Lesson 10:Saving the Mexican Wolves

More captive-bred wolves were released. The wolves beganhaving pups in the wild. Yet they continued to run into problems.The biggest threat to wolves continued to be people.Some Mexican wolves wandered onto highways and were hit bycars. Others were shot. At least one was killed by a mountainlion. Some of them wandered out of the Blue Range WolfRecovery Area and had to be recaptured.Conservation groups and others continued working tokeep the reintroduced lobos safe. They began paying ranchersfor cattle or sheep that were killed by wolves. And since wolveswill sometimes eat animals that are already dead, ranchers wereencouraged to remove livestock carcasses so that wolveswouldn’t be attracted to them.Sometimes wolves were shot because people mistook themfor coyotes. Coyotes are common in the Southwest, and they doharm livestock. That’s why educating the public is an importantpart of the reintroduction effort. People need to learn thedifferences between coyotes and Mexican wolves. Educationcan also help people understand wolves’ place in the ecosystem.Because wolves are an apex predator, they can actually keepcoyotes away from an area. Knowing this may persuade peopleto protect the wolves.14