ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— An endangered Mexican gray wolf named Taylor has once again returned to his namesake mountain west of Albuquerque after having been captured and relocated twice by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department.

Taylor made his home on Mount Taylor before being trapped and translocated south of Interstate 40 to the Gila National Forest in May. In July he made his way back to Mount Taylor. Two weeks ago the department darted him from the air, removed him again and released him at the same spot in the Gila where they attempted his first relocation. Taylor immediately turned north and started running home. On Nov. 22 he arrived near Mount Taylor again.

“Wolves like Taylor can’t read maps, even those with lines drawn by politicians,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Government officials disregarded science when they drew this arbitrary boundary. Wildlife agencies need to let Taylor roam free. I’ll be celebrating if he finds a female northern wolf to raise pups with who will boost the genetic diversity of Mexican wolves.”

Taylor is the fifth Mexican wolf known to have spent time recently in the Mount Taylor region. Other Mexican wolves have gravitated to the area south of the Grand Canyon, which is also officially off-limits according to wildlife agencies.

“It’s the very definition of insanity for the agencies to be taking the same actions but expecting different results,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “Taylor knows where he wants to be, and humans need to stop trying to impose their will on wild animals.”

“Instead of spending the time and money to relocate this amazing lobo again, wildlife officials should take a step back and let him roam — maybe learn from where he wanders,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “Mexican wolves belong in the northern part of our state. Biologists and the wolves themselves seem to agree on that.”

Because of longstanding mismanagement that now includes the enforced separation of Mexican gray wolves from northern gray wolves, the Mexican wolf population in the United States — which stems from just seven animals — has lost genetic diversity in each of the last four years.

“Unsurprisingly, Taylor is moving north again. And again, we’re going to have to ask ourselves, do we expend taxpayer dollars and limited recovery resources enforcing political boundaries on a wild animal, or do we let natural instincts and recovery goals work together in a rare win-win,” said Luke Koenig, Gila grassroots organizer for New Mexico Wild. “Unfortunately, our track record with this seemingly no-brainer of a situation has been pretty poor. But we have yet another opportunity to make things right.”

“How ironic that time after time, the Fish and Wildlife Service keeps transporting wolves south again after their northward journeys claiming there are no other lobos for them to find for mates north of I-40,” said Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair of the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club. “With five wolves having made the trip in recent years, clearly there could be if they were all just allowed to roam.”

“Taylor is showing us, yet again, what wolves have been trying to tell us for years: recovery doesn’t follow a straight line drawn on a map. Dispersing wolves are the authors of their own futures, choosing the landscapes, corridors and potential mates that give their families the best chance to thrive,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “When we step back and let lobos lead, they reveal the very pathways scientists have long identified as essential for true recovery across the Southwest and the wider Western United States. Taylor’s journey isn’t a management problem, it’s a reminder of what’s possible when we trust wild animals to find their way home.”

Independent scientists have determined that recovering Mexican wolves will require the subspecies to inhabit broader areas than presently permitted. These include the Rocky Mountains in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado and the Grand Canyon region of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Scientists also believe that connectivity with northern gray wolves in Colorado would bring much-needed genes to combat inbreeding in the Mexican wolf population.

“Taylor’s journey shows us what recovery looks like when wolves lead the way. They select the habitats, corridors and mates that give them the best chance to thrive,” said Michelle Lute, Ph.D. in wolf conservation and executive director of Wildlife for All. “With the border wall closing off natural dispersal toward the south, allowing wolves to move north is no longer optional for recovery, it’s necessary.”

“Robust conservation science stresses the need for high quality habitat with interconnected populations in order to ensure long term species persistence. Taylor and his lobo predecessors are repeatedly telling us where the best habitat is as they spread from an artificially bounded range” said Nico Lorenzen, wildlife associate for Wild Arizona. “As independent scientists have suggested, and further confirmed by the wolves themselves, the key to their recovery is allowing them to roam past I-40 and establish a healthy metapopulation.”

Background

When initially reintroduced in 1998, Mexican wolves were largely confined to the Gila National Forest in New Mexico and the Apache National Forest and Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona.

A 2004 Center for Biological Diversity petition showed that the region was insufficient to allow for true recovery and requested that the wolves be allowed to roam freely.

Two follow-up lawsuits led to a 2015 rule allowing wolf movements between the border with Mexico and I-40, even though by that time additional research had demonstrated that Mexican wolves need lands north of I-40 for their recovery.