The Mexican gray wolf (sometimes just called the Mexican wolf or lobo) is an endangered species. Prior to the 20th century, the subspecies, smaller than other North American wolves, roamed from central Mexico to as far north as the U.S. state of Colorado.
But, as human settlement intensified across the Southwest in the early 1900s, wolves increasingly came into conflict with livestock operations and other human activities. Private, state, and federal extermination campaigns were waged against the wolf until, by the 1970s, the Mexican gray wolf faced extinction. The wolves were targeted because they preyed on sheep, cattle, and goats, as well as traditional prey such as deer and elk.
Beginning in 1998, wolves from captive-breeding programs in the United States and Mexico were released in the Apache and Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona and Gila National Forest in New Mexico. The wolves reintroduced to these national forests are called an "non-essential experimental population."
plans, research, and work done by an organization, such as a zoo, to control reproduction of rare species in that organization's facilities (not in the wild).
cows and oxen.
group of threatened or endangered species reintroduced to a designated area.
to completely destroy.
ecosystem filled with trees and underbrush.
animals raised for human use.
animal that is hunted and eaten by other animals.
before or ahead of.
to return members of a species to their historical range.
to wander or travel over a wide area without a specific destination.
mammal related to the dog.
