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The rule revising management of the fewer than
100 wolves in Arizona and New Mexico stems from legal challenges
by the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, which argued
U.S. wildlife managers failed to properly protect the so-called
Mexican wolf.
The federal government's new management plan for the endangered
Mexican wolf, which is one of the most imperiled mammals in
North America, enlarges the acreage it can occupy without
relocation and expands the area where captive wolves can be
released into the wild, according to a statement from the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
U.S. wildlife officials also declared the Mexican wolf was a
separate subspecies to the gray wolf found elsewhere in the
United States. That ensures Mexican wolves would not be included
in a proposal by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to
remove gray wolves in states outside Alaska from the federal
endangered and threatened species list.
The Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that 300 to 325 Mexican
wolves would be needed in the U.S. Southwest for the animals to
be considered recovered and stripped of protections under the
federal Endangered Species Act.
Conservationists argued the revisions were still insufficient to
guarantee the Mexican wolf would make a strong comeback and said
a minimum of 750 were needed for the animal's long-term
survival.
They also took aim at a rule unveiled on Monday that gives the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service more leeway to allow state
wildlife agencies and others to kill Mexican wolves.
The rule change would allow such killing of the predators to
protect livestock and other domestic animals or to prevent what
the service called "unacceptable impacts" on elk and deer herds
valued by hunters.
"This is very worrisome," said Michael Robinson, conservation
advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. "These wolves
were subjected to a ruthless extermination campaign to the point
where they nearly went extinct."
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Alex
Dobuzinskis and Paul Tait)
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