Wildlife officials released an endangered Mexican gray wolf back into the Arizona wilderness after holding her in captivity for five months.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service captured female wolf 2754 — nicknamed Asha by conservationists — in northern New Mexico in January, and held her at the agency’s Sevilleta Mexican Wolf Management Facility outside Socorro, officials said in a June 14 news release.
So why was she captured and held in captivity for so many months?
Asha had wandered outside the agency’s “arbitrary management zone” and north into the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, officials with the Wolf Conservation Center said in a June 14 Facebook post.
Her capture angered wolf conservationists, who say it is “frustrating” that “current policies restrict the movement of Mexican wolves and prevent them from recolonizing ideal habitat outside of the arbitrary borders.”
Asha had ventured away from her natal pack and out of the agency’s Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area (MWEPA) north of Interstate 40, wandering 500 miles north until officials caught her near Taos, New Mexico.
“The decision to move this wolf back to the MWEPA at the time was consistent with policies outlined in the Service’s Recovery Permit,” officials said in the release. “In addition, the lack of other wolves in the area meant there was no chance for female wolf 2754 to breed and contribute to Mexican wolf recovery.”
While Asha was in captivity at the Sevilleta facility, fish and wildlife officials tried to breed her with a male wolf. The plan was to release Asha, her mate and their pups either in Mexico or in the Mexican wolf management area in New Mexico officials said in the release.
But the pair did not breed, so officials decided to release her back into the Arizona wilderness where she was born in 2021.
