Wolf report highlights growing numbers and continued cattle kills
From Payson Roundup:
The nearly 20-year effort to return Mexican gray wolves to the wild has struggled, thanks to fierce debates, lawsuits, poaching, genetic bottlenecks and high death rates among the reintroduced wolves, often due to hunters, federal trappers, poachers, cars and other human causes.
However, the year-end census in 2022 put the wolf numbers at 242, up 23% over the same time in 2021, including 105 in Arizona’s White Mountains and another 137 in neighboring New Mexico. The 59 established packs included 19 in Arizona and 40 in New Mexico.
Living anywhere near humans definitely remains hard on wolves.
