Mexican Gray Wolf slowly making its way back to Texas

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Four decades ago, Rick LoBello discovered his life’s passion as he watched several wildlife experts capture an endangered Mexican wolf in South Texas for a preservation project. “When I saw one of the last wild Mexican wolves in 1978 I began my quest to help save the species and to help return it to the wilds of Texas,” said LoBello, educational curator at the El Paso Zoo. At the height of its time, the Mexican Gray Wolf could be seen in abundant numbers. According to the Gray Wolf Conservation, between 250,000 and 500,000 wild wolves lived in harmony with Native Americans. “Not many people know this, but the last Mexican wolf in Texas was actually killed near Big Bend National Park which was near where I lived.”

The Mexican gray wolf is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. Mexican wolf at the El Paso Zoo. (Ezra Rodriguez/Borderzine.com)

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.