Each winter, state and federal wildlife biologists crisscross Arizona and New Mexico in helicopters, planes and trucks as they capture and count endangered Mexican gray wolves.
Their population has grown for nine years, but conservation groups say the program is running out of time to address important genetic challenges.
It’s an unusually warm January day when state wolf technician Annie Norland and state veterinarian Anne Justice-Allen huddle within a single-wide outside of Alpine, Arizona.
An endangered Mexican gray wolf lies below them on a metal operating table as Norland inserts an IV into one of his legs.
“It's currently muzzled, and it's got this blindfold on. Helps keep the animal calm, keep people safe,” says wolf technician Lonnie Fox.
The roles change daily and today Fox is mainly supervising the operation.
The 75-pound wolf has been dosed with Telazol, a drug that puts animals into a trance-like state and keeps it docile.
He’s awake but out of it.
Just minutes prior, the wolf was on board the helicopter whose crew darted and captured the wolf.
Even as they work on this wolf, that helicopter is already in route to the next target.
“It did come in a little warm. It was still, when it got here, about 104. Which is that upper end of what we want,” Fox says.
It’s important to keep the wolf cool with an IV and ice packs that Norland tucks into his armpits.
“There are blood vessels running very close to the surface right there. So as that blood runs across that cold spot, it's taking it to the rest of the body and cooling it off,” Fox says.
Stress and heat may increase the animal's heart rate and they want to keep him calm.
“Once you get that temperature that you want to get those vaccines,” Norland says.
They take blood samples and administer several vaccinations for rabies, leptospirosis, and parvovirus and adjust his GPS collar, which is wrapped in a thick layer of brightly colored duct tape, which helps them identify the wolf.
Sometimes it’s more art than science.
As they take his temperature, the wolf starts to stir.
For a moment, they are unsure if the wolf is waking up or seizing, but it is a flurry of activity as they hold the animal on the table.
“Where’d that orange hobble go?” Norland says.
The air in the room changes as the reality that a wild animal is in the room is suddenly clear.
Fox jumps in to help them hold the wolf down.
“I can give him a little more ketamine if you want,” Justice-Allen says.
They give him a second dose and the animal begins to calm down.
“Give it a second. Let's hurry up with whatever we need to get done and get it done,” Justice-Allen says.
“Okay. Do you think he was seizing or?” Norland says.
“No, I think he was waking up,” Justice-Allen says.
“That was fun,” Norland says. “That's very atypical. Like, I've never had that happen before.”
After a beat, their work on the wolf continues.
“Telozol affects every animal differently,” Fox says. “And this animal had a long ferry back from where it came from before coming here, so it had more time for the drug being on board to work its way out of its system after being in a heightened state. So you really just never know.”
This is one of half a dozen wolves darted today for vaccinations and health checks, out of the nearly 300 wolves living in the wild between Arizona and New Mexico.
Genetic concerns
In the late 1970s, only seven Mexican gray wolves were left they were nearly eradicated by American settlers, ranchers and government agents.
Since then, federal and state agencies have reintroduced the wolves and are placing pups raised in captivity with wild packs.
Greta Anderson with the Western Watersheds Project questions that strategy.
“We've started to document wolves who have conjoined toe pads and that's called syndactyly. It's evidence of inbreeding,” Anderson says.
So far, only a few wolves have been documented with syndactyly, but Anderson worries about the implications it has for other unseen genetic factors that could begin to impact the long-term recovery of the wolves.
And Anderson says improving the population’s genetics is critical to recovery.
“It's a bigger crayon box to color the world with. Right. And with so much uncertainty with climate, with habitat changes, having that broader array of colors will give them a better chance of persisting in the future,” Anderson says.
Western watersheds projects and other wolf advocacy groups believe releasing pups with adult wolves would lead to more of them surviving to breed.
“So, that's why we're pushing for adult family pack releases as soon as we can. We need the states to lift their prohibition,” Anderson says.
Jim DeVos is the Mexican wolf coordinator for Arizona Game and Fish.
“So I’ve got to sharply disagree with that idea,” DeVos says.
DeVos says releasing adult packs would increase conflicts with livestock, and the current foster pup program has been successful.
“We're above target for the genetic management. So we're doing really, really quite well,” DeVos says.
At the end of April, the agency began the annual effort to place wolf pups born in captivity into wild packs to be raised.
Since 2016, they’ve placed more than 160 pups into dens with the hope that 22 make it to breeding age.
“We now have 21 pups and that’s five years ahead of the target. It’s a program that I think is really a testament to the ability to recover endangered species. We will get there,” DeVos says.
It’s a plan that was just upheld by a U.S. District Court judge in Tucson last month, after advocacy groups challenged the current strategy.
