Geos 220
Writing Assignment 1
Reintroduction of the Wolf in the Southwest

 wolf image

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Various subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) were exterminated in the U.S. Southwest throughout the 1900s, with the job of 100% removal being completed by the late 1960s (Brown 1983). Small populations of Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus sub. baileyi) survived years later in Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico. Although wild wolves in Mexico probably no longer exist today, several were trapped in the early 1980s to establish captive-breeding programs. The earliest captive-breeding program began at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson in the late 1970s. The captive-breeding program has been successful and now 39 facilities hold approximately 162 Mexican wolves. In 1998, eleven Mexican gray wolves were released in the Blue Range wolf-recovery area in east central Arizona. Efforts to reintroduce the gray wolf into its historical range in the Southwest are well underway with wolf re-introductions and relocations now planned for the Gila National Forest in west-central New Mexico.

However, the "experimental populations" of reintroduced Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest US are controversial, to say the least, and success of the re-introduction program remains uncertain. Your job is to write an essay summarizing the issues of the re-introduction of the Mexican gray wolf into the Southwest. Follow the links below for the information you'll need and the specific writing assignment.

 gray wolf range
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