The Life of Animals | Mexican Wolf | The Mexican Wolf is the smallest Gray Wolf subspecies present in North America. Until recent times, the Mexican Wolf ranged the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts from central Mexico to western Texas, southern New Mexico, and central Arizona. Hunters also hunted down the wolf because it killed deer. Trappers and private trappers have also helped in the eradication of the Mexican Wolf. (Note that recent studies completed by genetics experts show evidence of Mexican Wolves ranging as far north as Colorado). In 1976, the Mexican Wolf was declared an endangered subspecies and has remained so ever since. Today, an estimated 340 Mexican Wolves survive in 49 facilities at the United States and Mexico.
In March 1998, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began reintroducing Mexican Wolves into the Blue Range area of Arizona. The overall objective of this program was to reestablish 100 Mexican Wolves in the Apache and Gila National Forests of Arizona and New Mexico by 2008.
On March 30, 1998, government biologists released 11 gray wolves 3 adult males, 3 adult females, 3 female pups and yearlings and 2 male pups from 3 chain-link acclimation pens within the 18,130 square kilometres (7,000 sq mi), federally designated Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in east-central Arizona.
In February 2010, three captive Mexican Wolves living in the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minnesota escaped from their pen after it was pried open by unknown individuals. The Center is the third largest breeding and host facility for Mexican gray wolves in the United States
