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I really love Annual Reports. Whether or not I've been able to keep up with the rapidly changing numbers of Mexican wolves over the past year or not, the annual report has it all. My next column was going to be written using statistics from the 2009 annual report. So, where is it, heaven only knows, the wheels of government move ever so slowly!

Instead, I thought I'd put together a half year report. Unlike the one I await, year ending 2009, mine will cover just the first 6 1/2 months of this year, 2010. And what a dismal few months it has been for Mexican wolves!

I recently received the new Internet Flight Document Map with locations for Mexican wolves in AZ and NM. It gave me pause, so many wolves were obviously missing. So far in 2010 we have lost F1154, Hawks Nest AM1044 (CONFIRMED SHOT) , San Mateo AM1114, Paradise AM795 and now f#1188 (CONFIRMED SHOT).

After years of watching the poaching of Mexican wolves I have noticed a bit of a trend. Some years the Alphas die at disproportionate rates. Last year the target was puppies. Of the 31 puppies born during the Spring of 2009 only four were still alive at the end of the year. It is as if something wanted those packs not to succeed and knows just how to stop them, kill Alphas and/or puppies. Is this some sort of Mexican wolf population control? If I were law enforcement in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area I would be watching those dens and the smaller areas the wolf packs must hunt in the spring to feed their Alpha Females and her puppies.

As of the end of January 2010 28 wolves roamed Arizona and New Mexico with radio telemetry collars. There were 9 packs and 3 single wolves.

February, 2010 two wolves from the Fox Mountain Pack, AM1038 and m1161, absent from aerial telemetry flights or ground telemetry surveys since mid-December 2009, are now considered fate unknown.

In March we added a new pack to the count. The Morgart pack formed when single wolf F1106 found and bonded with the dispersing Hawks Nest two year old M1155.

April, 2010 the Mexican wolf count now stands at 28 wolves in 10 packs and 2 single wolves.

By May the number of Mexican wolves began to drop. There were still 10 packs but only 27 radio collared wolves and 1 single wolf. F#1154 was found dead, the first recorded wolf death of 2010.
Wild born Mexican wolf F1154 was released into New Mexico on January 10, 2010. She was relocated from Arizona for being outside one of those invisible boundries. F1154 spent her brief life in the eastern part of the Gila National Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. She was searching for a mate. She never found one. She also never killed any domestic livestock. She never frightened any citizens. In April F1154 was found dead in the Beaverhead area of the National Forest, the Black Hole for wolves. AF#1154's death is under investigation.

In June two Alpha Males, with mothers and pups in the den, were found dead. The Arizona Hawks Nest Alpha Male #1044 was found shot to death and in New Mexico the San Mateo Alpha Male #1114s death is under investigation.


During the first half of July a second Hawks Nest pack wolf was found shot to death. This was yearling male #1189. Now the Hawks Nest mother and her seven new puppies of the year have only one female yearling, #1188, to hunt for and feed them all.

Also reported in July is a third Alpha Male missing and fate unknown. Paradise Alpha Male #795 has been missing for two months. There have been a very large number of missing/fate unknown or presumed dead wolves over the 12 years of this reintroduction. AM#795 was collared with a very high tech telemetry collar. I contacted a high level official within the wolf program the first time one of these collared wolves vanished to ask how that could happen. These collars could be miles away and we could still get an antenna signal. The collar could be buried or dropped into deep water and we would still get a signal. So my question was how could a collared wolf simply disappear. Could a bear destroy the collar? How could this happen? The answer was, "only human hands can disable this type of collar, nothing else could stop us from locating it."

Mexican wolves have puppies in early spring. During April 2010 the Interagency Field Team confirmed seven packs displaying denning behavior, the Middle Fork, Dark Canyon, Luna, San Mateo, Rim, Hawks Nest and Paradise. This puts the wolves in more danger from poaching as the entire pack is tied to a small specific denning area while the Alpha Female is whelping and nursing the newborn pups. The rest of the pack also keeps to a smaller area while hunting to feed themselves, the mother and puppies. Easy Targets?