Nearly exterminated in the wild during by the 1930s, the Mexican wolf remains one of the most endangered mammals in North America. In May, Wolf Haven’s Director of Animal Care Wendy Spencer assisted in the care & observation of two wolves scheduled for future release. This is Part 7 of an ongoing series of blog posts about her experience in Arizona.

Erin checks for signal of collared Mexican gray wolves

The remainder of the day was fairly uneventful. Erin had spent the day with Allison doing a telemetry flight, locating (by signal not visual) not only the AZ wolves, but the NM wolves as well. She was happy to report that they were able to pick up everyone’s signal and all the wolves were where they were supposed to be. Earlier that morning I had picked up M1107’s signal, but it was faint and he seemed to be tracking to the southwest, towards the Fort Apache Indian Reservation (FAIR), which was confirmed by their telemetry flight. Later that evening though, he was back, and for a few hours, his signal was very strong coming from the direction of the pen. I am ever amazed at how incredibly mobile these wolves are- M1107 easily traveled  40-50 miles in less than a 12 hour time span.

Periodically through the night the wolves’ howls would drift up to the trailer, waking me from sleep. Because I live on site here at Wolf Haven, I have become quite familiar with their lullaby so the first few times it took a moment for my mind to register that I was in the middle of the Alpine wilderness, listening to wild wolves.

Chasing ravens

The following morning at the blind was also fairly uneventful. I arrived at 4:45, just before the sun made its way over the ridge and though the wolves were already up and about, they paid me no mind. For the next 2 hours they would wander in and out of my field of view but the ravens would usually let me know when they were about to wander into sight. At any given moment there were at least 15 ravens hanging around, usually on the leftover carcasses and for the most part, the wolves ignored them- except when they didn’t. F1126 seemed to get the most irritated with them and on several occasions I observed her lower her head deliberately and run towards them, sending the ravens into a squawking flurry of black. They obviously didn’t take her threats very serious though because as soon as she moved on, they were back.

Telemetry checks also done from fire tower for M1107 & Maverick pack

Later that day I headed out to spend the day in the field with Quinn. I am sure it was terribly mundane for him but for me, it was one of the best days ever! We drove to the near-by fire tower and climbed to the top to do telemetry checks on not only M1107 (who we hadn’t heard since the previous night) as well as the Maverick pack.

From our vantage point I could see almost

Breathtaking view

the entire recovery area in Arizona and even part of the Gila in New Mexico- so vast and rugged. To be able to look out as far as my eyes could see and know that the wolves were out there somewhere was simply awesome…… (to be continued)

This is the Corduroy Creek area in Arizona, where the wolf pen was located.

Plans are being made for the first release IN FIVE YEARS of Mexican gray wolves into the wild! Nearly exterminated in the wild during by the 1930s, the Mexican wolf remains one of the most endangered mammals in North America. In May, Wolf Haven’s Director of Animal Care, Wendy Spencer assisted in the care & observation of two wolves scheduled for future release. (this is the second blog post about her experience.)

In early April we received word that the Interagency Field Team (IFT) was planning to initiate a release operation later in month. The plan was to move M1051 and pregnant F1126 from Sevilletta to a hard-sided acclimation pen in the Apache National Forest where they were to remain while the female whelped and the family acclimatized enough with the area so that once released, they would hopefully recognize it has home. And because this would be an extended period of time- at least 6 weeks- the IFT needed some help keeping an eye on the wolves and monitoring for signs of whelping activity. Maggie Dwire, who is with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and serves as the Assistant Recovery Coordinator for the Mexican gray wolf program, put a call out to a few representatives from select facilities who participate in the Mexican wolf captive breeding program and asked for volunteers to come to AZ and “pen sit” the wolves.

One of the dogs (Tom) that Wendy had to temporarily say good-bye to during her trip.

As reticent as I am about leaving not only the sanctuary animals, but my own personal animals, I knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime and one that I could not pass up. On May 17, I flew to Albuquerque, NM, and the next morning, myself and Erin Kipp, a staff person from the Endangered Wolf Center, made the 4 hour trip to the office in Alpine, AZ, where we met several members of Arizona Game and Fish (AZGF), one of 5 agencies who make up the IFT. On the Arizona side, it is AZGF that see to the day-to- day management of the wolves on the ground. They have a dedicated staff who focus solely on the wolves and as I discovered, even though there are only approximately 38 free ranging wolves in Arizona (at last count), those wolves keep the staff plenty busy. Everything from tracking, to telemetry flights, to trapping and collaring, to managing livestock conflicts (to name but a few) falls under the purview of AZGF, so trying to pen sit wolves for 6 weeks would have significantly stretched their resources……….