SILVER CITY, N.M.— The Arizona and New Mexico wildlife agencies today jointly announced that the number of endangered Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest grew by 33 last year — to 319 in 2025 from 286 in 2024.
“It’s inspiring that there are now hundreds of Mexican wolves in the Southwest, especially considering there were zero roaming the wild just three decades ago,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I used to fear they’d all get wiped out by a major wildfire or a spate of illegal killings, but now I’m confident they won’t disappear in my lifetime. The big danger is that politics will strip these still-imperiled wolves of their Endangered Species Act protections before they’re truly recovered.”
Federal and state wolf killings for the livestock industry are shrinking the genetic heritage bequeathed by just seven founding wolves spared from destruction decades ago. These include last year’s killings of three genetically valuable wolves — one a nursing mother and the other two mere pups — all from different packs. Now, the southwestern wolf gene pool retains less than a third of the genetic diversity passed down from those seven founding wolves.
“We are heartened that the population of Mexican wolves has grown this past year, though it is still very small,” said Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair for the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club. “Importantly, it isn’t just a numbers game. The wildlife agencies must do more to improve the genetic health of the population which is going down even as their numbers go up.”
Inbreeding is worsening not just because of agency killings but also through the ongoing failure to adequately transfer genetic diversity from captive wolves to the wild population through releases. The captive population retains 37% more genetic diversity than the wild population.
Wolf experts have called for releasing captive-born, well-bonded male/female pairs with their pups, which is how the population was first established. Sixty-seven percent of adult pairs in such family pack releases survived and raised additional pups born in the wild after the pups were released with them. In contrast, the practice that started in 2016 of taking captive-born pups from their parents to release them into wild wolves’ dens has so far resulted in 79% of the pups simply disappearing.
“An increase in wolf numbers is encouraging, but headcounts alone do not mean recovery,” said Michelle Lute, Ph.D., executive director of Wildlife for All. “Mexican gray wolves remain genetically imperiled, and human-caused mortality continues to undermine their future. Until agencies prioritize strict protections and release bonded family groups to strengthen the gene pool, these wolves will remain vulnerable.”
“True recovery is not achieved the moment a population number is met; it’s achieved when wolves are genuinely welcomed back into the ecological and cultural fabric of the Southwest,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “Wolves should be considered equal stakeholders in their own recovery. That means protecting them, restoring their genetic health and funding proactive, preventative practices that allow communities and wolves to thrive together.”
“Despite the adversity facing the species, not to mention the threat of federal abandonment, the Mexican gray wolf continues to pace toward recovery,” said Craig Miller, senior representative at Defenders of Wildlife. “Today, the threats are very real, and stripping Endangered Species Act protections now would mean dead wolves and a derailed recovery. Recent hard-won population gains should be celebrated, not twisted into a justification for premature delisting that jeopardizes the Mexican gray wolf’s survival.”
“As the fragile Mexican wolf population continues to grow, I am hopeful that humans will make choices that further the recovery of this iconic species,” said Sally Paez, staff attorney for New Mexico Wild. “In addition to wolf management based on science, we must fight for policies that prioritize healthy forests and ecosystems, habitat connectivity and functioning watersheds to allow wolves to survive and thrive.”
“As with any endangered species, especially one that was totally eradicated from the wild just a few decades ago, an increase in population is worth celebrating,” said Leia Barnett, New Mexico conservation lead for WildEarth Guardians. “But 319 wolves does not guarantee a healthy, thriving population. We hope the agencies will do more to address the political, geographic and genetic barriers that continue to hinder, and in some cases threaten, actual scientific recovery of this imperiled, iconic species.”
Background
Under the Mexican wolf’s recovery plan, after eight years of the population averaging 320 wolves or more, and after 22 captive-born wolves have survived to breeding age after their releases, the possibility of Endangered Species Act delisting would be evaluated.
Under the science-based criteria of the Endangered Species Act, delisting requires that a species must actually be out of danger, regardless of whether the numerical recovery criteria have been met. Even as the number of Mexican wolves rises, scientists say the threats facing their genetic health is actually moving the species further away from recovery.
