said she wouldn’t find a mate. Now they’re using this wolf as bait to capture her possible mate and relocate them both. It’s astoundingly unscientific and heavy-handed management.”
The Mexican gray wolf advocates are asking the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to let the wolves stay where they are and to educate the public about the protection these wolves have under the Endangered Species Act. These wolves are fully protected and cannot be harassed or hunted.
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