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Update courtesy Patrick C. Valentino of the Julian Wolf Preserve
A pack of reintroduced Mexican gray wolves involved in an attack on a calf this week will be monitored around-the-clock by biologists who will try to prevent the wolves from attacking more cattle.
Biologists routinely get readings from the radio collars of wolves in each of the five wolf packs in the wild. But now they will get those readings every four hours, day and night, for the Pipestem pack.
"We're just going to be keeping a closer eye on them," said David Parsons, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Mexican wolf recovery leader.
The calf was injured Tuesday in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest of far eastern Arizona but is expected to recover, the wildlife service said Thursday.
It was the first confirmed instance of a reintroduced wolf attacking livestock, the agency said.
The attack, on a ranch about 16 miles north of Clifton, Ariz., was in the same area on the Apache-Sitgreaves where a cow and two calves were found eaten earlier this month.
Parsons said the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife was planning to compensate the rancher for all of the cattle.
Mexican gray wolves were believed to be extinct in the wild until last year, when 11 were released in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Five of those wolves were shot in the first year of the reintroduction effort.
Today, added wolf releases have brought to more than 24 the number of wolves living in the wild. In addition to those 24, the Pipestem pack has an unknown number of pups -- the only wild-born pups living in the wild. Eight other pups were born this year in acclimation pens on national forest land.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/2news06-25.htm
Patrick C. Valentino, Esq
Phone: (619) 236-9060
Fax: (619) 236-9093
email: corporatecounsel@connectnet.com