Threats to Mexican gray wolf recovery

 

The good news is that there are now more than 100 Mexican gray wolves in the wild. However, this does not mean that the program is out of jeopardy. Two of the most significant threats to the program are illegal shootings (poaching), and genetics. I will talk about Mexican gray wolf genetics here; I believe that illegal shootings are best addressed by better law enforcement.

According to a 2010 paper in Conservation Genetics by Hedrick and Fredrickson, entitled, "Genetic rescue guidelines with examples from Mexican wolves and Florida panthers," the current Mexican wolf population is descended from only three lineages, with seven unrelated individuals. In the early years of the program, inbreeding depression (breeding between related individuals) is thought to be responsible for low litter sizes, and animals that were generally smaller in size compared to the original founding wild ones. As of 2010, 144 Mexican wolves were removed from the wild simply because they had strayed outside the recovery range boundaries, including individuals that have or had a high reproductive value because of their genetics. Clearly, for the genetic rescue of Mexican wolves to be successful, the boundaries for the recovery area, or the rules for recapturing wolves, need to be changed. Hopefully, it's not too late.