The Mexican gray wolf still struggles to survive in the American southwest
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EL PASO – After almost 14 years of effort to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf into the American southwest, less than 60 lobos roam today in the 4 million acre territory along the Arizona-New Mexico line. It seems that life is not getting any easier for the lobo. In 1970, predator control programs almost drove the wolves into extinction until efforts to reintroduce them started in 1998. Currently in New Mexico and Arizona only 58 Mexican wolves survive, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1998 wildlife officials estimated that by 2006 the wolf population would have reached 100 in the region.