Wild Mexican gray wolves have a lack of genetic diversity. Expert says clock is ticking to fix it

Last month, Mexican gray wolves hit another important milestone in the effort to reintroduce them in the wild across the Southwest when eight of them boarded a private jet and flew to Durango, Mexico, to be released into the wild, as the Arizona Republic reported.

And conservations are celebrating. They say this release of two wolf families into the southern-most reaches of their territory is an important step in ensuring the wild population of wolves has the genetic diversity to survive into the future.

The Show spoke more about it with Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project.

Greta Anderson

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Full conversation

GRETA ANDERSON: Well, this is really cool because the state of Durango, Mexico, was the last place that lobos were in the wild before the last few wolves were captured and brought to the United States to start the captive breeding project. All of the wolves alive today are descended from the seven wolves that were left alive in the 1970s. So this was a species that came really close to going extinct.

Now repatriating them to Durango is like putting a big important piece back in the puzzle. It’s where they last were and it’s like, it’s a historic moment to have them back on the landscape there.

LAUREN GILGER: So a big moment in this. And an important one in terms of the scope of this program. Like, this has been 50 years in the making, right?

But I wonder if you’re looking at the long-term goals here, like it seems like we’re getting pretty close when it comes to the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves.

GRETA ANDERSON: Well, we’re getting close if you look at the numbers, but if you look at the genetics of the species, there’s still a long way to go. And in fact, the recovery plan for Mexican gray wolves, in order to delist them, there has to be two stable populations in both the United States and Mexico. And Mexico’s wild population has been nowhere near stable.

So this new translocation that happened last month is really exciting, it’s a big leap forward, but it’s nowhere near self-sustaining, genetically diverse population in the wild such that management could be removed. And that’s true for the United States population as well.

LAUREN GILGER: OK, so not there yet even though we’ve hit many milestones along the way and just seem to have hit another.

Tell us about some of the particular wolves that were just released in Mexico, because we know them, we know a lot about them, you in particular know a lot about them, right?

GRETA ANDERSON: Yeah. There were two wolf families that were released in Durango and one of the wolf families was from captivity. And then the other family, this is such a cool story because the matriarch of that family, her name is, she’s been named Yahve. And she originally was born in the United States, she was removed and sent down to Mexico, paired up with another wolf whose name was Remus. They ran through the state of Chihuahua and crossed the border back into New Mexico, where they set up shop in kind of the boot heel area of New Mexico. He unfortunately was killed and she was pulled back into captivity so that they could pair her with this other wolf, whose name is Wander. And the two of them were rereleased back into the Peloncillos of Arizona.

But then last summer, there was some conflict with livestock in Cochise County, the ranchers demanded her removal, and so Arizona Game and Fish Department went and got the whole family out of the wild again and they’ve been sitting in captivity. And so that’s Yahve and Wander, the female and the male, and then their two puppies.

Yahve is 7. She’s been handled multiple times, she’s been in and out of captivity, she’s had multiple different mates and this is like so exciting that she’s going to be able to just live out her life in the wild the way she deserves to as, as a wolf.

LAUREN GILGER: Let me ask you about that because you mentioned, you know, the reason that they’ve been in captivity is because of some interaction with livestock. This is sort of a perpetual controversy when it comes to this Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program over the years because there are many who argue that these wolves are predators, they interfere with livestock, they kill cattle ranchers' cows, which is a problem obviously for them and for industry.

There is now an effort in the state Legislature that is making its way through that would bar Game and Fish from transporting puppies into Arizona as part of this reintroduction program. Rep. Paul Gosar has attempted to take the wolves off the endangered species list. Do you think there’s a balance to be struck there?

GRETA ANDERSON: I don’t, because the Endangered Species Act requires that management decisions are based on the best available science. And both the legislation that you referenced at the Arizona House and at the national level, neither of those are science-based decisions. Neither of those are looking at the numbers, at the genetics and saying, "OK, wolves are doing great, we can, you know, ratchet back their protection."

What they’re doing is saying, "We’re more worried about the livestock industry than we are about endangered species, so let’s just remove their protections now."

LAUREN GILGER: So let me ask you lastly, Greta, about the big picture here. You mentioned that, you know, we’re not there yet in terms of management being removed from this population and it has to do largely, it sounds like, with the genetic pool and trying to make sure that the species can survive into the long term even with this kind of limited genetic pool that it began with in the '70s, even though the numbers are up.

GRETA ANDERSON: There is still greater genetic diversity in the captive population than there is in the wild population. All of the wolves in zoos and facilities around the country, those wolves are more diverse than the wolves in the wild.

So in order to address the genetic crisis that Mexican gray wolves are really facing, we need to see more releases and quick. Because the larger the population gets, the harder it is to change the level of inbreeding in a beneficial way. So it’s really important that we start seeing whole families be released, just like happened in Mexico. They put out two whole families, well-bonded pairs with their puppies. We want to start seeing that in the United States so that we get some of that biodiversity from the captive population into the wild as quickly as possible.

LAUREN GILGER: And the clock is kind of ticking here, right?

GRETA ANDERSON: Absolutely, the clock is ticking. In part because we’re concerned that the longer we wait, the larger the population in the wild will be, the harder it will be for every new diversifying wolf, like a wolf brought in from captivity with diverse genes, their influence is going to be less spread across a greater number of wild wolves.

So we need to take advantage of the fact that the population is still relatively small from a total population standpoint and start getting that remaining diversity back into the wild.

LAUREN GILGER: OK. That is Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, joining us to talk about another milestone for the Mexican gray wolf. Greta, thank you so much for coming on the show, I appreciate it.

GRETA ANDERSON: My pleasure, thank you.