A Luna pack wolf in the winter of 2011
Public Domain Photo Courtesy Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team
Conservation organizations respond by banding together to fight for Mexican gray wolf restoration.
BREAKING: In a story eerily reminiscent of the embattled red wolf crisis, the future of another of America's most endangered species is being thwarted by state politics. Recovery of the Mexican gray wolf (a unique subspecies of gray wolf also known as the lobo) is, infuriatingly, being actively sabotaged by the government of New Mexico. In defiance of the the Endangered Species Act, the state is intentionally working against the basic tenants of the ESA by refusing to allow legally-protected US Fish and Wildlife Service releases of captive-born adults and pups into the struggling wild population - a refusal which threatens to drive the entire species over the edge into extinction.
According to a press release dated June 6, on May 20, 2016, New Mexico sued the USFWS for releasing the captive-bred wolf pups, who are critical to Mexican gray wolf recovery, into the wild population. New Mexico’s lawsuit aims to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recapture the pups and return them to captivity (condemning the pups to life in cages) and to ban all future releases of captive-born wolves (condemning New Mexican lobos to likely extinction in the wild.)
In response, four major conservation organizations filed a motion in federal court to intervene on behalf of the US Fish and Wildlife service: Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Together, they're arguing that the state of New Mexico had no authority to block the release of Mexican gray wolves into the wild.
Inbreeding causes smaller litters, uthrifty pups with lower survival rates, and a genetic bottleneck which can prove insurmountable - Resulting in yet one more gratuitous extinction of a keystone species caused by humans.
After decades of successful recovery efforts, Mexican gray wolves are now in serious trouble. Through a combination of natural losses, poaching, hostility from the livestock industry, mishandling by the feds and political maneuvering by the states of NM and Arizona, their population has dwindled from 110 in 2014 to just 95 left in the US - and less than 25 in Mexico. The captive-bred pups who were released into New Mexico's Gila National Forest on May 20, 2016 as part of the recovery program, were intended to introduce important new genetic diversity to the population, which is crucial for the sustained health, vitality - even survival - of lobos.
“America's first designated wilderness area deserves a balanced ecosystem with healthy populations of animals at every level of the food chain,” said Judy Calman, staff attorney for New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. “Mexican wolves are a keystone species in the Gila, and the Fish and Wildlife Service's ability to release them is critical to their recovery and to the management of the wilderness area as a whole. Politics should not be allowed to override science here.”
But it appears New Mexico, pandering to special interests, would choose to ensure the rapid extinction of this widely-loved, and ecologically important species over sound science and future generations. And that is not 'OK'. Biological diversity, in all it's awesome splendor and complexity, is the birthright of us all, and especially of our living planet, in perpetuity. And no one - not a state, not a country, not a person - has the right to doom an entire species to extinction.
For more information, or to donate and get involved in saving Mexican gray wolves, contact Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance or WildEarth Guardians.
source
BREAKING: In a story eerily reminiscent of the embattled red wolf crisis, the future of another of America's most endangered species is being thwarted by state politics. Recovery of the Mexican gray wolf (a unique subspecies of gray wolf also known as the lobo) is, infuriatingly, being actively sabotaged by the government of New Mexico. In defiance of the the Endangered Species Act, the state is intentionally working against the basic tenants of the ESA by refusing to allow legally-protected US Fish and Wildlife Service releases of captive-born adults and pups into the struggling wild population - a refusal which threatens to drive the entire species over the edge into extinction.
According to a press release dated June 6, on May 20, 2016, New Mexico sued the USFWS for releasing the captive-bred wolf pups, who are critical to Mexican gray wolf recovery, into the wild population. New Mexico’s lawsuit aims to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recapture the pups and return them to captivity (condemning the pups to life in cages) and to ban all future releases of captive-born wolves (condemning New Mexican lobos to likely extinction in the wild.)
In response, four major conservation organizations filed a motion in federal court to intervene on behalf of the US Fish and Wildlife service: Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Together, they're arguing that the state of New Mexico had no authority to block the release of Mexican gray wolves into the wild.
“The two captive-born pups now growing up as part of the Sheepherders Baseball Park Pack in the Gila National Forest embody the hope to diversify the Mexican wolf gene pool and save their kind from extinction,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Removing these pups would be cruel and would contribute to an ongoing decline in wolf numbers and genetic diversity.”Anyone who knows wolves also understands that wolves are very family-oriented, and the loss of these pups will devastate the pack emotionally, psychologically and, worst of all, biologically - Because without the new genetics provided by the pups, the risk of inbreeding increases and the species is pushed that much closer to oblivion.
Inbreeding causes smaller litters, uthrifty pups with lower survival rates, and a genetic bottleneck which can prove insurmountable - Resulting in yet one more gratuitous extinction of a keystone species caused by humans.
After decades of successful recovery efforts, Mexican gray wolves are now in serious trouble. Through a combination of natural losses, poaching, hostility from the livestock industry, mishandling by the feds and political maneuvering by the states of NM and Arizona, their population has dwindled from 110 in 2014 to just 95 left in the US - and less than 25 in Mexico. The captive-bred pups who were released into New Mexico's Gila National Forest on May 20, 2016 as part of the recovery program, were intended to introduce important new genetic diversity to the population, which is crucial for the sustained health, vitality - even survival - of lobos.
“All wolf releases from captivity are mission critical to the recovery of the most endangered gray wolf in the world,” said Eva Sargent, senior Southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “New Mexico’s politically motivated lawsuit is a meritless, obstructionist attempt to usurp the Service’s authority in endangered species recovery, as provided for in the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s most important wildlife conservation law. We won’t stand for it. We need more wolves, less politics.”The public overwhelmingly showed support for Mexican gray wolf recovery last August, through public comments and testimony, yet the state seems intent on ignoring public will. “Obstructing the release of more lobos — one of the most endangered mammals in the United States — is a crime against nature,” said John Horning, executive director for WildEarth Guardians. “We’re intervening in this baseless lawsuit to stop New Mexico Department of Game and Fish’s relentless assault against wolves and ensure that people will have the opportunity to experience wolves in our beautiful state.”
“America's first designated wilderness area deserves a balanced ecosystem with healthy populations of animals at every level of the food chain,” said Judy Calman, staff attorney for New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. “Mexican wolves are a keystone species in the Gila, and the Fish and Wildlife Service's ability to release them is critical to their recovery and to the management of the wilderness area as a whole. Politics should not be allowed to override science here.”
But it appears New Mexico, pandering to special interests, would choose to ensure the rapid extinction of this widely-loved, and ecologically important species over sound science and future generations. And that is not 'OK'. Biological diversity, in all it's awesome splendor and complexity, is the birthright of us all, and especially of our living planet, in perpetuity. And no one - not a state, not a country, not a person - has the right to doom an entire species to extinction.
For more information, or to donate and get involved in saving Mexican gray wolves, contact Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance or WildEarth Guardians.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment