Plan to capture Mexican gray wolves near Grand Canyon may violate law, wolf advocates warn

Wildlife advocacy groups are warning state and federal agencies that ongoing efforts to capture and relocate a pair of Mexican gray wolves near the Grand Canyon violate federal law, and the groups are threatening legal action that could redefine where these endangered wolves can roam.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, a coalition of advocacy groups claim that efforts to relocate two wolves, known as the Kendrick Peak Pack , is forbidden by the Endangered Species Act. The groups argue that a section of the law prohibits the “taking” of a protected species, even by state or federal agencies.

State wildlife managers have relocated Mexican gray wolves who have wandered north of Interstate 40 in the past under the authority of a recovery permit . This permit, issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, allows agencies to trap and move wolves that originated from a reintroduced population back to a designated recovery area located south of the highway.

According to a 2023 survey , less than half of the Mexican gray wolves in the monitored population wore radio collars that allow wildlife managers to track their movements. Without the presence of the collars, the advocacy groups argue in their letter, there is no way for the government agencies to determine the origins of the wolves and they are therefore bound by law to leave the wolves alone.

“No evidence establishes that they have dispersed from the experimental populations,” the letter states, “and as such, they cannot be lawfully targeted with trapping efforts.”

Arizona Game and Fish provided a written statement when asked about the wolves: “The Arizona Game and Fish Department believes it is fully compliant with the provisions of the Endangered Species Act in this matter and will not comment further due to pending litigation.”

Endangered species: Are Mexican gray wolves closer to recovery 25 years after they were returned to the wild?

Origins of the Kendrick Peak Pack

First documented in July 2024, the Kendrick Peak Pack was discovered after the successful trapping and collaring of a female Mexican gray wolf near Flagstaff, officially known as F2979 and nicknamed “Hope.” The wolf led officials to a second unregistered wolf, nicknamed “Mystery” by Flagstaff school children.

The wolves near Flagstaff are not considered a threat to human or public safety, confirmed Aislinn Maestas, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mexican gray wolves have been known to cross north of I-40 and outside the recovery area.  Anubis, a young male wolf known as M2520, wandered across the highway in 2021 and was illegally shot and killed in Flagstaff in 2022.  Asha, a female wolf known as F2754, crossed twice in 2022 and 2023 before being moved to a conservation center in New Mexico.

“When wolves go north of I-40, they are at a higher risk of something negative happening to them, whether it’s getting hit by a car or getting shot,” Maestas told The Republic earlier this year . “When you have wolves in a place where people aren’t expecting to see them, the wolves have a higher chance of something bad happening to them.”

Wildlife agencies have translocated over 150 Mexican gray wolves since 1998 using tactics such as monitored leghold traps and aerial darting from helicopters.

Conservation groups warn that the act of trapping and moving the animals is a deadly risk for the endangered wolves.

“There’s a lot of wolves that have died because they couldn’t handle the stress of capture,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, “I think we’ve got to consider how much human intervention is actually helpful.”

Capture myopathy, an often fatal condition in which captured animals overexert their muscles causing physiological imbalances, has been associated with the death of Mexican gray wolves as recently as 2020.  According to data collected by the Center for Biological Diversity, at least 17 wolves have died accidentally in relation to capture, handling, or translocation since 1999.

In the wilds: Wildlife officials drew a line at I-40 for Mexican gray wolves, but has it hurt recovery?

What is the I-40 boundary?

The Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, or MWEPA, was established in 1998 to provide a flexible management area for a wolf population that was functionally extinct in the wild. The area includes all land in Arizona and New Mexico south of Interstate 40, which agencies call the historic range of the Mexican gray wolf subspecies.

"There is abundant vacant habitat in Arizona, New Mexico, and old Mexico," said Jim deVos, Mexican wolf coordinator for Arizona Game and Fish. "We've been able to reduce the number of human caused mortalities in the recovery area by making the effort to keep people informed."

A population survey conducted by an interagency field team counted 257 wolves living in this area in 2023, a 6% increase from 2022 that extended an eight-year streak of population growth.

Despite this, conservation groups have opposed the I-40 boundary as a border impeding wolf recovery.

“The I-40 boundary is a political jurisdiction. It's not a biological one.” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project, one of the advocacy groups signed onto the letter. “All of the rationales that they provide for moving the wolves back into the MWEPA are not science-based and have no real motivation except to keep wolves in a delimited area.”

Instead, the advocacy groups point to a 2014 study, which found that creating three interconnected populations of Mexican gray wolves in the MWEPA, the Grand Canyon and the southern Rocky Mountains would create the potential for stronger genetic diversity for a species plagued by inbreeding, because a more dispersed Mexican wolf population would allow intermingling with the related Northwestern gray wolf species.

According to deVos, the genetics of the subspecies would be better served if the two wolves were in closer proximity to other wolves in the MWEPA.

"If we want these wolves to make a meaningful contribution, they're going to do more in the protected area where there are other wolves to mix with," he said.

A year with the wolf: Fate of Mexican gray wolves is caught in a battle over their place in the landscape

Leaving pack would be 'ecological victory'

State and federal officials would not comment on pending litigation, but in a written statement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife confirmed that efforts to trap and relocate Hope, F2979, and any other uncollared wolves in her area, have been initiated.

“It is at the discretion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to capture and translocate any Mexican wolves that establish wholly outside the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area (MWEPA) per the current recovery permit .”

As conservation groups warn that the efforts to capture the Kendrick Peak Pack could be illegal, separate ongoing legal action that challenges the I-40 boundary is making its way through the federal district court in Arizona.

“Keeping the Kendrick Peak Pack in the wild would be a tremendous ecological victory,” said Anderson of Western Watersheds Project, “But the real victory is going to be when that I-40 boundary falls completely.”

John Leos covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to john.leos@arizonarepublic.com .

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Plan to capture Mexican gray wolves near Grand Canyon may violate law, wolf advocates warn